Zoom will let you add an AI receptionist at work, as ‘businesses shouldn’t have to replace their phone system to benefit from AI’ | usagoldmines.com

• Zoom Virtual Agent Receptionist is now available to any business
• As a first port of call, it frees up humans to handle more valuable calls
• Available from $24.99/month, it speaks 10+ languages and works 24/7

Zoom has announced the launch of a dedicated AI receptionist that customers can deploy within their existing business telephone system, meaning that prospective customers will no longer have to commit to migrating to Zoom Phone, as was previously the case.

By helping customers to avoid disruptive infrastructure changes and waste years of investment in other telephone solutions, Zoom could end up with even more paying customers who would otherwise have dismissed the tool due to the migration requirements.

The system is designed to supplement existing human teams by answering incoming calls and directing them to the right support channels.

Zoom’s AI receptionist is now available to all, including non-Zoom Phone customers

“Businesses shouldn’t have to replace their phone system to benefit from AI,” Zoom Phone GM Chris Moss wrote.

The company boasted that its virtual receptionist can speak more than 10 languages, will work around the clock and has built-in transcription to help agents later down the line.

It can automatically handle routine business questions and schedule appointments, but it will also transfer calls to the relevant people or departments wherever necessary. By pairing customers up with an AI agent first to hopefully answer some of the most basic and common questions, it frees up human workers time to handle the more valuable and complex interactions.

The virtual receptionist also promises to plug the gaps when human agents might otherwise be busy handling other calls, or our of hours when customer service would usually be unreachable.

According to the company’s own data, one in two consumers say they’d switch to a competitor after a single bad experience. Around three-quarters (71%) also said they find calling a company more stressful than the issue itself.

Zoom Virtual Agent Receptionist is available now, priced at $29.99 per month for 100 minutes, or $24.99 with an annual commitment.