Digital Island, RingCentral bring agentic voice AI to NZ

Digital Island and RingCentral have partnered to bring agentic voice AI products to businesses in New Zealand, with Digital Island becoming RingCentral's first partner in the country.

Under the arrangement, Digital Island will design, sell, implement and support RingCentral's unified communications, contact centre and customer engagement products for organisations across the New Zealand market it already serves.

The deal connects a local cloud communications and IT services provider with a US communications software group that has been expanding through regional partnerships. Founded in 2004, Digital Island focuses on business collaboration and customer engagement services for companies across New Zealand.

The partnership gives New Zealand customers access to RingCentral's agentic voice AI offering through a local provider that can manage deployment and support on the ground. The companies are already working with early adopter customers ahead of wider availability later this year.

Local rollout

For Digital Island, the partnership adds an international software vendor to its portfolio as many businesses review their communications systems and customer service operations. It will provide end-to-end services, from initial design to implementation and ongoing support.

Leon Sheehan, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Island, linked the move to broader economic pressures and demand for productivity gains in the local market.

"As RingCentral's first partner in New Zealand, Digital Island is proud to bring Kiwi businesses access to the world-class, AI-powered unified communications and contact centre solutions that modern organisations require. With New Zealand's labour productivity estimated to be around 40% below the top half of OECD economies, businesses are increasingly looking to technology and AI to drive efficiency and growth. We are committed to helping businesses transform both customer and employee experiences with our New Zealand-based team of experts. Whether organisations are taking their first steps into cloud and AI adoption or accelerating business-wide transformation, Digital Island is here to help them realise the full potential of these technologies," said Leon Sheehan, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Island.

The reference to labour productivity reflects a key argument vendors and service providers are making as they pitch AI-led communications tools to employers. In New Zealand, as in other markets, companies have been under pressure to contain costs while improving response times and service quality.

AI focus

RingCentral positioned the agreement around customer interaction tools that can automate or assist parts of voice-based service and communications work. The company sells business telephony, messaging, video, contact centre and related software.

Homayoun Razavi, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Global Strategic Providers at RingCentral, said the New Zealand market offered scope for wider adoption.

"The opportunity in front of New Zealand businesses right now is bigger than most realise: agentic voice AI can turn every customer interaction into a measurable business outcome," said Homayoun Razavi, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Global Strategic Providers at RingCentral.

"We built our global strategy around partnering with local market leaders who understand what their customers need on the ground, and Digital Island is exactly that partner as our first GSP in New Zealand. Together, we're giving New Zealand businesses a direct path to agentic voice AI, running on a cloud platform built for reliability, data privacy, and enterprise-grade security," said Razavi.

The partnership model reflects a common route to market for overseas software providers entering smaller national markets, where local sales, migration work and support are often critical to winning contracts. In communications technology, that can be especially important for customers replacing older phone systems or moving contact centre operations to cloud-based platforms.

Market backdrop

An external industry analyst also pointed to the importance of local execution in communications upgrades. Frost & Sullivan's comments suggest buyers remain cautious about large-scale change programmes and are placing greater weight on service delivery and cost certainty.

"New Zealand organisations are prioritising operational resilience, predictable spend, and execution quality over unproven disruption," said Krishna Baidya, Head of Connected Work and Customer Contact Research, Asia-Pacific, at Frost & Sullivan.

"Moving off legacy communications takes more than software licences. It takes a local partner who can own strategy, deployment, and ongoing support, end to end. Pairing RingCentral's cloud platform with Digital Island's local service model gives New Zealand businesses a practical, lower-risk path to modernisation," said Baidya.

The agreement comes as competition in cloud communications and AI-assisted customer service continues to intensify across Asia-Pacific. Vendors are seeking local partners that can translate broad software offerings into sector-specific projects, while customers weigh the benefits of automation against integration costs, staff training and the risks of disrupting day-to-day service.

In New Zealand, Digital Island will now handle not only sales for RingCentral but also the deployment and support work that often determines whether a communications overhaul succeeds.