RingCentral used its latest earnings call to make the point that enterprises are prepared to invest in AI tools when they produce measurable business outcomes and work effectively alongside human agents.
The company raised its revenue outlook for 2026 based on customer adoption of its AI products, and executives spent much of the call outlining how AI is reshaping customer engagement, contact centers and communications workflows across its platform.
Vlad Shmunis, RingCentral’s Chief Executive Officer, positioned the company’s strategy around a “hybrid” AI model, where automation and human agents operate together rather than independently.
“While agentic AI is very powerful and will be transformational to how businesses interact with consumers, our core belief is that it won’t replace all humans. AI can and will do a lot, and it will make remaining humans in the loop more effective.”
Shmunis argued that RingCentral’s “secret sauce” comes from orchestrating AI and human interactions across voice, messaging and video on a single platform. “RingCentral’s differentiated approach is to make both AI agents and human agents smarter by working together seamlessly, resulting in better customer outcomes and greater cost efficiencies.”
The company is embedding agentic voice AI across its communications and contact center portfolio know as RingCentral RCAI, including AI Virtual Assistant (AVA), AI Conversation Expert (ACE), and AI Receptionist (AIR).
Why RingCentral Believes Enterprises Will Pay for AI
RingCentral’s executives pushed back against concerns that AI services will become commoditized or structurally dilutive to profit margins.
“Customers are willing to pay for AI if it’s good AI,” Shmunis said. “There are lots and lots of really smart engineers, and one of their tasks is to optimize AI. In human speak, use the right model for the right job. It’s all just a tool set.”
“[W]e don’t think that AI is going to commoditize or become free or virtually free."
The company has so far maintained roughly similar gross margins across its AI portfolio while benefiting from stronger customer “stickiness” and higher average revenue per user. “We’re hoping and also working hard that that’s going to continue,” Shmunis added.
The company also indicated that customers appear to favor predictable pricing models over purely outcome-based AI pricing structures.
“What we find with our customers is that’s a business model that resonates,” Shmunis said.
RingCentral runs a subscription-based pricing model for its AIR offerings tied to usage allocations such as minutes consumed, which Shmunis said provides transparency for customers and providers.
“We’re seeing more of a hybrid combination model… people initially got all excited about, well, it’s all going to be outcomes based… If anything, people are pricing usage,” Shmunis said.
“What we find with our customers is that’s a business model that resonates, is good for smaller customers because, it gives them predictability. It also works for larger customers because they really have enough analytics to know exactly what they’re using.”
“You can price per seat, per minute, per enterprise. Like, everybody knows what they’re consuming. We know our costs. They understand their spend.”
RingCentral Says AI Customers Spend More and Stay Longer
Executives repeatedly connected AI adoption to customer retention and expansion metrics. Customers using at least one paid AI product now represent more than 10 percent of RingCentral’s customer base, more than doubling year over year, Shmunis said.