When you sit down with Chandrashekar “LSP,” it feels less like a corporate interview and more like catching up with an old friend. LSP, who heads Zoho’s Canadian operations out of Cornwall, Ontario, has been with the company for more than two decades. Over coffee (virtual, this time), we talked about roadshows, small business AI, and why privacy still matters in an industry that’s racing ahead.
Zoho has been building AI into its products for years, but its new push is called Zia — short for Zoho Intelligent Assistant. The name might sound like something out of the Marvel universe, but it’s very much grounded in business practicality. Zia isn’t one giant model trying to solve everything; instead, Zoho has built three “right-sized” language models — small, medium, and large. The idea is simple: most businesses don’t need a model the size of ChatGPT just to write an email or analyze a support ticket. They need something leaner, faster, and affordable.
That affordability piece is important. LSP points out that many companies today are essentially reselling access to the big hyperscaler models, passing along costs to customers — what he calls the “AI tax.” Zoho’s bet is that by owning its own stack — from the data centres to the language models — it can give customers AI features without jacking up subscription prices. Privacy is built in, too. Customer data stays inside each business’s account instead of being pooled to retrain Zoho’s models. In LSP’s words, “It’s like building your own engine if you’re a car company. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
The conversation also touched on interoperability. Zoho supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), making it possible for outside agents and applications to plug into Zoho’s suite. On top of that, its new Agent Studio lets partners build industry-specific tools — so a realtor or a telco startup can craft exactly what they need, without waiting on Zoho’s roadmap. It’s a Lego-block approach: foundation models, integration, and customized agents all snapping together.
What stood out most, though, was the mission. LSP returned again and again to the importance of making AI accessible for businesses of every size — from a global enterprise to a two-person shop in small-town Canada. “AI should take away the drudgery,” he said, “and make customer and employee experiences better.” For Zoho, that means building tools that are powerful, private, and — above all — practical.
