Customer service automation has become one of enterprise technology’s most AI-intensive workloads. This transformation goes far beyond simple chatbots, now encompassing multimodal interactions, proprietary training data, and infrastructure that handles hundreds of billions of API requests annually.
Zendesk Inc., a leading cloud-based software company for customer service and CRM, exemplifies this shift through a multifaceted partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). According to Zendesk’s CEO, Tom Eggemeier, their relationship with AWS is built on three crucial pillars: infrastructure, voice capabilities, and access to advanced large language models.
“We have like a three-legged stool relationship with AWS,” Eggemeier explained. “Number one, we are a customer of theirs, and we have all of our infrastructure on AWS. We’ve had it for 10-plus years. The second thing is that we are leveraging Amazon Connect, the voice platform, to integrate with our suite of products. The third thing is that we’re working with Amazon Bedrock overall, where they’re getting all the large language models because AI is becoming an increasingly important part of our business.”
Eggemeier discussed these themes during an exclusive interview at AWS re:Invent with John Furrier and Paul Nashawaty on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestream studio. The conversation focused on Zendesk’s use of AWS for robust infrastructure, advanced voice integration via Amazon Connect, and cutting-edge AI models for ongoing service automation.
## Nova Models and Multimodal Customer Service
Zendesk’s adoption of Amazon’s Nova models reflects a broader industry move toward open, flexible architecture. This strategy enables enterprises to pair sophisticated AI models with their own customer data for more intelligent automation.
“We really love the Nova models—the fact that you can use voice, imaging, and text—because people interact with companies on a multimodal basis,” Eggemeier said.
He further noted that Zendesk possesses an enormous dataset of 18 billion customer interaction data points, each rated with a thumbs up or thumbs down. “We really see the promise with Nova to be able to use that data to make sure that we’re training the models in an even better way.”
## AI’s Growing Impact on Zendesk’s Business
The push for greater AI integration has significantly reshaped Zendesk’s business model. Over the past two years, AI-powered products have generated $200 million in revenue for the company, with more than 20,000 customers now using Zendesk’s AI capabilities.
“We’ve had five billion automated resolutions—that is, an AI agent actually solving the problem,” Eggemeier added. “We don’t get paid on a consumption basis. We only get paid if the AI agent solves the problem.”
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**Watch the full interview**: To dive deeper into this discussion, watch the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent.
*Photo: SiliconANGLE*
https://siliconangle.com/2025/12/02/zendesk-customer-service-automation-runs-aws-foundation-awsreinvent/
