Cloud Communications News & Updates

Zoom Communications has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Common Room, an AI-native go-to-market (GTM) intelligence platform, in a move that significantly expands the capabilities of its AI-powered revenue platform. Common Room aggregates buyer signals from CRM systems, product usage, marketing platforms, and other customer touchpoints to create unified, person-level buyer intelligence. By integrating this technology with Zoom Revenue Accelerator, Zoom aims to eliminate fragmented data, improve AI-generated insights, and give sales teams a more complete understanding of customer intent before, during, and after sales conversations.

The acquisition reflects Zoom's broader strategy of evolving their communications suite into an AI-first business platform. The combined solution will unify buyer intelligence, enrichment data, conversation analytics, and AI revenue agents into a single platform, enabling sales organizations to automate prospect research, personalize outreach, and identify high-value opportunities with greater accuracy. According to Zoom, the integration will reduce manual research, improve sales productivity, and help revenue teams make better decisions using AI grounded in complete and current customer data. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Learn more at Technology Reseller News.

Five9 has introduced a new generation of its Voice AI Agents at CCW in June. The release is designed to help contact centers move beyond traditional IVR systems and scripted chatbots by using agentic AI that can reason, take action, and resolve more complex customer requests autonomously. It includes AI Agent Studio, a unified platform for building, testing, deploying, and managing AI voice agents, along with capabilities such as multi-agent orchestration, secure integration with enterprise applications, natural multilingual conversations, and seamless handoffs to live agents when needed. Five9 says the new platform enables organizations to automate more sophisticated customer interactions while maintaining enterprise-grade governance, and early customer results point to improved call containment, shorter handle times, and more natural customer experiences as enterprises continue accelerating AI adoption.

Learn more at CMSWire.

Genesys has acquired Pinkfish, an agentic AI workflow company, to enhance the automation capabilities of Genesys Cloud AI. Pinkfish brings more than 500 prebuilt integrations and access to approximately 25,000 Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools that connect with CRM, ERP, HR, billing, order management, and other enterprise applications. This allows AI-powered virtual agents and copilots to do more than answer questions—they can securely retrieve data, execute tasks, and complete complex customer requests across multiple business systems. Genesys plans to make these capabilities available through AppFoundry by the end of July, with deeper native integration into Genesys Cloud expected by January 2027.

The acquisition reflects Genesys' strategy to lead the next phase of contact center AI, where autonomous "agentic" AI can orchestrate end-to-end customer interactions instead of simply assisting human agents. By combining conversational AI with enterprise workflow automation, Genesys aims to reduce manual handoffs, improve first-contact resolution, and enable more sophisticated self-service experiences while maintaining governance and security. Industry analysts view the move as part of an increasingly competitive race among CCaaS vendors to own the AI orchestration layer that connects customer interactions with back-office systems, making AI capable of taking meaningful business actions rather than just providing information.

Learn more at CMSWIRE.

RingCentral has embedded its Customer Engagement Bundle (CEB) directly into Microsoft Teams, allowing organizations to add contact center functionality without deploying a separate CCaaS platform. The Teams-native integration includes call queues, shared SMS inboxes, intelligent routing, analytics, and RingCentral’s AI tools such as AI Receptionist, AI Virtual Assistant, and AI Conversation Expert. RingCentral positions the offering as a solution for mid-market organizations that need more than basic UCaaS capabilities but do not require the complexity and cost of a full enterprise contact center. The company reports that more than 5,000 customers have adopted CEB since launch, with many also purchasing AI capabilities.

Learn more at CX Today.

Avaya has divested its networking patent portfolio to PowerBridge Networks, a newly introduced patent-licensing company founded by intellectual-property veteran Dr. Donald Bitting. The transaction includes more than 500 patents and patent applications across roughly 390 patent families, covering a range of enterprise networking technologies used in telecommunications and IT infrastructure. By transferring these assets, Avaya is divesting a significant portion of its networking patent portfolio.

PowerBridge Networks plans to organize and license the acquired patents to technology companies that incorporate these networking innovations into their products and services. The company’s strategy focuses on acquiring patents that are no longer core to the original owner’s business and enabling broader commercialization through licensing. For Avaya, the sale reflects a continued shift away from legacy networking technologies as the company concentrates on its cloud communications and contact center platforms. Learn more from the original announcement.

