Freshworks has appointed Ryan Manning as chief product and technology officer, effective August 10, 2026, consolidating product and technology strategy under a single executive as the company sharpens its AI-led service software roadmap. Manning will report to Chief Executive Officer Dennis Woodside and succeed Srini Raghavan, who is leaving the company to pursue an entrepreneurial venture.
The company said Manning will lead product and technology strategy across Freshworks’ AI, IT and customer experience products. He will oversee the global product roadmap and engineering organisation behind the company’s platform. Murali Swaminathan will continue as chief technology officer and report to Manning.
Manning joins Freshworks after leadership roles across startups and enterprise software companies. He helped build and scale ServiceNow in the years around its initial public offering and later co-founded FreeAgent CRM, now Servis.ai. Most recently, he led product at BMC Helix, where his work included product strategy around ServiceOps, agentic AI and closer coordination between product and technology teams. He will be based at Freshworks’ San Mateo headquarters.
The appointment is positioned around speed of execution in AI-powered service software. Freshworks said bringing product and engineering under one organisation is intended to reduce friction and move faster as customers adopt AI capabilities across employee service, IT operations and customer experience workflows. The leadership change also arrives ahead of the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, scheduled for August 4, and follows other senior appointments this year.
Freshworks remains an India-founded SaaS company with a global operating structure and a significant India talent and product heritage. Its product direction is closely watched across the Indian SaaS ecosystem because the company remains one of the most visible enterprise software firms to have scaled from India into public markets. The CPTO appointment is therefore not just a people move; it signals how a mature SaaS platform is organising leadership around AI, product velocity and service operations.
The company’s stated product focus includes AI, IT and customer experience products for mid-market and agile enterprises. As AI changes the cadence of enterprise software development, leadership structures that combine product strategy, engineering execution and AI roadmap ownership are becoming more common. Freshworks’ move places accountability for those areas under Manning while retaining dedicated technology leadership through Swaminathan.
