RingCentral Office Embraces Chatbots, AI in New Release

Cloud communications provider RingCentral announced on Thursday the latest version of RingCentral Office, its unified communications-as-a-service solution. The next-generation platform includes new team messaging, chatbot, AI support, and 40 out-of-the-box integrations.

RingCentral says its new solution provides a seamless experience across any device, while giving IT managers robust admin controls. It will be available to customers in limited release starting mid-April.

The company says its platform offers new open APIs and SDKs for developers to embed messaging, collaboration, and task automation functionality into their applications. The new solution also interfaces with chatbot frameworks, including Hubot, Lita, and Botkit.

“RingCentral Office is the industry’s leading solution that goes beyond unifying different modes of communication; it offers an all-in-one collaborative communications experience that is further enhanced by state-of-the-art chatbot and AI-based technology,” Vlad Shmunis, founder, chairman and CEO of RingCentral said. “RingCentral is the only cloud provider to combine enterprise-grade telephony, audio conferencing, video, meetings, team messaging and collaboration in a single, easy-to-use solution. We believe it will transform workplace productivity and help workers get more work done with less effort.”

The new version comes as the cloud communications space gets a lot more competitive. Last month, AWS threw its hat into the ring with the launch of Amazon Chime, and last week, Microsoft rolled out its Teams workplace-collaboration software to compete with Slack.

RingCentral will demo the latest RingCentral Office version next week in Orlando at Enterprise Connect 2017.

Also this week, RingCentral announced the ability for customers to purchase RingCentral Office across 13 European countries as it continues to expand its global customer care services and provide local language support. The company plans to expand its channel partnerships across Europe.

Last year, RingCentral got a big customer win as Box opted to streamline its internal enterprise communications with RingCentral Office.