Private equity firm Court Square Capital Partners has acquired CallTower from BV Investment Partners, marking a significant ownership transition. CallTower operates as a global cloud-managed service provider offering integrations with platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Webex by Cisco, Zoom, Five9, and Genesys, positioning itself as a vendor-agnostic partner for complex enterprise environments. Under its previous backer, BV Investment Partners, the company made notable strides including the 2025 acquisition of Inoria, which expanded its capabilities in customer experience and contact center solutions.

With the new investment, CallTower aims to expand its distribution channels, enhance its proprietary technology, and bring modern communications platforms to more enterprise organizations globally, with Court Square's backing expected to support organic growth, potential acquisitions, and broader international expansion. BV Investment Partners and CallTower's leadership team will retain a minority stake in the business. Learn more at UC Today.

26North Partners has agreed to acquire Intermedia Intelligent Communications. Intermedia offers services such as unified communications, contact center capabilities, Microsoft Teams integrations, business email, security, and productivity tools, and serves more than 150,000 business customers through a partner ecosystem of over 7,500 providers. The company generates more than $430 million in annual recurring revenue and has experienced growth as organizations continue migrating from legacy on-premises phone systems to cloud-based communications platforms.

The acquisition aligns with 26North’s private-equity strategy of investing in established technology platforms with recurring revenue and growth potential. Intermedia’s leadership team, including CEO Michael Gold, is expected to remain involved and invest alongside the new owner, while 26North plans to support expansion through operational resources and strategic guidance. The firm cited Intermedia’s partner-focused distribution model, strong service reputation, and increasing use of AI across its platform as key reasons for the investment. Learn more.

Salesforce has announced Agentforce Contact Center, a new contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) platform designed to combine AI agents, voice and digital communication channels, and CRM data within a single native system. Announced at Enterprise Connect 2026, the platform aims to address a common problem in contact centers where customer information and interaction data are spread across multiple tools. By consolidating these capabilities on the Salesforce platform, Agentforce provides a unified view of the customer, allowing both AI agents and human representatives to access the same data and conversation history during interactions. This approach is intended to improve context, reduce the need for customers to repeat information, and enable smoother handoffs between automated and human support.

The solution includes features such as native telephony, AI-powered digital and voice agents, intelligent routing, and a unified agent workspace that brings together calls, messaging, CRM records, and analytics. Salesforce positions Agentforce Contact Center as an “agentic” platform where AI agents can resolve routine requests autonomously while escalating complex issues to human agents with full context. The company argues that integrating AI, communications channels, and CRM data into one platform reduces the need for complex integrations and enables more personalized, efficient customer service. Learn more at No Jitter.

RingCentral announced AIR Pro, a new voice-first AI agent platform designed to automate customer interactions within its CCaaS and UCaaS ecosystem. The platform allows organizations to build and deploy AI agents that can handle conversations across voice and digital channels such as SMS and chat. Using a no-code environment called AIR Pro Studio, businesses can create AI agents through natural language prompts. These agents can understand customer intent, authenticate users, and complete multi-step actions such as opening service cases, triggering workflows, or scheduling follow-ups, enabling automation beyond simple chatbot responses.

AIR Pro builds on RingCentral’s broader AI portfolio—including AI Receptionist (AIR), AI Virtual Assistant (AVA), and AI Conversation Expert (ACE)—which together support customer interactions before, during, and after conversations. The new platform reflects a wider shift in the contact center industry toward agentic AI, where AI systems actively perform tasks rather than just assist human agents. RingCentral simplifying industry-specific deployments such as healthcare, with prebuilt templates and integrations designed to accelerate adoption. Overall, the launch reinforces RingCentral's strategy to embed AI deeply into communications platforms so human agents and autonomous AI can collaborate to improve customer engagement and operational efficiency. Learn more at UC Today.

Verint announced that the combined company formed from its recent transaction with Calabrio will operate under the single corporate name Verint as part of a unified go‑forward brand. The Calabrio product name will remain in the portfolio, with its workforce engagement solutions supported and enhanced within the broader Verint CX Automation Platform. Verint said the move simplifies its branding and underscores its unified vision for delivering AI‑powered customer experience automation, combining Verint’s global scale and data capabilities with Calabrio’s workforce engagement tools. Learn more in Verint Press Release.

