Principal – Enterprise QA and IT Delivery Leader

Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier says Meta's Muse saved him $3,105 in five days. Zendesk's chief executive says Meta's Muse cut his family's bills by $3,105. On the TNW Podcast, he explains why Zendesk is moving to pricing by resolution, not seat. October 8, 2026 - 8:32 am Zendesk will end the year with about $400m of AI revenue, up from about zero two years ago, chief executive Tom Eggemeier told TNW. Most of it comes from AI agents that customers pay for only when they resolve a case. Eggemeier has run Zendesk since late 2022. Before that, he was a partner at the private equity firm Permira, where he led its Menlo Park office. He spent more than a decade at the contact centre software company Genesys, rising to president. He studied history at the University of Dayton and holds a law degree from the University of Chicago. He spoke to Cristian Dina at HumanX in Amsterdam on 23 September. It is the third episode of the new TNW Podcast, after Yahoo's Jim Lanzone and Zoom's XD Huang. The full conversation is in the video below. "I saved over the last five days $3,105," Eggemeier said of Meta's Muse. $3,105 with Muse. The day before, Meta had challenged users to save up to $1,000 with Muse. Eggemeier said Muse cut about $2,000 a year from his family's internet and TV package. It cut about $1,000 a year from its mobile plan. It did about 95% of the work. He made one phone call himself. He is not yet in the early test in which Muse makes calls. He said Europeans may not save as much, because internet and mobile prices are much higher in the US. He has also been trying Muse and Instinct, another personal assistant, in recent weeks. He uses ChatGPT for hours a day, for research, customer work and speeches. With help from his team, he wrote code in Claude Code that is now in production at Zendesk. The team checked it three times first. He also built a basketball app with his son. Paying for outcomes. Zendesk began charging for automated resolutions in August 2024. It has since tested a model with about 100 customers that drops seats. It charges for every resolution, by a human or an AI agent. It will roll that out shortly to customers who want it, he said. He made the case against seats on stage at HumanX the same day. AI now solves or assists more than 50% of Zendesk tickets, Eggemeier said. That count includes self-service, AI agents and copilots. AI agents alone handle less than that. His best customers reach automation rates of 80% to 90%, with higher satisfaction than with people. A utility company in Brazil used Zendesk's collections agent to bring in about $5m of new revenue in a few months, he said. More than 80,000 companies use Zendesk. He estimates that one to two billion people deal with it each year without knowing it. A human on call. Eggemeier expects personal AI agents talking to company agents to make up more than half of interactions within two years. He called it a little scary, and said people should always be able to reach a human. Zendesk tells customers to offer that option, he said. Asked about companies replacing staff with AI, he said companies and governments should train people to use it. He called himself an optimist, and pointed to the jobs that changed after the industrial revolution and since the 1980s. "I can't see beyond five or 10 years. There's going to be absolutely a need for humans," he said. His advice to young people, including his two children at university, is to build communication, analytical and relationship skills, and to learn AI.

