Code Story episode
S12 E6: Moving Beyond Simple Chatbots to Run end-to-end B2C Support and Operations via Agentic AI Layers with Michael Fester, Co-Founder of 14.ai
Feb 17, 2026 · Season 12 · Episode 6 · 22 min
The Customer Support OS
Michael Fester grew up in Denmark, the son of a French mother and a Danish father. He was always interested in tech, math and the arts, initially wanting to go into design. However, he did research in number theory at Cambridge, and founded his first startup in Paris, which eventually was acquired by Sonos. Outside of tech, he enjoys reading, in particular the classics - like Dostoyevsky - and biographies - like that of Einstein. He enjoys eating and living healthy, and promotes this lifestyle at his current venture.
Michael and his team noticed that despite the continual improvement of models, the process of maintaining systems using AI was tedious. Not only did this impact support operations, and building software for this area of a business, but negatively impacted the customers themselves. He and his wife wanted to build the new standard for how support operations are run.
This is the creation story of 14.ai.
Sponsors
Unblocked (https://getunblocked.com/codestory)TECH Domains (https://get.tech/codestory)Mezmo (https://mezmo.com/codestory)Braingrid.ai (https://braingrid.link/code-story)Alcor (https://alcor.com)Equitybee (https://codestory.co/equitybee)Terms and conditions: Equitybee executes private financing contracts (PFCs) allowing investors a certain claim to ESO upon liquidation event; Could limit your profits. Funding in not guaranteed. PFCs brokered by EquityBee Securities, member FINRA.Links
https://14.ai/https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfester
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