RingCentral is infusing OpenAI Frontier models, including GPT-5.2, into two voice-centric contact centre offers: RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR) and RingCentral AI Virtual Assistant (AVA). OpenAI Frontier is an enterprise platform introduced in February 2026 that enables organisations to build, deploy, and manage AI agents that access internal systems, share context, and execute inter-departmental workflows.
AIR answers calls, handles tasks such as scheduling appointments, conducts follow-ups through human-like conversations, and routes inquiries. AVA is the company’s new personal AI assistant, currently available to a limited number of customers. AVA picks up where AIR leaves off. AIR acts as a “front door”, executing what it can and handing off inquiries through AVA as necessary. AVA channels those inquiries to employees along with full context, customer insights, and a choice of next-best actions. In doing so, AVA connects voice, video, and messaging data across the RingCentral platform, capturing notes and summarising calls, searching across conversations, automating follow-up tasks and the like.
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The infusion of OpenAI Frontier models into AIR and AVA marks a meaningful step for RingCentral in the contact centre space. In the last few years, contact centres have profoundly transformed, steadily yielding to the broader concept of ‘customer experience’. Contact centres are converting from featuring live agents to also including AI agents, from reactive to proactive, from transaction-oriented to relationship-oriented, and from generic to deeply personalised. RingCentral and its rivals continue to implement capabilities to help their customers make the transition.
The RingCentral announcement reflects an additional way contact centres are transforming. The AI agents that have become a fixture of contact centres are assuming increased responsibility for resolving customer issues. They are pivoting from a tool that can only answer basic questions to one that can also execute tasks as well as engage subject matter experts outside the contact centre when needed.
The announcement suffers from some blemishes despite the positives. While the new capabilities are beneficial and in alignment with contact centre trends, they are already collectively reflected by rivals such as Cisco, Zoom, and Mitel. In addition, not specifying a general availability date for AVA equates to a missed opportunity to build some market anticipation. Lastly, omitting pricing details only generates confusion. If RingCentral can deliver functionality faster and provide adequate supporting detail, it will go a long way towards making introductions more impactful.
Though it should be noted that RingCentral and competitors are opening a Pandora’s box of sorts. While deploying AI agents that are more flexible than their ancestors can close out customer issues more efficiently and effectively, it also raises the possibility of these agents wreaking havoc; for example, booking a customer on the wrong flight or cancelling an order instead of rescheduling the delivery date. Vendors need to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.
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