Listen now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Guest Bio
Des Traynor is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Intercom, the customer communication platform used by 25,000+ companies worldwide.
He’s spent over a decade helping Intercom scale from a startup into one of SaaS’s most iconic brands. Today, Des is leading the company’s shift into the AI era — rethinking how support, success, and customer engagement work when AI becomes the default.
🙌 Brought to you by
Autoskills – Helping teams go from AI-curious to AI-ready with tailored workshops and hands-on adoption.
🎙 Episode Intro
AI isn’t a side project at Intercom — it’s the future of the product. Des Traynor walks us through how Intercom is embedding AI into its core, what it means for customer support at scale, and the cultural changes required to move an established company through a platform shift.
From finding the right wedge use case, to managing customer trust, to leading teams through hype cycles — Des offers a masterclass in what it takes to transform an iconic SaaS business in real time.
⏱ What’s Covered
(00:00) Introduction — Des’s role at Intercom and the company’s early AI explorations
(04:25) How to spot the “right first use case” for AI in customer communication
(09:12) Trust, transparency, and shipping AI features that customers actually adopt
(14:48) Balancing speed of iteration with quality when moving AI into production
(19:33) Building an “AI-native” culture inside an established company
(25:07) What incumbents get wrong about adopting AI vs. what startups get right
(32:14) The business impact — how AI is changing Intercom’s economics and customer value
(37:56) Lessons from previous platform shifts (mobile, SaaS) applied to AI
(43:20) The future of customer communication with AI at the center
(48:42) Lightning round + closing reflections
💡 Key Takeaways
Find your wedge. AI adoption sticks when you start with the single-use case customers already care about most.
Trust is the moat. Customers will forgive imperfection but not opacity — transparency is non-negotiable.
Speed matters, but durability matters more. It’s not just about launching AI features, but making them dependable.
Culture must evolve. Even incumbents have to adopt a “startup” mindset to compete in the AI era.
History rhymes. Lessons from SaaS and mobile apply directly to today’s AI shift.
🔗 Where to Find Des
Twitter/X: @destraynor
LinkedIn: Des Traynor
Intercom: intercom.com
📚 References & Mentions
Fin AI – Intercom’s AI-powered support bot
The Jobs To Be Done framework (Clayton Christensen, Tony Ulwick)
If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a colleague thinking about how to bring AI into an established product.
👉 Subscribe to AI Ready for weekly conversations with leaders reshaping their companies for the AI era.
Until next time,
Haroon