MarTech360 Interview with Rishi Rana, Chief Executive Officer at Cyara

Velocity without clarity can take you in the wrong direction. I tell leaders to start with measurable, high-ROI use cases, prove the value, then scale with confidence.

Rishi, can you tell us about your professional background and your current role at Cyara. Also tell us how Cyara differentiates itself from other companies in the same space?

I’ve spent over 25 years in technology, including 13 at Microsoft leading large-scale platform and product initiatives. My career has spanned enterprise software, product strategy, and scaling innovation. Today, as CEO of Cyara, I lead a company that created the CX Assurance category and continues to redefine it for the AI era.

Cyara is the world’s leading AI-led Customer Experience Productivity, Growth, and Assurance Platform. We help global enterprises proactively test, monitor, and optimize their customer journeys – across voice, digital and emerging AI channels – so they can deliver flawless experiences, every time. Think of us as the customer experience “safety net” behind the scenes – testing, monitoring, and helping you fix your contact center, chatbot, or AI assistant before your customers even notice something is off.

We work with over 450 leading enterprise companies and have grown to assure more than 350 million journeys annually in 130+ countries. Our platform-agnostic approach works across CCaaS, UCaaS, CRM, and helpdesk environments.

As AI evolves beyond basic chatbots into autonomous agents, how is Cyara adapting its CX Assurance platform to support this next generation of AI-powered customer experiences?

The shift to autonomous, agentic AI is one of the most significant changes we’ll see in CX over the next decade. We’re evolving our platform to assure these AI-driven interactions end-to-end.

Recent innovations include Cyara AI Trust, which helps eliminate AI-related risks with AI-infused customer communication channels including risks associated with hallucinations, misuse, compliance and bias. We also recently launched Cyara Copilot, an intelligent assistant that streamlines workflows by rapidly surfacing relevant insights and guiding users toward faster, more informed decisions. Additional solutions we’ve introduced include: Pulse 360, which delivers real-time observability across all channels, and Intelligent Insights to ensure AI consistently enhances customer experiences.

You have led digital transformations across industries so, how do you see agentic AI redefining enterprise readiness when it comes to scalability, resilience, and CX assurance?

Over the last decade, digital transformation was about scale, speed, and standardization. Agentic AI changes the game. We’re now moving from automating tasks to orchestrating intelligence. These systems can reason, learn, and act in real time across every channel. That creates extraordinary opportunity but also raises the bar for resilience and assurance. To scale safely, enterprises need continuous monitoring, governance, and optimization built into the core architecture, so these agents deliver consistent outcomes every time.

Autonomous AI systems are designed to make decisions and take actions independently. From your vantage point, what governance frameworks should enterprises adopt to manage the risks and responsibilities of such systems?

Think of agentic AI like a high-speed train. Speed is critical, but so are brakes, tracks, and signals. Governance means transparency, real-time validation, explainability, and a human-in-the-loop where it matters. Compliance, bias detection, and traceability must be designed in from day one, not bolted on later. Continuous testing and monitoring turn those principles into practice, ensuring innovation moves fast, but always stays on track.

Also Read: MarTech360 Interview with Miruna Dragomir, Chief Marketing Officer at Planable

With agentic AI now able to learn and act across customer journeys in real time, how can businesses balance automation with the human element, especially in sensitive, high-stakes customer interactions?

Agentic AI’s role in the customer experience is different from traditional AI. Instead of handling isolated tasks, it learns, reasons, and acts across the entire customer journey in real time. That makes the balance between automation and the human element even more critical.

The best practice isn’t choosing one over the other – it’s orchestration. Agentic AI should anticipate customer needs, resolve issues, and seamlessly navigate multi-step processes. At the same time, it must be designed to detect high-stakes moments – medical, financial or emotionally charged – and escalate them to a human with full context and recommended next steps.

This handoff is where trust is preserved: customers experience the speed and personalization of automation without losing the empathy and judgment that only people can provide. At Cyara, our focus is on making those transitions seamless, so brands can scale with confidence while still delivering human reassurance when it matters most.

Cyara is known for testing and optimizing conversational AI. What changes or challenges are you seeing as enterprises move from static chatbots to dynamic, decision-making AI agents?

We’re seeing a shift from predictable, rule-based bots to adaptive agents that interpret, decide, and act in real time. This evolution introduces new risks and demands a more sophisticated approach to assurance.

Cyara is evolving alongside technology. Enterprises now need to validate not just what was said, but whether the AI made the right decision, delivered with the right tone, and aligned with customer expectations.

We are building toward a future where assurance is dynamic, continuous, and outcome-focused. Our goal is to help enterprises scale AI safely, with confidence that every interaction is accurate, compliant, and contextually appropriate.

What does responsible innovation look like in the era of agentic AI, and how can enterprise leaders ensure their AI deployments are both ethical and effective? 

Responsible innovation starts with intent. Are you using AI to truly improve the customer journey, or just to cut costs? That choice shapes the outcome. Leaders need to embed bias detection, compliance checks, and transparency into their systems from the start and hold themselves accountable for the results. The brands that win will be the ones customers trust to get it right every single time.

What are the biggest misconceptions you are hearing from the C-suite when it comes to adopting agentic AI systems, and how would you reframe them?

 A common one is that you can buy an “out-of-the-box” AI agent and set it loose from day one. Real readiness takes oversight, governance, and integration into the right workflows. Another is believing speed alone wins the race. Velocity without clarity can take you in the wrong direction. I tell leaders to start with measurable, high-ROI use cases, prove the value, then scale with confidence.

Finally, how do you envision the future of enterprise CX in the next three years with agentic AI in the mix?

We’re at the start of a major shift. In three years, autonomous agents will handle a significant share of customer interactions. They will anticipate needs and resolve issues before they happen. The differentiator will be trust. Accuracy, fairness, and compliance won’t be nice-to-haves; they’ll be the deciding factors in customer loyalty. The brands that master this balance will set the standard for customer experience in the AI era, creating loyalty that competitors can’t easily disrupt.

Thanks Rishi!