The traditional call center may soon be a thing of the past. Jessie Zhang is building AI agents designed to replace monotonous human labor and transform how consumers interact with brands. Elad Gil sits down with Jesse Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Decagon, an AI agent company at the forefront of AI customer service. Jesse talks about how Decagon secured large enterprise clients and the impact of its AI agents, his journey as a second-time founder, and Decagon’s company culture. Plus, they discuss what the future of agentic customer service may look like.

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Chapters:

00:00 – Jesse Zhang Introduction

00:30 – Decagon’s Services

01:11 – Decagon’s Customers and Growth

02:41 – Productivity Gains with Decagon

03:33 – How Decagon Integrates in Customer Workflows

04:25 – Jesse’s Second Time Founder Story

05:41 – Jesse’s Hiring Philosophy

09:13 – Counter-intuitive Advice for Founders

11:19 – How Decagon Thinks About Talent

14:12 – Areas for Longer Term Planning

15:37 – Decagon’s Path to Customer Service

16:57 – Thoughts on Pushing Into the Application Layer

19:40 – What Decagon Does Uniquely 

22:05 – Pricing Services in the AI Age

24:46 – How Decagon Sees Customer Service

25:53 – Defining Long-Term Success for Decagon

27:41 – Jesse’s Views on an Agentic Future

31:22 – Conclusion