Cisco vs RingCentral

Small Language Models: When Smaller Is Better

This MLPills newsletter issue explains small language models (SLMs) — compact AI models designed to run under resource constraints such as limited memory, power, and latency budgets. It clarifies that 'small' is a comparative concept rather than a specific parameter count, and distinguishes SLMs from quantized frontier models and distillation. The article covers four main routes to building SLMs: curated data training, distillation, pruning, and quantization, and highlights examples including Microsoft's Phi-4 family, Google's Gemma 3n and Gemma 4 edge models, Hugging Face's SmolLM3, and Cisco's Antares vulnerability-localization models. It describes ideal use cases like classification, entity extraction, and tool selection, and recommends a layered architecture using deterministic code, small models, large models, and human oversight. The piece also cautions about evaluation, over-pruning, and privacy limitations of local inference.

• A 4B parameter model at 4-bit precision needs roughly 2 GB of memory; the same model at 16-bit needs roughly 8 GB.
• Microsoft's Phi-4 is a 14B parameter model, with a 3.8B Phi-4-Mini sibling and a Phi-4-Multimodal variant.
• Google's Gemma 3n models used per-layer embeddings, KV cache sharing, and activation quantization to reduce memory footprints.

RingCentral Announces Plugin for ChatGPT and MCP Connectors for Claude

RingCentral announced a new plugin for ChatGPT and MCP connectors for Claude, enabling businesses to turn conversations into actions. This is a significant product integration with major AI platforms.

Aragon Research Defines $251B Intelligent Communications Experience Market

Aragon Research has introduced the Intelligent Communications Experience (ICX), a new enterprise technology category unifying unified communications, contact centers, and agentic AI into a single architecture. This convergence eliminates silos and integrates AI agents as first-class citizens alongside human employees, fostering a blended workforce for enhanced productivity. The ICX market is projected to grow from $152.13 billion in 2025 to $251.83 billion by 2031. Industry leaders including Intermedia, Mitel, RingCentral, and Vonage have validated the framework, aligning their product strategies with its core layers: core capabilities, ICX Engine, AI Fabric, and Agentic-Channel. This recognition is expected to drive vendor consolidation and M&A activity as providers build comprehensive platforms. Aragon Research provides the full research note to clients.

• Aragon Research defines the Intelligent Communications Experience (ICX) market, projected to grow from $152.13B in 2025 to $251.83B by 2031.
• ICX merges unified communications, contact center platforms, and agentic AI into a single framework supporting a blended human-AI workforce.
• Intermedia, Mitel, RingCentral, and Vonage have publicly validated the ICX model.

RingCentral Named to Business Insider's Most Innovative Businesses 2027

RingCentral, Inc., a leader in AI-powered customer engagement, has been named to Business Insider's America's Most Innovative Businesses 2027 list, produced in partnership with Plant-A Insights Group. The list recognizes publicly traded U.S. companies for strong innovation performance, combining industry reputation, technological impact, and R&D investment. The evaluation reviewed over 4,000 companies, with 500 recognized. RingCentral's inclusion highlights its Agentic Voice AI portfolio and its leadership in AI innovation. The company's President & COO, Kira Makagon, commented on the recognition, emphasizing the transformative potential of Agentic Voice AI in customer engagement.

• RingCentral was named to Business Insider's America's Most Innovative Businesses 2027 list.
• The list was produced in partnership with Plant-A Insights Group.
• Over 4,000 publicly traded U.S. companies were reviewed, with 500 recognized.