Talkdesk has hired Munil Shah as its new chief technology officer (CTO).
In accepting the role, Shah leaves UiPath, where he spent over five years in total, with the last 18 months as CTO.
During that five-year stint, UiPath’s revenues grew by more than ten times, and it now outsells Microsoft in the robotic process automation (RPA) space by 10:1.
In addition, UIPath released many pioneering AI solutions – such as an autopilot that turns paper documents into automation apps - and expanded from one engineering center in Romania to 11 across the globe.
Previously, Shah spent 24 years with Microsoft. There, he led product and engineering teams across many well-known products, such as Azure, Bing, and Windows.
Now, he joins the Talkdesk C-suite, where he will report to Tiago Paiva, CEO at Talkdesk.
In welcoming Shah, Paiva said: “Our focus on engineering has never been more important.
Being the AI-powered customer experience leader requires us to get ahead of the innovation curve with first-to-market technologies that will unlock greater efficiency and success for our customers.
"To do that, we need a CTO who understands how to quickly capture growth opportunities through innovation when markets like AI and automation intersect. Munil is that leader, and I am excited about what he will do here."
Getting ahead of that innovation curve seemed somewhat difficult for Talkdesk last year.
After all, the vendor didn’t formally launch any generative AI (GenAI) features until October 2023, months after its CCaaS rivals, including Five9, Genesys, and NICE.
Since then, Talkdesk has made several exciting GenAI announcements. Its new GenAI suite for on-premise organizations and an industry-specific GenAI virtual assistant are excellent examples.
However, in appointing Shah, the vendor appears to acknowledge it reacted too slowly and missed out on some attention-grabbing headlines.
While doing so, the vendor lost its leader position in the CCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant – which it had held for four consecutive years.