In brief: Zoom Phone’s latest update brings AI-generated call summaries, live note-taking, and post-call coaching to every conversation. Resellers can use these features to justify UCaaS upgrades over legacy PBX.
Zoom Phone continues to evolve beyond its origins as a cloud PBX platform, adding AI-driven productivity features that reduce the administrative overhead of business calling. Here’s what’s new — and what it means for resellers positioning the platform to customers.
AI Companion: Automatic Task Creation from Calls and Voicemails
One of the more practically useful additions to Zoom Phone is the integration of AI Companion for automatic task creation. After a call or when a voicemail is received, Zoom’s AI can automatically identify action items from the conversation and create tasks — reducing the chance that a follow-up falls through the cracks.
For customer-facing teams, this addresses one of the most common productivity gaps in business telephony: the gap between a call ending and the follow-up action actually being captured and actioned. A sales rep wraps up a call with a prospect, the AI creates the follow-up task in the background — no manual note-taking required during the call, no missed commitments.
In South Africa’s services-heavy economy, where many businesses rely on phone as a primary customer interaction channel, this kind of embedded AI productivity has real appeal — particularly for SME customers who can’t afford dedicated CRM administrators.
SMS Delegation: Send and Receive on Behalf of Another Number
Zoom Phone now supports SMS Delegation, allowing users to send and receive SMS messages on behalf of another user’s Zoom Phone number. This mirrors the kind of delegation model that already exists for calls in many PBX environments — where a PA or support agent manages communication on behalf of an executive or a specific business number.
The practical use cases are clear: executive assistants managing SMS communications for a senior manager, shared departmental numbers handled by rotating team members, or support teams handling customer SMS queues under a single business number. It’s a feature that brings Zoom Phone’s messaging capability closer to the functionality of a proper unified communications platform rather than a standalone VoIP system.
Avaya Integration Field Guide: A Migration Pathway Worth Highlighting
In early March, Zoom released a formal Avaya Phone System Integration Field Guide — detailed documentation for integrating Zoom Phone with existing Avaya environments, or migrating customers from Avaya to Zoom Phone.
The significance here is less about the technical document itself and more about what it signals: Zoom is actively investing in making it easier to displace or complement Avaya infrastructure with Zoom Phone. Given the substantial installed base of Avaya systems in South African enterprise — much of it aging and increasingly expensive to maintain — this is a relevant conversation for resellers who have customers on legacy Avaya platforms.
If you have accounts running older Avaya IP Office, Avaya Aura, or related systems, the Avaya Field Guide gives you a structured, vendor-backed framework for having that migration conversation. The customer’s existing Avaya infrastructure doesn’t have to be ripped out on day one — Zoom Phone can be integrated alongside it during a phased transition.
Where Zoom Phone Sits in the Market
Zoom Phone’s positioning continues to be strongest in environments where businesses are already heavily invested in the Zoom Meetings platform and want to consolidate onto a single vendor for video, calls, and messaging. The addition of AI features reinforces this: customers who’ve seen the value of Zoom AI in meetings are a natural audience for the same AI capabilities extended to their phone system.
For resellers, the key target profile for Zoom Phone is the mid-market customer who is Zoom-first in their collaboration stack, has staff working across multiple locations or remotely, and is sitting on a legacy PBX that’s due for refresh.
Stay Updated
Zoom Phone continues to release regular feature updates. Check the Zoom support portal for the latest release notes, and work with your Zoom distribution partner for current reseller pricing and partner programme information.
Source: Zoom Phone Release Notes
Published: 10 March 2026 | Category: Zoom Phone | Audience: Telecoms Resellers, South Africa
About Zoom Phone on Telecoms-Channel
For the full Zoom Phone portfolio, company background, and South African reseller resources, visit the Zoom Phone vendor page on Telecoms-Channel.
About the Author
Mechelle Gindra
Mechelle Gindra is the managing editor and lead content strategist at Telecoms-Channel, South Africa's dedicated intelligence platform for telecoms resellers, ICT distributors, and channel partners. She oversees the editorial team's AI-assisted content production pipeline, ensuring vendor news, market analysis, and regulatory updates are accurate, timely, and actionable for the SA telecoms channel community. With deep expertise in the South African telecoms reseller ecosystem, Mechelle directs coverage of vendor partner programmes, ICASA regulatory developments, wholesale market dynamics, and channel business strategy. She is responsible for maintaining Telecoms-Channel's editorial standards, fact-checking processes, and corrections policy.
