RingCentral Debuts AI Receptionist with Partner OpportunityRingCentral Debuts AI Receptionist with Partner Opportunity

RingCentral is launching a new artificial intelligence (AI) receptionist capable of routing calls with context, scheduling appointments, taking orders and sending follow-up SMS confirmations.

The AI receptionist is debuting in English, with the Spanish language version coming by the end of March, the company said.

RingCentral says the new service leverages existing phone numbers, employee directories, locations and business hours. Customers can embed it into RingEX business phones, without the need for an additional app or tool. It automatically connects with knowledge bases and scours business websites while auto-generating frequently asked questions (FAQs) or uploaded files to build a customizable information system.

Further, it extends access to call insights and analytics via recordings, notes and transcripts while able to scale. RingCentral built the AI receptionist on the back of RingSense AI technology, an offer the vendor dropped two years ago.

Making Money with RingCentral AI Receptionist

Zane Long, RingCentral's head of channel, said the company's AI receptionist is something partners requested at the more than 800 partner events RingCentral attended in 2024.

"All of them focused on enablement, making sure partners understood the value of upgrading, upselling and adding on," he told Channel Futures.

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Long said RingCentral will host 250 events in the first quarter, emphasizing upgrades, upselling and more.

"This product is something our partners are looking forward to having in their portfolio, and we are going to triple down through SPIFFs and other modes of compensation like bonuses and contests, not to mention I am taking our top four sellers to Costa Rica in May, so those are the kinds of things we are doing in the channel to make sure we have the greatest opportunity for success," Long said.

Long says the RingCentral AI receptionist creates the opportunity for partners to have another conversation with their customers.

"It is a door opener to a customer to talk about what this could do that could lead to them to using RingCentral across the board," Long told Channel Futures.

As for making money with AI via RingCentral, Long said the list of benefits is advantageous to partners, as there is a residual/SPIFF component to any deal, on top of bonuses and contests the vendor holds.

"We do a lot through enablement and training to capture the partner mindset of thinking RingCentral first," Long said, while touting a 4x MRR SPIFF for partners on RingCentral sales. "I have never done this before, nor do I believe my competitors have, but I believe it will have a big impact on the channel," essentially amounting to double compensation," Long said.

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RingCentral's Game Plan

Long says RingCentral has leaned heavily on tech services distributors Intelisys and Telarus in the past for marketing collaboration, but that will start to change. The company aims to host all of its partner-themed events, with partner enablement being top-of-mind.

"We're looking to get more creative with enablement and for our partners to bring in more registered leads, which is how we grade what we do. We want those to turn into closed deals," Long told Channel Futures.