PolyAI Taps Tech Veteran to Lead GTM as Agentic AI Race Heats Up

NEW YORK, NY – January 14, 2026 – In a move signaling a significant acceleration of its market ambitions, agentic AI leader PolyAI has appointed Ryan Longfield, a veteran of high-growth tech giants like Shopify and Gong, as its President of Go-to-Market. The creation of this new role comes as the company, now armed with over $200 million in total funding, aims to dominate the rapidly expanding enterprise market for sophisticated AI customer experience.

The appointment follows a landmark year for PolyAI, which saw its valuation climb to $750 million after a recent Series D round. The move underscores a critical inflection point in the AI industry: the shift from experimental deployments to enterprise-wide adoption of AI agents capable of handling complex, mission-critical tasks.

Beyond the Bot: The Rise of Agentic AI

For years, the promise of AI in customer service was represented by relatively simple, reactive chatbots. However, the technology now being deployed by companies like PolyAI represents a quantum leap forward. Termed 'agentic AI,' these systems are defined by their autonomy and proactivity. Unlike their predecessors, which followed rigid scripts and waited for user prompts, AI agents can understand context, manage complex multi-step workflows, and take initiative to solve problems.

This evolution is the difference between an AI that can answer “What is my account balance?” and one that can handle a multi-stage process like onboarding a new client or processing a complex insurance claim across multiple back-end systems. These agents are designed to be points of action, not just points of information. The market is responding with explosive enthusiasm. Industry analysts project the global agentic AI market to surge from approximately $7 billion in 2025 to over $93 billion by 2032, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 45%. With 90% of organizations actively adopting AI agents and nearly 80% expecting full-scale deployment within three years, the race is on to become the trusted platform for this transformation.

“Enterprises are no longer asking whether agentic AI is necessary; they're deciding who they trust to run it,” said Nikola Mrkšić, CEO and co-founder of PolyAI, in a statement. This sentiment captures the current landscape, where reliability, security, and proven ROI are the primary currencies.

A Proven Scaler for a Scaling Market

To capture this burgeoning market, PolyAI has brought in a leader with a formidable track record in building go-to-market machines. As President, Longfield will oversee the entire commercial engine, from sales and marketing to customer success and strategic partnerships. His career is a highlight reel of scaling category-defining companies.

Most recently, as Global Head of Commercial Operations at Shopify, Longfield helped steer one of the world’s most critical commerce platforms through a period of sustained double-digit growth. Before that, he was instrumental as Chief Revenue Officer at Gong, where he helped grow the company from $5 million to hundreds of millions in recurring revenue, establishing 'Revenue Intelligence' as an essential enterprise software category. His earlier career includes senior sales leadership roles at LinkedIn during its period of rapid pre-IPO scaling and eventual acquisition by Microsoft.

Longfield’s move to PolyAI is a significant validation of the company's technology and market position. “PolyAI is one of the rare AI companies already delivering real, measurable outcomes at enterprise scale,” Longfield stated. “The technology is proven, customers are seeing material ROI, and the team has built something truly differentiated. I'm excited to help scale a business that enterprises already trust with their most critical conversations.”

Mrkšić added, “Ryan has consistently built world-class go-to-market engines at companies with products that change the game for their customers, and we're thrilled to welcome him to the leadership team as we scale our impact globally.”

From High-Stakes to High ROI: Agentic AI in Production

The trust that both executives emphasize is being forged in high-stakes environments. PolyAI’s agents are already handling some of the most demanding customer interactions imaginable. Utility giant PG&E, for example, relies on the platform to manage call volumes that can spike to over a million per day during natural disasters like wildfires, saving an estimated 35,000 labor hours. In healthcare, the AI agents handle tens of millions of calls for medical transport, where speed and accuracy are paramount.

Across its customer base—which includes global brands like Marriott, Caesars Entertainment, FedEx, and Allstate—the impact is quantifiable. A recent Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester on behalf of PolyAI found that customers achieve an average return on investment of 391%, with typical savings of around $10.3 million. For financial services firm UniCredit, deploying PolyAI’s multilingual agents to reduce wait times resulted in a 14-point increase in its Net Promoter Score (NPS). Software company Quicken is resolving up to 2,500 calls daily with its AI agent, quadrupling its call containment rate.

In its most scaled deployments, PolyAI reports its AI agents are performing work equivalent to over 1,000 full-time human employees. This level of automation is not just about cost savings; it’s about creating a more resilient, scalable, and responsive customer experience that operates 24/7 in over 50 languages.

The New Frontier for Customer Experience

The appointment of a seasoned GTM leader like Longfield signals that the era of AI experimentation is giving way to a new phase of strategic implementation. The focus is shifting from simply having AI to deploying AI that delivers enterprise-grade reliability and tangible business value. This trend is also reshaping the human workforce. While headlines often focus on job replacement, the reality on the ground is one of augmentation.

By automating routine and repetitive inquiries, agentic AI frees human customer service professionals to handle more complex, emotionally nuanced, and high-value interactions. This allows enterprises to elevate the role of their human agents, turning them into expert problem-solvers and brand ambassadors, which can lead to higher employee satisfaction and reduced burnout. As PolyAI and its competitors race to deploy their technology, they are not just building software; they are redefining the fundamental relationship between businesses, their customers, and the very nature of service.