Business phone systems have long had a bit of an image problem. They’re essential but often relatively uninspiring, and you’d be forgiven for letting your organisation’s phone system sit in the background, facilitating calls while real innovation happens elsewhere.
However, things are rapidly changing. AI is positively disrupting pretty much every aspect of modern working life, and phone systems are certainly included in this transformation. Now, we’re seeing the latest business phone systems continue to connect calls, but also uncover insights, improve performance and eliminate countless hours of manual admin. In fact, we’d go as far as saying that the boring old business phone system is fast becoming one of the most intelligent tools in the workplace.
One of the best examples of this shift is 8×8, already one of the most feature-rich cloud platforms available. 8×8 is investing heavily in AI-powered capabilities that can help you get more from every conversation, with its latest Conversation IQ feature bringing AI-powered speech analytics and quality management tools directly into the phone system itself.
Here are the six standout 8×8 AI features that can help your business turn everyday calls into actionable insights and demonstrate just why perceptions of business phone systems are changing.
1. Automatic Call Summaries
If you’ve ever sat and replayed every second of a 30-minute call just to remember what was agreed or clear up confusion, this 8×8 AI feature will be particularly appealing.
With Conversation IQ, 8×8 can now generate AI-powered call summaries for every recorded interaction, giving users an instant overview of what was discussed and agreed upon. Instead of trawling through recordings or relying on handwritten notes, you and your teams can quickly understand exactly what happened during a conversation. This not only makes it easier to review interactions and follow up on what was necessary, but also to pick up and follow on from past interactions without spending hours revising past actions.
2. Call Transcription
Of course, there are still instances when it’s important to have a full copy of a call, whether that’s to find evidence of a customer request or understand exactly how a successful sales call unfolded.
With its new AI features, 8×8 can now automatically convert every conversation into searchable text, in essence creating a detailed record of internal and external interactions that can be reviewed at any time. As the transcripts are searchable, it takes just seconds to pull out the answers you need. These transcripts also give your teams a reliable source of truth, ensuring important information isn’t lost between chats or buried in someone’s notebook.
3. Action Items & Next Steps
We’ve all finished a call thinking, “That was great, but what exactly did we agree to do?” 8×8 AI features remove that uncertainty by automatically identifying action items and next steps from each and every conversation.
Rather than relying on you to manually capture follow-up tasks, the business phone system instantly captures responsibilities and agreed actions as part of its AI-powered speech analysis. The result is fewer missed opportunities and faster follow-ups across your teams, with less time spent chasing and more time to progress opportunities or crack on with actions post-call.
4. Sentiment & Tone Analysis
Sometimes what a caller says only tells half the story; it’s how it’s said that’s the most useful insight. However, these nuances can be pretty difficult to identify, particularly if you’re moving from call to call quickly.
8×8 AI features can add significant value here. Conversation IQ uses sentiment and tone analysis to provide additional context around each interaction, an overview of whether the conversation was positive or negative, and from which side these sentiments were displayed. Managers can quickly identify examples of exceptional calls and also spot recurring frustrations that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.
5. Keyword & Phrase Tracking
When you’re handling hundreds or even thousands of conversations each and every month, reviewing calls, let alone spotting patterns within them, is pretty much impossible.
8×8’s new AI features offer a solution to this by allowing you to track specific keywords and phrases across every recorded interaction. You could monitor competitor mentions, stay on top of customer complaints, and even ensure that mandatory compliance language is used correctly, as Conversation IQ can surface these insights automatically.
6. Coaching Tools
Many of the 8×8 AI features on this list make training and coaching easier, whether that’s by being able to identify recurring issues faster through sentiment analysis or quickly referring back to call records through searchable transcripts. However, Conversation IQ actually takes 8×8’s coaching capabilities one step further by providing managers with access to built-in evaluation templates and scoring tools.
Rather than having to manually extract data and put together reports, 8×8 will generate them for you. This means that it’s incredibly easy to provide concise and meaningful feedback, pointing directly to specific moments within conversations and explaining what worked well and what could be handled differently.
Transform Your Phone System With Agile Comms
If the 8×8 AI features are anything to go by, we’re well past the days of business phone systems just handling calls. With the 8×8 phone system, every call now has the potential to generate insights and help your teams perform at a higher level. Whether it’s through automatic summaries or sentiment analysis, AI is turning what was once a simple phone call into valuable business intelligence that can help you work smarter without extra admin.
This is only the beginning, too. AI is evolving rapidly, and platforms like 8×8 are continuing to experiment with it. We’re seeing businesses of all sizes get access to better features every single day and, in turn, get more value from the interactions they’re having.
If this sounds like a shift you’d like your organisation to be part of, we can help. At Agile Comms, we help businesses find, introduce and support cloud phone systems on flexible terms and are particularly experienced in implementing 8×8 across forward-thinking teams. Whether you’re looking for a smarter way to manage your business communications or specifically want to explore Conversation IQ in more detail, we can help.
Get in touch today to learn more about the 8×8 AI features and get a demo for your business.
