8x8 expands AI tools across business beyond contact centre

8x8 has expanded its artificial intelligence tools beyond the contact centre to teams across the wider business. The update adds conversation intelligence, expert routing, automation and workforce management features to the company's platform.

The new releases are designed to work across customer support, employee communications and application programming interfaces on a single platform, without extra infrastructure or additional vendors. The move comes as many companies continue to use AI in isolated parts of their operations rather than across the wider organisation.

Research from McKinsey cited by 8x8 found that 88% of organisations already use AI in at least one business function, but nearly two-thirds have yet to start scaling it across the enterprise. That gap has created an opening for software suppliers that say they can connect separate communications, customer service and workflow systems.

At the centre of the announcement is 8x8 Pulse, a product that captures data from calls, meetings, emails and support interactions and stores it as a shared record for broader organisational use. Its aim is to stop information from remaining within individual teams once an interaction has ended.

Another part of the release is 8x8 AI Routing, which directs customers to the most suitable available expert across the organisation rather than limiting assignments to contact centre agents. The tool uses interaction data such as transcripts, sentiment and historical patterns to build and recommend skill settings.

8x8 also updated 8x8 AI Studio, which now supports multiple AI models, voice-based agent building and one-click connectors to 11 third-party business tools. The company says teams can deploy AI agents in minutes and extend functions through a new self-service app store.

The rollout also includes 8x8 Resolve, a critical communications product aimed at frontline workers. It brings incident and emergency alerting into the same communications channel used for everyday work, reducing reliance on separate tools for urgent alerts.

In workforce management, 8x8 has added forecasting and scheduling improvements for contact centre customers at no extra cost. Those changes sit alongside a native integration with Synthflow, which extends AI voice features for shared customers within the existing platform.

Hunter Middleton, Chief Product Officer at 8x8, said the latest additions are intended to fit around systems customers already use rather than force them onto a separate stack.

"We're not asking organizations to adopt a new platform or a new vendor," said Hunter Middleton, Chief Product Officer at 8x8. "8x8 Pulse captures intelligence from conversations already happening. 8x8 AI Studio builds on phone systems already in place. 8x8 AI Routing connects customers to experts already inside the organization. This is AI that meets businesses where they are, and makes everything they already do smarter."

Broader push

The expansion reflects a wider shift in the communications software market, where providers are trying to embed AI into existing products for customer service, internal collaboration and operational planning. For vendors such as 8x8, the challenge is not only to offer new AI functions but also to show that those tools can be adopted across departments without adding complexity or further fragmenting data.

8x8's argument rests on its existing platform structure, which combines contact centre software, unified communications and communications APIs. By presenting the new tools as extensions of that base, the company is seeking to address customer concerns that AI projects can stall after early use cases because systems, teams and suppliers remain disconnected.

It also emphasised governance and data protection around the use of AI on its platform, saying its products are developed and operated under established security standards, relevant compliance frameworks and internal governance policies, including privacy-by-design principles for personal data.

That focus reflects increasing scrutiny from enterprise buyers over how AI tools handle sensitive customer and employee information, especially when conversation analysis, automated routing and generated responses are involved. Suppliers in the sector are under pressure to prove not only that AI can improve workflows, but that it can do so within existing oversight and compliance requirements.

For 8x8, the latest release extends its effort to position communications data as a broader source of operational information across a business, rather than something generated and used only within a support function. The additions are available across the organisation without new infrastructure, new vendors or professional services engagements.