Observed Signal · Feb 20, 2026 · Earnings Report · Source: CNBC Technology · Impact: 4/5 · Sentiment: Positive
RingCentral and Five9 Surge as AI Fears Fade
RingCentral and Five9 shares jumped after quarterly results and guidance assuaged investor concerns about AI displacing SaaS business models. RingCentral rose about 34% after topping estimates and reporting that annual recurring revenue from customers using its AI tools doubled year-over-year to nearly 10%; it has integrated ChatGPT models into its voice AI product. Five9 rallied roughly 12% after beating estimates and issuing upbeat guidance; the company said enterprise AI bookings more than doubled year-over-year, its AI portfolio reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue and backlog improved. Five9’s chairman Michael Burkland said the company uses large language models to enhance customer-service solutions but argued LLMs cannot fully replace customer service organizations. The moves come amid a wider software-sector selloff driven by investor worries about rapid AI tooling from firms like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Earnings beat and guidance show AI adoption is boosting demand for conversational/customer-service SaaS, easing investor fears about LLM disruption and indicating monetization paths for AI in enterprise software — relevant for platform and vendor strategies across adtech and martech.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- RingCentral stock rose about 34% after reporting earnings and guidance.
- Five9 stock rallied roughly 12% after topping Wall Street estimates and issuing upbeat guidance.
- RingCentral said ARR from customers using its AI tools doubled year-over-year to nearly 10%.
- Five9 reported enterprise AI bookings more than doubled year-over-year and its AI portfolio reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
- RingCentral integrated ChatGPT models into its voice AI product; Five9 stated it leverages large language models to enhance customer-service solutions.
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Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
RingCentral Unleashes AI Voice Revolution with OpenAI Partnership
RingCentral announced an integration with OpenAI to power enterprise-grade voice AI, combining RingCentral’s low-latency voice platform with OpenAI frontier models such as GPT-5.2. The collaboration extends RingCentral’s AI Receptionist (AIR) and the new RingCentral AI Virtual Assistant (AVA) to deliver real-time, context-aware voice automation across customer interactions and employee workflows. AVA is currently available to a limited set of customers and RingCentral says AIR reached more than 5,000 customers within two quarters (as of end-September 2025). RingCentral also plans to use ChatGPT Enterprise across its AI roadmap. The company states customer conversations remain governed by its data policies and will not be used to train public models. Executives from RingCentral and OpenAI are quoted emphasizing business outcomes, speed, and secure deployment at scale.
RingCentral and OpenAI Collaborate on AI-Native Development
RingCentral announced results from an internal AI-Native Challenge in collaboration with OpenAI, in which thousands of employees used OpenAI tools (ChatGPT Work and Codex) to build end-to-end software projects. The company reported 2,500 completed projects in under 30 days and said the initiative was sponsored by the Office of the CEO. RingCentral framed the effort as part of a broader strategy to use AI internally to accelerate product development and improve time-to-market for customer-facing AI offerings. OpenAI leaders praised the program for democratizing software development across the organization.
RingCentral Expands AIR Pro with Agentic AI
RingCentral announced an expansion of its AIR Pro platform to add agentic AI capabilities across its customer engagement portfolio, showcased at Customer Contact Week Las Vegas 2026. Updates to RingCX include native AI agents embedded in workflows for inbound/outbound voice and digital channels, autonomous outreach, intelligent handoffs carrying full customer context to live agents, an AI-powered workflow builder, and AI-driven analytics via its AI Virtual Assistant (AVA). RingCentral also introduced RingWEM (AI Quality Management, Interaction Analytics, Workforce Management) with live screen monitoring and added WhatsApp Voice support. As of end of Q1 2026, over 1,700 businesses had adopted RingCX (up >70% YoY), with more than half using AI.
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