General Availability of Teams Phone extensibility

We are proud to announce the general availability of Teams Phone extensibility (TPE) powered by Azure Communication Services. This enables Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) vendors to integrate seamlessly with Teams Phone, offering benefits such as consolidated telephony for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), conversational AI integration, extended UCaaS capabilities, agent notification handling, cost efficiency and broader geographic availability.  Additional advantages include seamless provisioning, advanced call routing and mid-call controls, convenience recording, efficient call control and management via Azure Communication Services Call Automation.

Organizations today face a divide between UCaaS platforms like Microsoft Teams and CCaaS systems. This separation makes it difficult to unlock the full potential of generative AI, such as real-time agent assistance, automated workflows, or customer insights consolidation. TPE addresses this challenge by unifying telephony infrastructure across UCaaS and CCaaS. With TPE, businesses gain integrated, customizable solutions that provide a complete view of customer interactions and enable robust data handling for improved customer and agent experiences.

Teams Phone extensibility Benefits 

Teams Phone extensibility powered by Azure Communication Services Call Automation enables CCaaS vendors to seamlessly integrate with Teams Phone, offering several benefits:

• Consolidate Telephony for UCaaS and CCaaS: Simplified setup with no need to configure and administer separate phone systems. Organizations can leverage their existing Teams Phone investment for contact center deployments.
• Conversational AI Integration: Developers can use Call Automation APIs to use AI-powered tools, play personalized greeting messages, and recognize conversational voice inputs.
• Extend UCaaS Capabilities to CCaaS: Take advantage of Teams Phone enterprise features, including emergency calling and dial plan policies.
• Agent Notification Handling: Enable data segregation between CCaaS and UCaaS roles with the choice of ringing either the Teams standard client or a CCaaS application.
• Cost Efficiency: Enable ISVs to build cost-effective solutions using existing Teams Phone plans, without adding Azure Communication Services numbers or Direct Routing.

• Broader Geographic Availability: Integration with Teams Calling Plans, Direct Routing, and Operator Connect provides wider telephony options.

Key Features 

• Conversational AI Integration: Developers can use Call Automation APIs to leverage AI-powered tools, play personalized greeting messages, and recognize conversational voice inputs. Get started today with this Call Automation OpenAI sample.
• Provisioning for Seamless Integration: Empower CCaaS providers to connect their ACS deployments with customers' Teams tenants, enabling the use of Teams telephony features for a cohesive and efficient communication experience.
• Call Routing and Mid-Call Controls: Advanced call routing capabilities for efficient call management and escalation to agents. Mid-call controls enable adding participants and transferring calls seamlessly.
• Convenience Recording: Integrate call recording capabilities into Microsoft Teams for CCaaS scenarios, enabling customized recording processes controlled by CCaaS admins. For more information, see Call Recording overview.
• On-Behalf-Of (OBO) Calling: Enable applications to initiate and manage voice calls on behalf of a Teams Phone service number, enabling seamless integration with enterprise workflows
• Leverage Call Automation: Azure Communication Services Call Automation APIs provide call control and enable CCaaS providers to build server-based and intelligent call flows for IVRs.
• Leverage Client SDK: Azure Communication Services Client SDK enables a CCaaS provider to develop a custom client for CCaaS  persona workflows.
• Emergency Calling: With Azure Communication Services Calling SDK, we bring enhanced emergency calling support for agents who can dial emergency services, provide their static location, and receive callbacks from public safety answering points.
• Billing: The TPE business model charges vendors for consumption when they build solutions with Azure Communication Services SDKs and services. Teams users and service numbers leverage Teams calling plans and Teams Phone licenses as described here. More details on Azure Communication Services pricing can be found here.
• Telemetry: Developers and Contact Center as a Service can access calling details and logging tools as part of the Teams Phone extensibility. Telemetry allows developers and system admins to monitor call use and debug call quality from the Azure portal. They can do this by analyzing the Call Summary and Call Diagnostic Logs with a clear Team Phone Extensibility identifier or using the Call Diagnostic Center.

Public Preview of New AI Insights Features

• Automated Meeting Summaries: Leverage the built-in AI-powered summarization feature - an automated tool that listens to calls and meetings, extracts key decisions and action items in real time, and compiles them into concise, actionable recaps. This automation streamlines follow-up, saves valuable time otherwise spent on manual notetaking, and ensures all stakeholders have immediate access to clear and consistent records. This enhances accountability and improves communication across teams. 
• Sentiment analysis also tracks emotional tone, allowing contact center supervisors to monitor interactions and intervene when necessary, helping support both customers and agents in sensitive situations.
• PII Redaction for Compliance: Integrate the PII Redaction action to identify and mask personally identifiable information from calls and communications in real time. This ensures that sensitive details—such as names, addresses, or identification numbers—are never stored in backend systems or logs, supporting compliance with privacy regulations and reinforcing trust with end-users.
• Language Detection: Use AI-driven real-time language identification to detect spoken languages automatically, eliminating the need for users to select their language before talking to enable smooth, natural conversations.

Conversational AI capabilities - meeting summary, sentiment analysis, language detection and PII redaction can be found here.

Get started today

We look forward to supporting partners and customers like you to leverage these new capabilities. In addition to Dynamics 365 Contact Center, ISV solutions that have been certified for TPe are: AudioCodes, CentrePal, ComputerTalk, Heedify, and Landis.

Together, we can build and improve your contact center solutions using consolidated telephony for UCaaS and CCaaS, conversational AI integration and global availability!

• Concept: https://aka.ms/TPe-Overview
• FAQ: https://aka.ms/TPe-FAQ
• Tutorials: https://aka.ms/TPe-Tutorials
• Support: https://aka.ms/TPe-Support