Business
Ali Shabdar, Head of Strategic Growth at Zoho, joins the show to break down why most digital transformation projects fail, and what business leaders consistently get wrong about technology adoption. Drawing on his path from engineering and consulting to building Zoho's Middle East and Africa presence from the ground up, Ali explains why every successful (or failed) technology rollout comes down to one factor: people.
In this episode, Ali unpacks the philosophy of transnational localism that helped Zoho grow in MEA, why customer retention is about turning buyers into advocates rather than hiding the cancel button, and why an estimated $900 billion has been wasted globally on failed digital transformation initiatives. He also dives deep into AI adoption today: the gap between AI's theoretical potential and what it's actually delivering, why "token spend" is the wrong KPI, and why the future is augmentation, not replacement, a concept he calls Homo Augmentus.
The conversation also covers Zoho's approach to AI agents as digital employees with identities and oversight, the risks of hoarding data without structure, and why leaders should return to basic questions about known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns before expecting AI to perform.
If you're a business leader, marketer, or operator trying to separate real AI value from hype, this episode offers a grounded, people-first framework for thinking about growth, technology, and change management.
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In this episode, we discuss:
00:00 - 00:35: Introduction & Ali's Role at Zoho
00:35 - 02:04: What Stays Consistent in Successful Tech Adoption
02:04 - 04:57: Building Trust in Zoho's MEA Expansion
04:57 - 06:59: Lessons from the Operator and CIO Side
06:59 - 09:46: Customer Experience and Turning Buyers into Advocates
09:46 - 14:24: Why Digital Transformation Projects Stall and Fail
14:24 - 16:46: Listening to People Before Chasing Automation
16:46 - 19:34: The Gap Between AI Hype and Real Results
19:34 - 23:37: The Age of Homo Augmentus: Upskill, Don't Replace
23:37 - 26:38: AI Agents as Digital Employees at Zoho
26:38 - 30:38: Fixing Your Data Foundation Before Scaling AI
30:38 - 32:58: Measuring What Actually Matters in AI Adoption
32:58 - 32:15: Final Thoughts on People-First Transformation
Connect with Ali Shabdar
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shabdar
zoho.com
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