NiCE has introduced Cognigy Simulator, a new solution designed to help enterprises rigorously test, evaluate, deploy, and scale production-grade AI agents used in customer experience (CX) operations before they go live with real customers. The simulator creates a controlled environment that mimics realistic user interactions — including unlikely or unusual scenarios — so organizations can launch thousands of synthetic conversations and measure how well an AI agent performs across key criteria like task completion, compliance with safety guardrails, integration reliability, and overall experience quality. This approach aims to build confidence and reduce risk by providing quantitative data about an agent’s behavior rather than relying on limited manual tests or small sample sets.

By replicating varied customer personas and behaviors, Cognigy Simulator helps detect weaknesses that might be missed by simpler scripted tests, such as incorrect assumptions, looping dialogs, or inconsistent performance across channels like voice and digital interfaces. It also supports automated regression testing, comparisons between different agent versions or configurations, and ongoing evaluation throughout the build, deploy, and optimization cycles — enabling CX teams to continually improve AI-driven interactions while minimizing errors and customer friction.

Learn more at CX Today.

8×8 has acquired Singapore-based Maven Lab to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific market by integrating Maven Lab’s cloud-based customer engagement and enterprise messaging platform, Moobidesk, into the 8×8 Platform for Customer Experience. The deal brings local messaging expertise and talent to 8×8, helping it navigate the fragmented APAC landscape and offer secure, high-volume customer communications across more channels and countries. The acquisition aims to unify fragmented stacks used by multinational enterprises, improve regulatory compliance and data residency, and shift focus from simple notifications to orchestrated, end-to-end engagement, addressing regional complexity and boosting 8×8’s localized capabilities.

Learn more at UC Today.

Five9 has announced the appointment of Amit Mathradas as its next CEO, effective February 2, 2026, succeeding long-time chief Mike Burkland as part of a strategic pivot toward AI-driven customer experience innovation. The move reflects the Five9's focus on building unified CX solutions powered by advanced AI, with Mathradas bringing strong experience in AI product development and scaling global operations from his prior leadership at Nintex and Avalara. Burkland, who has guided Five9 through substantial growth, will remain on the board to ensure a smooth transition.

Mathradas’s appointment comes amid a broader restructuring and strategic realignment at Five9, which has included workforce adjustments and a reorientation toward efficiency and market competitiveness. The board conducted a comprehensive search prioritizing candidates with expertise in AI innovation and operational excellence, underscoring the company’s belief that embedding AI deeply into its platform will help drive growth, capture market share, and deliver value to customers and shareholders. Five9 plans to host an investor day in 2026 to further detail its long-term strategy under the new leadership.

Learn more at CX Today.

Zoom has announced its acquisition of BrightHire, an interview-intelligence company founded in 2019, as part of Zoom’s broader evolution from a video-calling service into an AI-driven workplace-platform. The deal expands Zoom’s offering in the hiring workflow by embedding BrightHire’s tools—such as interview planning, scheduling, automated screening, transcription, summarization and coaching—directly into Zoom Workplace, aligning with Zoom’s push to support high-stakes conversations in hiring contexts.

For BrightHire customers, the experience remains intact as a standalone brand within the Zoom ecosystem, but they’ll now benefit from Zoom’s infrastructure, scale and added reliability. For existing Zoom customers, BrightHire’s hiring-focused capabilities will soon appear within the Zoom Workplace platform—creating a more seamless end-to-end talent journey from candidate discovery to onboarding.

Learn more at UC Today.

Zoom Video Communications (Zoom) has entered into a deal to acquire Bonsai, a business-management and client-engagement platform geared primarily toward solopreneurs and small service-based firms. The acquisition reflects Zoom’s strategic aim of expanding beyond its core collaboration and meeting tools by adding capabilities that serve the full client lifecycle—from initial contact, through delivery, to invoicing and payment. Bonsai’s platform simplifies management for small businesses that otherwise juggle multiple tools for contracts, proposals, payments and client communications.

The move also highlights a broader shift in the market toward convergence between collaboration, productivity and customer-experience technologies. By embedding Bonsai’s tools into its broader “Workplace” ecosystem (with items like Zoom Meetings, Chat, AI-assistant, Docs), Zoom aims to give small businesses a more unified, streamlined environment—with AI-driven automations helping with tasks like follow-ups, proposals and scheduling. For CX professionals, the deal underscores how tools for the small business segment are being empowered to deliver near-enterprise quality customer-experience features, but in a simpler, more accessible form. Learn more at CX Today