Forethought

A recent customer survey surfaced a point we hear often: AI can deliver strong ROI, but it does take some upfront work to operate the way your business actually needs. That’s been true in our experience as well. With Forethought AI agents, teams can start seeing impact with very little lift — but the biggest results come when customers partner closely with their CSM team to align the solution to their business goals. That collaboration helps unlock more than quick wins. It creates a bigger, more durable impact across the metrics that matter most. Learn more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gFJx4qqZ

📣 Final call! This Wednesday, July 15, Peachscore is teaming up with Zendesk for Startups for an exclusive live masterclass with Sami Ghoche, VP of Applied AI at Zendesk & former co-founder of Forethought. If you want to learn how to scale early user traction and master the key metrics that early-stage startups need to prove their business is built to last and is acquisition-ready. Register today: https://lnkd.in/eAqFKwVP

Sami Ghoche, VP of Applied AI at Zendesk and former co-founder of Forethought, is co-hosting an upcoming webinar with our partners at Peachscore. What does it take to build an AI startup that acquirers actually want to buy? In this 45-minute interactive Q&A, Sami will break down the growth playbook behind building an AI company that earns traction early, creates autonomous customer experiences, and proves the kind of metrics that matter to future acquirers. You’ll learn: ⭐ The First Impression Wedge — how to design agentic onboarding that delivers instant value and builds trust ⭐ Metrics That Prove You’re Built to Last — the operational and retention data acquirers look for ⭐ The Survival Guide — practical advice for navigating early traction, lean teams, and valuation risks If you’re building in AI and thinking about scale, retention, and long-term acquisition readiness, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss. Register here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eAqFKwVP

A useful reminder: AI becomes more useful when it can improve through real-world use, not just launch as a one-time solution. That’s the core idea behind a recent post from Zendesk SVP Keith Pearce on self-improving AI experiences. It’s a helpful reminder that the strongest systems are built with feedback loops, iteration, and practical use in mind — all of which help create value our customers can actually see in the metrics that matter most to them. For teams working in customer experience, that means better AI should also lead to better outcomes over time. And let’s be honest, that doesn’t happen with every AI solution on the market. We believe more accuracy, more relevance, and less manual effort make all the difference for our customers. 👓 https://lnkd.in/g5qct9V5

The concept of AI agents is moving out of the tech bubble and into the everyday world. Our co-founder, Deon Nicholas, recently shared his thoughts on the macro trends we’ll see through 2026 and 2027. We are moving past the "search engine" era of AI where you just ask a question and hope for an answer. The next few years are about agents that take action. At Forethought, we've already done that with our self-improving AI agents. We’ve focused on building agents that: ✅ Understand a business's specific context. ✅ Integrate directly into your existing systems. ✅ Handle real tasks like troubleshooting, issuing refunds, or more complicated customer requests. Deon believes that in less than a year, the average person may have their own personal agent to interact with the world on their behalf. 🤯 We’re entering a future where a customer's personal agent might talk directly to a business's Forethought agent to solve a problem on their behalf. This shift is finally unlocking the ability for AI to have a tangible impact on our daily lives and we're excited to be part of the future of AI.

Vinay P.'s post on building defensible AI offers a useful framework for thinking about how AI creates lasting value in customer experience. Our favorite highlights from the post: 📎 Defensibility comes from more than model performance 📎 Trust and reliability matter in real-world workflows 📎 The strongest AI solutions are the ones that are practical, embedded, and difficult to replicate That perspective aligns with how we think about AI across the Zendesk ecosphere: building capabilities that are useful for our customers, fit into support operations, and support long-term adoption. Read more from Vinay here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g84uWYry

RemoteLock is proving that lean teams can still deliver fast, scalable support with AI: https://lnkd.in/gTiqRjwg Using Forethought AI agents by Zendesk, RemoteLock is: • Deflecting 75% of support chats • Deflecting up to 35% across all channels, including voice • Helping customers get faster answers, even in complex moments That’s a big win for a lean team. Better CX, improved efficiency, and more time for people to focus on the work that matters most. “Forethought AI allows for immediacy,” says Scott Burns, Chief Success Officer at RemoteLock. “We want customers to get their support inquiries resolved quickly, even when a live agent is not available to assist them.” 

No dialing, no tab switching, no re-authentication. That’s the promise of Forethought Web Call. Web Calling brings chat AI agents, voice AI agents, and visual interaction into one live conversation, helping customers move fluidly between modes depending on what they need in the moment. A few examples: 👉 Logged-in customers can carry context throughout the conversation 👉 Sensitive information can be entered privately through an on-screen form 👉 Orders, account details, and images can be shown live while speaking 👉 Branded avatars can create a more human-feeling experience This is what support should look like: fast, flexible, and built around how customers actually communicate. Excited to bring this experience to market with support across the Zendesk team. https://lnkd.in/gPHANmWB

In this CX Today conversation, Antoine N., from Forethought, breaks down why enterprises need to rethink how they measure customer service automation. From why deflection is a broken metric to how outcome-based AI can better reflect real business value, this interview gets into the questions CX teams should be asking now. A few key takeaways: - Deflection isn’t the same as resolution. - ROI should include both hard savings and softer gains like CSAT and churn reduction. - Customers want one intelligent entry point across support, sales, and commerce. - Self-improving agents are changing how support teams identify and close gaps. This conversation is a timely look at where agentic AI is headed — and how enterprises can measure success more meaningfully. Get the full interview here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gcr6WiyR