RingCentral has launched an AI Receptionist (AIR) in the UK.
AI's phone agent, RingCentral Air, handles calls, routes inquiries, booking them, and attracts customers in multiple languages.
Air is built on early momentum in the US, where over 3,000 companies have already implemented the solution since its first launch in February. The demand for AI-driven communications between small and medium-sized businesses achieves measurable results, from revenue generation to productivity and cost reduction.
“While much of today's conversation focuses on AI work, our mission is to help UK small businesses grow sustainably by reducing the burden of role integration. “Too often, one employee is forced to juggle three, four or five roles. As SMEs donate more than £2.4 trillion to the UK economy, Ringcentral Air will help these businesses navigate call handling repeatedly, allowing businesses to focus on more valuable jobs that drive long-term growth.”
Adopting new technology can be daunting for many small businesses. They rarely have the complex tools to try it out from teams or bandwidth. Ringcentral Air is dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses. It's instantly deployable and intuitive to manage and deliver ROI from day one. By addressing the universal challenges that calls face for every business and efficiently handling customer calls, it also provides a clear and accessible entry point for AI adoption, reshaping the expansion and growth of small businesses.
Beyond accessibility, Air directly addresses one of the largest operational stocks in small businesses. Employees grow thinly with multiple responsibilities, and call handling is ingrained in valuable time.
Government research shows that in the UK, 60% of small businesses broke down within the first three years, and 20% closed their doors in the first year. The main driver is cost. By automating daily enquiries and routing, AIR allows employees to focus on high-value tasks that drive sustainable growth.
Additionally, Ringcentral's own research, focusing on small business leaders, shows that 40% answer customer calls up to two hours a day, with 75% reporting these calls, significantly disrupting other important tasks. AIR helps small businesses realize their voice potential fully, using inbound calls as a strategic growth channel, turning cost centers once into a new business source.
Using advanced speech recognition, context understanding and dynamic call routing, RingCentral Air acts as a proactive and intelligent agent capable of interpreting and performing tasks.
Its important features include:
- Instant Activation: Activate in minutes, automatically scan your company website for key information, no IT support required. Team members can be easily customized.
- Resolve everyday customer inquiries: Use AI generated using the context of your website or documentation to answer everyday customer questions about your company's services, opening hours and location.
- Scalable in multiple locations or departments: Can be deployed in a single storefront or in multiple business locations.
- Call transcripts and analysis: Provides transcripts for every call to provide insight into what the customer is calling. It helps businesses understand peak times through analytics about call volumes and trends.
- Bookings: RingCentral Air seamlessly schedules Outlook and Google Calendar bookings during calls, eliminating the front and back that often lead to lost customer service of opportunities. Coming soon in the fourth quarter of 2025.
- Extended Language Support: Seamless call handling in English and French in the UK and Australia, serving a diverse customer base in your preferred language.
