Unified Communications as a Service or UCaaS, refers to the consolidation of an organization’s crucial communication systems, including voice, video, messaging, and other cloud-based collaboration tools all on one unified platform. The likelihood you already utilize a UCaaS is high, and many organizations use such platforms, for both external and internal communication.  

Like everything else in the tech-space these days, one of the trends impacting the future development of UCaaS is generative AI. In this article, we’ll be looking at how generative AI can make an impact on your organization’s UCaaS solution.  

What is generative AI? 

The purpose of generative AI lies within its name; it is specifically meant to generate new content, such as text or images, by learning from existing examples and utilizing strong pattern recognition skills. If you’ve ever asked ChatGPT a question or used one of those apps to make a cool, illustrated profile photo for you based on a handful of your pictures, that’s generative AI.  

As RingCentral describes, “the core building blocks of AI – Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, etc. – become more accurate and more ‘intelligent’ the more you use them, so their capabilities will steadily improve over time.” 

How will it be implemented into the UCaaS landscape? 

You may have already seen the effects of generative AI on your UCaaS platform because major organizations have adapted fast towards changes in AI. A perfect example is Microsoft’s suite of products and its integration of ‘Copilot’, an AI assistant that assists with functions like managing meetings, summarizing text, and improving the overall customer experience. 

But of course, it doesn’t stop there. Other organizations that offer UCaaS are using generative AI for a whole host of purposes, including: 

• Improving sales and marketing workflows. 
• Enhancing compliance. 
• Speech-to-text.  
• Real time transcription. 
• Real time translation. 
• Ensuring quality in customer service written responses.  

When it comes to implementation, there are endless practical use cases for these tools. For example, generative AI could be used, to record and transcribe meetings, write summaries, create action items, schedule follow-ups, etc. From a soft hours perspective, tools like these would free up a lot of time for employees who dedicate significant energy towards these tedious tasks. Simultously, it conserves more time for employees to focus on other priority work. 

Many UCaaS providers have added significant generative AI tools in the past year, with the expectation of those features expanding significantly in the coming year.  

AI in UCaaS is nothing new. 

For those who get their guard up at the idea of AI infultrating their systems, it bears remembering that AI has always been a part of UCaaS, in one form or another. Auto-attendants, chatbots, and other virtual assistant type tools are all preexisting features that lack the “AI label”. For example, AI call attendants were lifesavers for call centers during the wake of the Great Resignation, when higher call volumes and fewer agents meant every second of live voice time was precious.  

In conclusion… 

Generative AI has a lot of potential to expand UCaaS’s usefulness and make your employees’ lives easier. Different offerings from different vendors may represent a lot of potential for saved time, and therefore money, for your organization. When it comes to communication, AI tools are not necessarily replacing human workers as they are complementing them, while improving productivity at the same time.