What is help desk software? Help desk software is an all-in-one platform that helps businesses receive, organise, track, and resolve customer issues, IT problems, and service requests. The main functions of help desk software include: * Combine inquiries from diverse channels, such as phones, messaging apps, live chat, and social media, into a centralised platform. * Convert customer queries into trackable tickets, enabling agents to manage priorities, identify issues, update status, and resolve queries. * Reporting and analytics to show agents' performance, customer satisfaction rates, response time, resolution rates, and ticket volumes. * AI-driven support to manage repetitive tasks, solve common and repetitive queries, help agents respond, and predict recurring technical issues. * Helps in diagnosing and resolving technical glitches, including both hardware and software. Top 5 best help desk software options to effectively manage customer issues. Kayako, Freshdesk, Zendesk, Azuredesk, and Zohodesk are the top 5 help desk management software options, known for their AI-powered automatic ticket handling, smart reporting and analytics tools, and robust knowledge base. Kayako is one of the best help desk software options, known for its AI-powered custom support platform that chats with customers, suggests responses, and triages tickets, while enabling teams to clear backlogs and resolve repetitive queries effectively. One of the best features of Kayako is its ability to connect with 5000+ apps, including existing helpdesks such as Freshdesk, Intercom, etc., allowing AI integration into business operations, making it a suitable helpdesk software for small businesses. Key Features: * Offers no-code automation and smart analytics tools. * Resolve repetitive tickets with AI-assisted responses. * Offers an omnichannel inbox while centralising customer interactions through diverse channels. Freshdesk is a cloud-based help desk platform that centralizes customer queries, automates ticket management, and streamlines support operations. The best part about this helpdesk software is the Freddy AI that automatically responds to incoming emails using knowledge-based content and handles customer interactions. Ideal for scaling support teams, it unifies customer touchpoints. Key Features: * Manages conversations across multiple communication touchpoints. * Tracks ticket volumes, resolution rates, response times, and agent performance. * Integrates seamlessly with CRM platforms. Zendesk is among the top 5 best help desk software options built for organisations handling large ticket volumes and complex workflow management. The standout feature of this platform is that it features a vast online knowledge base, enabling customers to easily find solutions through video tutorials, FAQs, and articles, and agents to focus on high-priority tasks. Key Features: * AI-powered tools use existing knowledge to resolve multi-step and multi-intent requests while maintaining full visibility. * Robust reporting and analytics, offering insight into the team's performance while tracking key metrics like response time, customer satisfaction rates, agent productivity, and more. * Allows pre-chat forms that enable understanding of customer information before the chat. Azuredesk is a cloud-based help desk software best known for its unlimited mailbox. It means it supports an environment where businesses can convert customer emails into tickets, assign them to agents, track their status, and manage responses. The standout feature of this platform is enabling agents' e-signatures, which ensure a personalised approach and credibility. Key Features: * Handles large volumes of tickets, automatically assigns them to the available agent, and allows them to add suggestions, advice, and private notes. * Lets businesses establish a knowledge base through FAQs. * Smart reporting through metrics, such as tickets per agent, tickets per customer, and average response time. Known for AI-driven ticket management, Zohodesk is ideal for organisations handling large volumes of tickets, making it one of the best IT help desk tools. It helps manage customer support across email, phone, social media, web forms, and other channels. One of the best features of Zoho is its AI agent Zia, known for handling repetitive tasks, analysing ticket conversations, identifying custom sentiment and tone, and suggesting relevant Knowledge Base articles to agents in real time. Key Features: * Robust automation through intelligent routing, which enables faster resolution of customer issues. * Smart resolution and analytics, offering insights into the customer satisfaction score and agent performance. * Multilingual support in 50+ languages and enables community building for customers to collaborate and engage with each other. Extended list of 10 best help desk software worth considering. Here are some of the best help desk management software options you must try in 2026: Must-have features in a modern help desk software. Exceptional customer service, robust analytics and reporting tools, and omnichannel support are the features that you must look for while selecting a help desk management software. * Exceptional Customer Experience: According to HubSpot's Annual State of Service Report, 90% of customers expect immediate responses from the support team, while 60% of customers mean "immediate" to be 10 minutes or less. Hence, robust help desk software must automate repetitive queries, reduce response time, and improve resolution. * One-Stop Application for Agents: A report by Business Wire states that 40% of people picked "multiple channels of communication" as the most important feature of help desk software. It must integrate omnichannel support via live chat, phone, and messaging apps, social media, and more. * Advanced Reporting: By offering insights into ticket volume, tickets per agent, tickets per customer, average response time, customer satisfaction scores, and agent performance, reporting and analytics tools improve customer experience and remove bottlenecks. * Knowledge Base: Robust help desk applications must allow businesses to create a vast knowledge base of FAQs, video tutorials, and a self-service portal, which significantly reduces ticket volume and helps customers find a solution without contacting an agent. * SLA Management: It tracks service commitments, such as response and resolution time targets, priority levels, automated alerts, and collision detection. Final verdict. To sum up, choosing the best help desk software that aligns with your business goals and needs can significantly help streamline operations, automate repetitive tasks, centralize customer conversations, improve customer experience, and increase agents' productivity. However, the right choice depends on your business size, support channels, workflow requirements, and budget. Frequently asked questions (FAQs). Q1. What are the top 5 best help desk software options? Q2. What is helpdesk software? Q3. Is help desk software suitable for small businesses? Q4. How do help desk applications improve customer support?

Zendesk has appointed Rachita Sundar as chief financial officer, effective 28 September 2026. Sundar succeeds Julie Swinney, who transitions to chief administrative officer and will oversee the company's People & Places and IT organisations whilst serving as executive sponsor of Zendesk's Employee Service business. Sundar brings over 20 years of experience in finance and business operations at technology companies including Microsoft Azure, HubSpot, and Qualtrics. At Qualtrics, she helped finance and close the company's $6.75 billion acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta. Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier said Sundar's combination of financial rigour and operating experience would help the company as it builds towards becoming an AI-focused business.