Zoom Named Mitel’s Exclusive UCaaS Partner After RingCentral Break, AI Companion Receives FedRAMP OK For Government Use
Zoom has been named Mitel‘s new exclusive UCaaS partner after the latter ended its exclusivity relationship with RingCentral.
Zoom and Mitel have announced a significant strategic partnership to deliver AI-powered UC for enterprises. As a cornerstone of the agreement, Zoom will be Mitel’s exclusive UCaaS offering within its overall UC portfolio. This follows the end of a similar Mitel exclusive UCaaS partnership with RingCentral last month.
The partnership involves delivering a hybrid cloud product utilising Zoom Workplace and Zoom AI Companion to complement Mitel’s leading communications platform for an advanced, integrated comms experience.
Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom, commented:
Like Zoom, Mitel has a customer-first approach where providing a best-in-class, collaborative working environment is of the utmost importance. I look forward to watching this partnership progress and continuing to work closely with Mitel to meet the evolving needs of our users.”
In other Zoom news, its AI Companion solution has received FedRAMP authorisation, complementing Zoom for Government’s list of authorised solutions.
Zoom has announced that its AI Companion has received authorisation from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Joint Authorization Board (JAB) as a JAB Moderate system. Zoom outlines that this new approval complements the list of approved products under Zoom for Government, which it says illustrates the company’s dedication to serving the US government sector.
Amazon Introduces Five-Days-A-Week In-Office Mandate
Amazon has mandated that employees must work in the office five days a week, starting at the beginning of next year.
In what is potentially the final chapter of the tech giant’s 18-month-long return-to-office (RTO) saga, Amazon has extended its three-day in-office mandate to the whole working week.
In a letter to employees posted on the company’s website on Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy suggested the experience of a three-day in-office mandate has “strengthened our conviction about the benefits” of working in the office.
“To address the second issue of being better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business, we’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” Jassy wrote. “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.”
Amazon is the first major tech business to mandate workers return to the office for the entire work week.
Agentforce Turns Slack Into An All-In-One Digital HQ
Following the integration of Agentforce into its platform, Slack is transforming into much more than a simple messaging app.
Previously called Einstein Copilot, Agentforce is designed to enhance worker productivity by providing AI-powered CRM insights and issuing action instructions to Agentforce agents.
Teams using Slack can now take advantage of Agentforce’s generative AI capabilities, enabling them to access insights and receive task assistance directly within the collaboration platform, streamlining workflows and boosting efficiency.
Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack, commented:
Slack’s agent-powered work operating system is redefining what it means to work smarter, not just differently. We’ve moved beyond collaboration; every day, millions of teams are leveraging purpose-built AI, with customer data, automation, and now agents seamlessly integrated into the flow of work. This isn’t just about getting work done. It’s about unlocking new productivity levels to drive results and move business forward for every team and department.”
Slack is also expanding its capabilities by integrating third-party AI agents and assistants from providers such as Anthropic, Adobe, Cohere, and Perplexity. In addition, Slack is introducing a new channel type that links Salesforce CRM records with channel-based conversations, enhancing the platform’s ability to streamline workflows and improve collaboration between teams.
Microsoft Announces Copilot ‘Pages’ For AI-Powered Collaboration
Microsoft has announced Copilot “Pages”, a new offering within Microsoft 365 that enables AI-powered project and document collaboration.
Complementing Microsoft’s Loop project management solution, Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President of AI at Work at Microsoft, describes the new solution as “a dynamic, persistent canvas designed for multiplayer AI collaboration”.
Users can share Copilot Pages with one link, allowing colleagues to begin editing them immediately, just like a shared Word document. Additionally, users can embed Copilot Pages into other pages as components.
“Pages takes ephemeral AI-generated content and makes it durable, so you can edit it, add to it, and share it with others,” Spataro wrote. “You and your team can work collaboratively in a page with Copilot, seeing everyone’s work in real time and iterating with Copilot like a partner, adding more content from your data, files, and the web to your Page.”
For Microsoft 365 Copilot customers, Pages start rolling out today and will generally be available later in September 2024.
