Customer support is the heart of every business; it’s where trust is built and lasting relationships begin. When customers reach out for help, how a company responds can shape their entire experience. Quick, thoughtful, and effective support solves problems and creates confidence, turning one-time buyers into loyal customers. However, when help takes too long or issues aren’t handled properly, it can damage trust and cause customers to look elsewhere.
That’s where Slava Zhakov, Founder and CTO of Crescendo, is making a true difference. With a rare balance of deep technical expertise and visionary leadership, he has built one of the most promising platforms redefining customer experience. His mission is to make customer support not just faster and smarter, but more human.
Guided by his belief in merit-based growth and genuine care for his team, Slava has cultivated a company culture rooted in innovation, trust, and excellence. Under his leadership, Crescendo has formed powerful partnerships with global technology leaders, including Amazon, Google, and OpenAI, empowering clients like EVPassport and Lovepop with exceptional results.
Crescendo has achieved remarkable milestones in its innovative technology and it is on track to exceed the $100M ARR mark in less than two years since its founding. Recognized among the “10 Best CTOs of 2025” by CIO Review, Slava continues to inspire innovation driven by purpose, persistence, and a genuine desire to create real value for businesses and people alike.
Two Decades of Shaping Global CX Technology
Slava Zhakov’s journey toward founding Crescendo began with a deep passion for technology and decades of experience in transforming customer experience solutions. Before starting Crescendo, he spent 24 years at Genesys, one of the world’s leading companies in customer experience and contact center technologies. During his time there, he led product development, set the company’s technical direction, and played a key role in launching the AI product line.
He later became the CTO of the Alcatel-Lucent Applications Group, where he oversaw product innovation for Genesys and Alcatel-Lucent’s enterprise and carrier communication products. Earlier in his career, he founded a software development company called Program-Technique and also served as a Professor at St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, where he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in computer science. He currently serves as a Board Member at Natural Resources San Francisco.
Reflecting on his journey, Slava Zhakov shares that his years at Genesys laid the foundation for what would become Crescendo. The turning point came with the introduction of ChatGPT 3.5 — a breakthrough that changed his perspective on what artificial intelligence could achieve. “The new generation of AI made things possible that weren’t before,” he says. This inspired him to create Crescendo, a company that combines advanced AI with human insight to make customer support faster, smarter, and more personal.
Customer Experience Meets Real Business Results
The customer service industry faces a major disconnect. Businesses see customers as their most valuable asset, yet they often cut customer experience budgets to reduce costs. Technology vendors sell software without ensuring real business results, and support agents are left handling repetitive, low-impact tasks while dealing with frustrated customers. This imbalance leads to burnout and extremely high attrition rates, sometimes reaching up to 300%.
Crescendo was built to solve these problems by aligning the goals of businesses, vendors, and agents. Its AI-native platform takes care of repetitive tasks with speed and accuracy, freeing agents to focus on meaningful, human-centered interactions. By combining smart automation with real empathy, Crescendo helps companies improve efficiency, retain talent, and deliver customer experiences that truly make a difference.
Learning The Values Of Persistence, Patience, And Hard Work
One of the most defining moments in Slava Zhakov’s journey was realizing that real success takes time and steady effort. While some people achieve quick wins, like the $28 billion WhatsApp deal with Meta, his path has been about building each business from scratch, step by step. It took patience, hard work, and countless decisions made along the way. This experience taught him the value of persistence, learning from challenges, and staying focused on long-term goals.
Customer Satisfaction with Instant Support
Crescendo has built its platform around a simple but powerful belief that customer support should feel human, work smoothly, and deliver real business results. Every feature and service is designed to make operations easier for companies while improving customer satisfaction and the agent experience.
The platform combines advanced AI tools with human expertise to create a truly connected experience.
Some of its key offerings include:
- AI CX Assistants that manage chat, messaging, voice, and email with incredible speed, accuracy, and no waiting time for customers.
- Agent Assist tools that free support teams from repetitive work so they can focus on solving real and meaningful problems.
