Welcome to our two-part series on the AI revolution in business communications.
In Part 1, we explore why Agentic AI represents the next great shift in business communications. You’ll see how it moves beyond chatbots, transforms customer service, streamlines operations, and redefines sales engagement.
In Part 2, we’ll go deeper — unpacking the technologies that make Agentic AI possible, addressing security and implementation concerns, and laying out a practical roadmap so organizations can adopt it on their terms.
Remember when having a chatbot on your website felt cutting-edge? Those days are quickly becoming a distant memory. We’re entering a new era of artificial intelligence that doesn’t just respond to questions — it thinks ahead, makes decisions, and takes action on your behalf. Welcome to the world of Agentic AI.
What Makes Agentic AI Different?
Traditional AI is like having a very smart intern who waits for instructions. Ask it a question, get an answer. Give it a task, watch it complete that specific task. Agentic AI, on the other hand, is more like hiring a seasoned professional who understands your goals and figures out how to achieve them.
Your old chatbot might tell a frustrated customer to “please contact our billing department.” An agentic AI system can automatically pull up the customer’s account, identify the billing issue, coordinate with the billing team to resolve it, schedule a follow-up call, and send the customer a detailed explanation, all without human intervention.
The key is in the name: these systems have agency. They can plan multi-step processes, maintain context over time, use tools and integrations to gather information, and make decisions within defined parameters. It’s the closest thing we have to a digital employee who never sleeps, never forgets, and never has a bad day.
But agency needs a conduit. Intelligence alone doesn’t deliver value unless it reaches people in the flow of work and conversation. That’s where a modern communications foundation like Mitel comes in — ensuring the thinking of AI turns into doing that matters to customers and employees.
Why Business Communications Needs This Revolution
The typical business communication landscape is riddled with friction. The average knowledge worker receives 121 emails daily and spends 23 hours per week in meetings. A Harvard Business Review study found that digital workers toggle between apps and websites nearly 1,200 times per day, amounting to almost 4 hours per week spent reorienting after app switching, which works out to about 9% of annual work time lost. Critical communications sit in inboxes for hours (or days) while people struggle to prioritize what actually matters.
Meanwhile, customers are getting increasingly impatient. They expect instant responses, personalized service, and proactive support. The gap between expectations and reality is widening every day.
This is where Agentic AI is truly transformative.
Real-World Applications That Actually Matter
Agentic AI is already reshaping how organizations serve customers, run operations, and drive revenue. The impact is particularly notable in workflows where inefficiency and friction have long been accepted as simply the cost of doing business. By connecting systems and anticipating needs, Agentic AI reduces wasted effort and drives measurable performance improvements.
Customer Service That Thinks Ahead
Imagine a customer emailing about a recurring billing problem. Instead of generating a generic “we’ll look into it” response, an agentic AI system immediately:
- Reviews the customer’s complete billing history
- Identifies the root cause of the recurring issue
- Checks with the billing system to understand the technical problem
- Coordinates with the appropriate team to implement a permanent fix
- Provides the customer with a detailed explanation and timeline
- Sets up monitoring to prevent the issue from recurring
- Follows up to ensure satisfaction
This is the practical result of AI systems built to handle real work: a coordinated set of actions that together represent an impressive body of service.
Mitel makes these orchestrated actions tangible by ensuring the AI connects directly into the channels customers actually use — voice, chat, and messaging — so resolution is delivered in the moment of need.
Internal Operations That Run Themselves
Project management becomes radically different when your AI can autonomously:
- Analyze everyone’s calendars to find optimal meeting times
- Prepare agenda items by reviewing previous meeting notes and outstanding action items
- Research background information on discussion topics
- Coordinate with team members to gather necessary materials
- Send pre-meeting briefings with relevant context
- Follow up with action items and track progress
The result: More productive meetings, and project managers who can focus on strategy instead of scheduling.
Here too, Mitel ensures continuity by connecting AI-driven workflows with the enterprise collaboration tools employees rely on daily, so actions and updates are consistent across meetings, messaging, and voice.
Sales That Nurtures Itself
For sales teams, Agentic AI transforms lead management by automatically researching prospects, personalizing outreach sequences, scheduling demos, and identifying expansion opportunities — all while predicting churn risk and implementing retention strategies without human oversight.
Mitel provides the connective tissue that enables sales teams and AI agents to engage prospects consistently across channels, whether that starts with a phone call, a video meeting, or a chat thread.
The possibilities are compelling — but what makes them possible? Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, we’ll look under the hood at the technologies powering Agentic AI and what it takes to implement them responsibly.
Ready to explore how Agentic AI can transform your business communications? Contact your Mitel representative to learn about our solution portfolio and implementation strategies tailored to your organization.
Solutions like Mitel Workflow Studio and Mitel CX give you practical, tailored pathways to adoption.
Workflow Studio is Mitel’s low-code/no-code platform that empowers users to build AI-powered workflows with minimal technical overhead. It exemplifies agentic AI by enabling autonomous agents to interact with enterprise systems, make decisions, and execute tasks across channels like voice, chat, and webhooks. By integrating Workflow Studio with your existing systems, you can create custom workflows that automate routine tasks, reduce manual effort, and improve overall efficiency.
