RingCentral has just plugged a major gap in its contact center offering. The business communications giant announced the acquisition of CommunityWFM, an AI-first, cloud-based workforce management (WFM) software provider. The deal folds CommunityWFM’s scheduling, forecasting, and agent optimization tools into RingCentral’s AI-driven contact center platform, RingCX.
The result? A single-vendor system designed to handle not just customer interactions, but also the behind-the-scenes puzzle of keeping agents scheduled, engaged, and productive.
“Sheila McGee-Smith, president of McGee-Smith Analytics, sums up the importance neatly: ‘Especially for SMBs, having these two CX solutions as part of a single cloud-based contact center is the best way for businesses to take advantage of all the AI-based productivity and personalization innovations available today.’
Why this matters
Workforce management tools aren’t new. For decades, they’ve run alongside call centers as separate but necessary software. But AI has shifted the equation. Smarter forecasting, dynamic scheduling, and automated shift swaps mean fewer staffing headaches and a direct impact on the customer experience.
According to Metrigy Research, 34% of organizations say workforce management contributes most to customer satisfaction among workforce engagement tools, while 46% credit WFM with boosting revenue. That’s not just a backend efficiency play—it’s money on the table.
What RingCentral gains
CommunityWFM adds some serious firepower to RingCX:
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AI-powered forecasting & scheduling: Less guesswork, more precision.
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Automated schedule adjustments: Intraday tweaks to handle call spikes or slowdowns.
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Real-time adherence monitoring: Making sure agents stick to schedules.
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Agent self-service: A portal and mobile app for swapping shifts or requesting time off.
This directly addresses one of the thorniest problems in customer support—balancing agent satisfaction with operational efficiency. As RingCentral President & COO Kira Makagon puts it: “Great customer experiences start with empowered agents, and that demands intelligent workforce management.”
Context in the market
The move puts RingCentral on firmer footing against rivals like NICE, Genesys, and Five9, which have already been embedding AI-powered WFM into their platforms. In today’s hybrid work environment, where agents expect flexibility and managers need real-time visibility, integrated workforce management is quickly becoming table stakes.
Daryl Gonos, CEO of CommunityWFM, noted that the platform is already battle-tested inside RingCentral’s own support operations: “By leveraging AI-driven forecasting to deliver more accurate workforce predictions with significantly less manual analysis, we’re creating an intelligent, unified experience that not only simplifies today’s workforce operations, but also anticipates the future needs of hybrid work environments and evolving customer demands.”
Pricing and availability
RingCentral is launching the combined product as RingCentral AI Workforce Management (WFM), available as an add-on to RingCX. Pricing starts at $20 per agent, per month.
For businesses already investing in AI-driven CX tools, this gives RingCentral a more complete, one-stop solution. And for smaller companies, it lowers the barrier to entry for sophisticated WFM features that used to require stitching together multiple vendors.
RingCentral’s bet is clear: the future of customer experience depends not just on what customers hear on the line, but on how seamlessly the agents behind it are supported. With AI-driven WFM now built into RingCX, RingCentral is positioning itself as the vendor that can handle both sides of that equation.
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Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. Public relations, investor relations, public policy and marketing professionals rely on Business Wire for secure and accurate distribution of market-moving news and multimedia. Founded in 1961, Business Wire is a trusted source for news organizations, journalists, investment professionals and regulatory authorities, delivering news directly into editorial systems and leading online news sources via its multi-patented NX network. Business Wire’s global newsrooms are available to meet the needs of communications professionals and news media worldwide.