- CX Insights and analytics that turn every customer interaction into useful business intelligence, helping companies build stronger relationships and find new growth opportunities.
- A Managed AI Services model that keeps everything running smoothly while constantly learning and adapting to each client’s goals.
- Brand-Aligned Support (Superhumans), a multilingual team of experts who handle escalations and complex cases with empathy and precision.
Crescendo is built on promises that truly matter:
- Go live in as few as 30 days.
- Achieve industry-leading accuracy with seamless 24×7 collaboration between AI and humans.
- Outcome-based pricing where clients only pay when measurable results are delivered.
- Easy integration with existing systems without any disruption.
- Trusted security and compliance with SOC-2 Type II certification and HIPAA readiness.
What truly sets Crescendo apart is not just its technology but its balance between innovation and empathy. The platform doesn’t replace people; it empowers them. Its AI doesn’t just automate; it collaborates. And that’s how Crescendo is helping businesses redefine what great customer service really means.
Slava’s Take On AI Shaping The Future Of Customer Service
Slava Zhakov emphasizes that AI is reshaping customer service by making interactions faster, smarter, and more personal. While customers still face delays and unhelpful automated replies, AI is changing this with tools that understand language and learn from every interaction. Soon, it will be part of every customer journey: predicting needs, solving issues instantly, and enabling 24/7 personalized support. He believes the real challenge isn’t the technology, but how quickly organizations adapt to create smoother, more meaningful customer experiences.
Success Stories
Slava Zhakov shares some powerful real-world examples of how Crescendo has improved customer interactions and efficiency for its clients.
Crescendo’s success is reflected through several customer stories that highlight measurable results and lasting impact.
Some of Slava’s personal favorites:
- 70% of conversations are fully resolved by AI
- Time to answer went down from 10 minutes to less than 30 seconds
- Customer satisfaction is 94% during peak holiday surges
- Email response time cut from 7 hours to 18 seconds
- More than 1 million customers supported with up to 99% accuracy
- 65% instant resolutions with only 1 CS leader
These success stories reflect how Crescendo delivers faster responses, higher satisfaction, and scalable support by combining advanced AI technology with a human touch.
Partnering with the Giants: Amazon, OpenAI, and Google
To accelerate expansion and deliver even more powerful solutions, Crescendocontinues to explore new collaborations and strategic alliances with leading global technology partners. Crescendo takes pride in its partnerships with industry giants such as Amazon, OpenAI, and Google, which enhance its platform with advanced capabilities and help drive continuous improvement across markets.
Working On Several Advanced AI Capabilities
Crescendo is currently working on several advanced AI capabilities, including:
- Its recently launched Multimodal AI capability for CX. Multimodal AI delivers the end of the call-vs-chat dilemma with a dynamic step forward that makes every interaction feel natural, fluid, and fast. Text, voice and visuals all in the same conversation, at the same time.
- Reinforcement learning with AI feedback that keeps improving the system for a smoother and faster experience.
- AI-powered knowledge tools that help businesses organize, update, and find important information easily.
Advice To Aspiring AI Entrepreneurs
Slava Zhakov’s advice to aspiring AI entrepreneurs is simple yet powerful: don’t fall for the hype. Instead, focus on creating real business outcomes and using AI to solve meaningful, practical problems.
One quote that motivates you the most:
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
One piece of advice you would offer to upcoming entrepreneurs or future business leaders:
Perseverance is the best predictor and guarantee of success.
One movie or book you recommend everyone in business or leadership should experience:
“The innovator’s dilemma” by Clayton Christensen (and other books in the series)
Slava Zhakov’s 5 Powerful Business Mantras
- Focus on Real Outcomes: Innovation should create real business value, not just follow the hype.
- Empower People with Technology: AI should support and enhance human potential, not replace it.
- Stay Persistent and Patient: Lasting success comes from consistent effort, learning, and resilience.
- Lead with Empathy and Efficiency: The best results come when technology and human understanding work together.
- Collaborate to Grow: Strong partnerships drive smarter solutions and greater impact.
