Gareth Cummings, CEO of eDesk, on how the AI-led customer support platform built generative AI four years before ChatGPT, why pre-sales is the single most under-answered category in e-commerce, and what agentic commerce will do to brand trust signals once consumer AI agents start transacting on their owner’s behalf.
"If you are not putting the customer at the heart of your business, there is going to be a challenge in the future."
Why pre-sales is the most under-answered question in e-commerce, and how eDesk built generative AI four years before ChatGPT by working on a dataset narrow enough to train on.
Gareth Cummings runs eDesk, the AI-led customer support platform that processes more than 14 million conversations a month and supports over $25 billion in annual eCommerce transactions across 5,000+ online sellers. He joined eDesk in 2018 as CTO, moved to Managing Director in November 2024, and took over as CEO in October 2025. Before eDesk he spent more than two decades in Irish software, through IBM, Accenture, Globoforce (now Workhuman), Sentenial and Brite:Bill, where his last role was Global Head of Delivery building billing software for Comcast, T-Mobile and AT&T.
In this conversation Cummings explains how eDesk shipped its first generative AI layer in October 2018 by taking advantage of a narrow e-commerce dataset where roughly ten query categories cover 70 percent of inbound volume, why pre-sales queries (30 to 60 percent of inbound support volume at a typical online retailer) are routinely unanswered because support teams are trained for post-sale problem solving, and what agentic commerce will mean for brand trust once consumer AI agents start transacting on behalf of their owners.
"Even though the genesis was technical, I had commercial exposure all along the way. So when it came to transitioning from CTO to CEO, it was not a leap into the unknown."
Cummings treats the trajectory as unremarkable only in retrospect. Starting as a web developer who sat in customer meetings as a junior, he layered commercial muscle onto the technical craft at every subsequent stage, through Globoforce, Sentenial, Brite:Bill and seven years as eDesk CTO. By the time the CEO role opened up, the commercial dimension was already in place.
"We bring every message and every order across every channel into a single inbox. Where’s my order? The answer is right there, in one view."
eDesk is purpose-built for e-commerce, not general customer support. Messages from Amazon seller central, Shopify, Meta, TikTok shop and email flow into a single workbench alongside order data and product catalogue. That integration is what lets an agent resolve where-is-my-order queries in one view rather than six logins.
"Answer the questions within 15 minutes and your chance of a conversion goes up by a significant amount. We see it time and time again."
Pre-sales queries typically account for 30 to 60 percent of inbound support at an e-commerce business. They are the highest-conversion moment in the customer lifecycle and the most consistently ignored, because most support organisations are trained and measured on post-sale problem resolution. Cummings frames pre-sales responsiveness as the single highest-return behavioural change any online retailer can make.
"We built essentially our own LLM, on a much smaller dataset. Because we were only focused on e-commerce, that made it easier for us."
eDesk shipped its first generative AI layer in October 2018, four years before ChatGPT. The team had a structural advantage that most customer support platforms did not: a narrow e-commerce dataset where roughly ten query categories cover 70 percent of inbound volume. That constraint gave them enough signal density to train a useful language model on modest compute, at a time when general-purpose LLMs were out of reach for most product teams.
"You will give the agent certain parameters. Only engage with things that have a review score of X. Only with brands who respond quick."
As consumer AI agents start transacting on behalf of their owners, trust signals that have historically been soft brand attributes, response time, review scores, support quality, become machine-readable filters. The brands that win in this world are the ones whose support behaviour is already measurable, consistent and public today. Cummings sees this as the logical extension of everything eDesk has been building since 2018.
"Answer within fifteen minutes. Conversion follows."
Host Tell us about the transition from CTO to CEO at eDesk. How did it happen?
Cummings My career genesis was technical, but customer exposure ran alongside from the very first job as a web developer. I was in customer meetings as a junior, listening to how the commercial side of the room thought. So when the CTO to Managing Director to CEO progression happened at eDesk, the commercial dimension was already in place. It was a continuation, not a new discipline.
Host What does eDesk solve for online sellers?
Cummings eDesk is built specifically for e-commerce. We bring messages from marketplaces, social channels and direct storefronts, plus the order data and the product catalogue, into a single inbox. So when a customer asks where their order is, your agent answers in one view rather than six logins. That integration is the point.
Host Why do pre-sales questions matter so much?
Cummings Pre-sales is often 30 to 60 percent of inbound volume. Most support teams are trained for post-sale problem solving, so pre-sales questions get neglected. We see it again and again. Answer within 15 minutes and conversion lifts by a significant amount. It is the highest-return behavioural change an e-commerce business can make.
Host How did you build AI so early?
Cummings We shipped our first AI layer in October 2018. The advantage was narrow scope. E-commerce customer support has maybe ten query categories that cover 70 percent of volume. That made it feasible to train a language model on a much smaller dataset than a general customer support tool would need. We built essentially our own LLM before the term was in common use.
Host Where does agentic commerce go from here?
Cummings Consumers will give their agent parameters. Only engage with brands above a review score. Only with brands who respond quickly. The trust signals that today are soft brand attributes become machine-readable filters. The brands with measurable, consistent response behaviour win. That is the logical next step of what we have been building since 2018.
New guests and insights. No noise.