RingCentral Announces New CEO and Sees Stock Plunge, Records ‘Another Solid Quarter’ with Latest Earnings, and Launches AI-Powered CCaaS RingCX and RingSense for Phone

It’s been quite the week for RingCentral.

The company unveiled a new CEO in Tarek Robbiati as visionary leader Vlad Shmunis announced he was standing down after almost 25 years at the helm — a decision that saw RingCentral’s stock plunge 18.6 percent on Tuesday.

Shmunis will transition to the role of Executive Chairman with a remit of driving RingCentral’s strategic product vision and innovation.

Shmunis said:

When I founded RingCentral two decades ago, we were a tiny, unfunded startup with an ambitious mission to improve how businesses around the world communicate internally and with their customers. From those humble beginnings, we have become a recognized leader in our space and one of the largest pure-play SaaS companies in the world.”

Robbiati has been a member of the RingCentral Board of Directors since last December and was formerly Chief Financial Officer and EVP of Finance and Strategy at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Robbiati will be CEO effective August 28, 2023.

Robbiati’s CV illustrates almost three decades as a respected strategic and financial operator, renowned for his leadership roles within the telecom, media, technology and financial services industries.

In other RingCentral news, the company surpassed its guidance for the quarter, with total revenue increasing 11 percent year over year to $539 million.

In its earnings call for Q2 2023, RingCentral stressed that its focus on profitability is reaping the rewards sooner than estimated. Not only had revenues exceeded guidance, but operating margins had, too, with a non-GAAP operating margin of 19.4 percent — up 800 basis points year over year and a quarterly record for RingCentral.

RingCentral also launched two new solutions; the native, AI-powered contact centre solution, RingCX, and RingSense for Phone.

RingCX is an easy-to-deploy offering that combines RingCentral’s central UC services — including message, video, phone, SMS, and fax — with contact centre boosted by a generative AI feature set. The end product is a next-gen, AI-powered solution that provides a complete, native omnichannel experience and enhances customer journeys.

RingSense for Phone leverages AI to empower businesses to transform their voice conversation data into usable insights that can improve productivity and business outcomes.

Verizon is Shutting Down BlueJeans

Verizon is shutting down its BlueJeans video conferencing service.

In an email sent to BlueJeans’ service members — and published by 9to5Google — on Tuesday, August 8, Verizon confirmed that BlueJeans’ suite of products is being “sunset” due to an evolving and volatile market situation.

The first phase of the sunsetting is that BlueJeans Basic and free trial offerings will be discontinued as of August 31, 2023, and customers’ access to the services will be stopped. Customers can still access those services until August 31.

“Thank you for being a valued user of BlueJeans by Verizon services,” the email wrote. “We want to share that we have made the difficult decision to sunset our suite of BlueJeans products. BlueJeans is an award-winning product that connects our customers around the world, but we have made this decision due to the changing market landscape.”

BlueJeans’ enterprise customers aren’t mentioned as being restricted by the August 31 deadline, so it can be assumed they will be provided with a more extended transition period to prepare for the end of BlueJeans’ services.

Zoom Comes Under Flack for New TOS Allegedly Enabling AI Training on User Content, Opens New London Hub, Mandates Partial Return to Office

Zoom’s new Terms of Service (TOS) has prompted controversy this week, with critics alleging that an updated section enables the training of AI on user content without users being able to opt out.

The section of Zoom’s TOS that has stirred controversy has been its mention of leveraging data for AI and machine learning, including “for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models”, which critics have interpreted as the TOS allowing Zoom to train its AI through user content without offering an opt-out.

Zoom has railed back at what it is saying is misinformation, with CEO CEO Eric S. Yuan posting on LinkedIn that “given Zoom’s value of care and transparency”, the company would “absolutely never train AI models with customers’ content without getting their explicit consent”.

Let me be crystal clear. For AI, we do NOT use audio, video, screen share, or chat content for training our AI models without customer explicit consent.”

Zoom later amended Section 10.4 of the new TOS with a version of that declaration, adding: “For AI, we do not use audio, video, or chat content for training our models without customer consent.”

In other Zoom news, the company opened a new London Engagement Hub this week, comprising an innovative space integrated with Zoom technology.

The new space is designed to transition from traditional offices to experience and collaboration-focused working hubs to support the demand for remote and hybrid working practices. The space caters to unorthodox and individualised work experiences that have evolved as hybrid working has become the new normal for most businesses.

“The world of modern work has changed,” noted Phil Perry, Head of UK & Ireland at Zoom. “Both employers and employees have experienced the benefits of a more flexible approach to work and want to use technologies like Zoom to maintain them. The organisations that best adapt to these changes and optimise the benefits of technology and flexible working while maximising the times that teams spend face to face will be those that succeed commercially in the race for the best talent.”

Zoom also announced it was introducing a partial return-to-office mandate, asking staff to come into the office two days a week. The policy applies to staff who live “within a commutable distance” of the office, which Zoom specifies as within 50 miles.

Slack Launches Redesign to Enhance User Productivity

Slack has launched its new redesign, with a renovated UI and enhanced user experience to boost productivity.

Slack stressed that the new design will allow users to navigate channels and chats to work faster and more efficiently, focus on tasks better without distractions, and leverage new tools to streamline the workday.

Noah Weiss, Chief Product Officer at Slack, said:

We know millions of people start and end their workday in Slack, so we took great care to ensure these improvements make it a more productive and pleasant home. The new experience helps teams stay better organised, focus on what’s important and quickly access a growing set of tools in Slack.”

Slack’s new user experience began rolling out to teams this week and will be available to all existing users over the coming months.

Microsoft Finishes Cortana in Windows to Focus on Copilot

Microsoft has finished Windows support for its digital assistant Cortana to refocus on its next-gen AI systems, including Copilot.

The move illustrates Microsoft’s ambition to integrate more powerful AI-powered productivity tools across its suites, with Cortana as an early draft towards the GPT-4 future. These tools include the marquee AI solution for Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, Copilot, and the newly AI-driven Bing Chat and voice access in Windows 11.

“Starting in August 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app,” a Microsoft statement wrote. “However, you can still access powerful productivity features in Windows and Edge, which have increased AI capabilities. This means you can still get help with your tasks, calendar, and email, but in new and exciting ways.”

Although expected to be discontinued on all Windows 11 devices soon, Cortana will still be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Teams display, and Teams Rooms.



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