RingCentral has released RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR), a new Agentic AI solution that can automatically pick up and address customer voice calls.
"The launch of RingCentral AI Receptionist marks our foray into agentic AI and the creation of a new category in AI-powered business call handling,"
Kira Makagon, President & Chief Operating Officer of RingCentral, said.
Using generative AI, this AIR can absorb customer questions, answer them with the correct business-related information, and even transfer callers to the right place, much like traditional full-time receptionists do.
Examining AIR
This release from RingCentral represents one step in employing agentic AI in a meaningful way in the UC sphere.
Unlike contact center intelligent virtual agents (IVAs), which can be complex and costly to deploy, RingCentral AIR is embedded into the RingCentral phone system.
Doing this enables any business to easily deploy this AI call automation solution to transform their business. This is especially important when considering who this solution is currently aimed at.
"What it's built for are small to mid-size businesses to be able to start using AI to service their customers in a way that is simplistic,"
John Finch, Global VP Product Marketing at RingCentral, told UC Today.
"It resolves quick routine customer inquiries, it routes the calls to the right people, and it gives confirmations to appointments or even company URLs for additional information on inquiries."
Although currently focused on smaller businesses, RingCentral says their RingCentral AIR is scalable for growth.
Key Capabilities Include:
- Resolves routine customer inquiries: Uses generative AI with context from websites and documents to answer routine customer questions about the company’s services, business hours, and location.
- Scalable for multiple locations or departments: Can be deployed for a single storefront or multiple business locations.
- Intelligent call routing: Connects callers to the right person or department based on natural conversation.
- SMS confirmations: Delivers important details like locations, addresses, and email addresses on request via SMS.
- Call transcripts and analytics: Provides transcripts for every call to give insights into what customers are calling about. Helps businesses understand peak hours via analytics around call volumes and trends.
- Customizable voice and language options: Supports English today; Spanish will launch by the end of Q1, with additional languages to follow.
- Future-ready with appointment scheduling: AI-powered appointment scheduling coming soon.
Unlike IVRs, RingCentral decided to roll out agentic AI abilities focusing on voice for a number of reasons.
One is because voice remains a preferred way in which customers communicate. Another is because missing a call in a business context may mean missing that business altogether.
Unlike an email—which first shows the customer has the time and willingness to communicate in this medium—a missed call often leaves no idea as to what the call was regarding.
This means that not only do agents have to go back and call them, but chasing up these leads may fall by the wayside for more confirmed leads during busier times.
