At WebexOne 2025 in San Diego, a powerful vision emerged as the guiding principle for Cisco’s future in collaboration: Connected Intelligence. This isn’t just a concept; it’s our north star, representing a future where people, platforms, and AI seamlessly link to create communication experiences that are context-aware, adaptive, and profoundly human-centered. This exciting direction underscores Cisco’s major investments in Webex and our broader portfolio, offering a clear path for our partners to innovate and thrive.
AI is rapidly redefining how the world communicates. From intelligent call handling and contextual assistance to predictive engagement and analytics, AI is becoming the foundational layer for transforming Calling, Collaboration, and Customer Experience (CX).
That transformation was on full display at WebexOne 2025, where AI and innovation dominated the conversation. For Webex Wholesale partners, we ran commercial and technical sessions where attendees were energized by the pace of change and the clear opportunity ahead. The excitement underscored one key message: Cisco and our partners are building the next era of communications — one that is AI-driven, hybrid by design, and built for high-velocity success.
Powering service provider growth through innovation.
The WebexOne 2025 commercial and technical tracks provided an in-depth look at how Cisco is empowering service providers to deliver cutting-edge solutions, particularly for the SMB and mid-market segments. These customers are ready to invest in AI and innovation, and Webex Wholesale is providing the tools to meet that demand.
Redefining customer engagement with AI.
A major highlight was the introduction of new AI-powered capabilities designed to enhance customer service and operational efficiency:
- AI-Powered Customer Assist with BroadWorks: Set for controlled availability by end of calendar year 2025 (EOCY25), this solution integrates agent and supervisor experiences directly into the Webex App. It provides AI Assistant for Agents and AI-powered Call Sentiment for Supervisors, enabling seamless service across cloud and on-prem platforms like Service Provider hosted BroadWorks. This “telephony-based hybrid service” ensures common dialing plans, shared presence, and messaging, all while leveraging existing BroadWorks call control.
- AI Receptionist: Targeted for controlled availability in CY26 for Webex Wholesale and Webex for BroadWorks, this 24/7 virtual receptionist is powered by Webex AI Agent. It can greet customers, handle common tasks, provide temporary issue resolution, book/modify appointments, and transfer calls, all through natural, multi-lingual speech conversations. This add-on service allows SMBs and mid-market firms to never miss a call, freeing up employee time for high-value interactions.
- Webex Contact Center Wholesale: One of the most well-received announcements was the addition of Webex Contact Center for the Wholesale route-to-market. Early availability field trials for select partners will begin in Q1 CY2026. Webex Contact Center empowers services providers to deliver a robust, cloud-based CX suite with speed, flexibility, and scalability with unified management and flexible packaging for UCaaS + CCaaS bundles.
Simplifying how partners manage and scale.
Cisco is also making significant strides in simplifying and optimizing the partner experience, allowing service providers to manage their offerings more effectively. At WebexOne, we previewed a wide assortment of Partner Hub enhancements for early partner feedback:
- Custom Role Builder: Partners can now build custom roles and grant granular admin controls in Partner Hub, enabling precise permissions and better management of administrators.
- Customer Groups: This feature allows partners to group and guard customers, eliminating overlapping duties and assigning customers cleanly.
- External Administrators: Empowering partners to organize their admins and facilitate better customer management, scaling without the struggle to effortlessly manage thousands of customers.
- External Administrators: Empowering partners to organize their admins and facilitate better customer management, scaling without the struggle to effortlessly manage thousands of customers.
- Migration Tool Enhancements: Significant improvements are being made to transform BroadWorks to Wholesale migration tools into an integrated, API-driven pipeline, leveraging orchestrators like Apache Airflow for scheduling, extraction, transformation, and provisioning.
- AI in Partner Hub: We previewed an AI-powered Partner Hub with natural language support in the search bar, multi-language capabilities, and an intelligent Cisco AI Assistant to understand tasks, questions, and goals, making Webex management smarter and easier.
Advancing hybrid flexibility for BroadWorks partners.
In the partner technical session at WebexOne, we reinforced our commitment to supporting and evolving BroadWorks deployments, recognizing the critical role of hybrid architectures in delivering services at scale. Through the Webex Wholesale hybrid architecture, partners can seamlessly enable hybrid services. This architecture leverages robust integration points, including the RESTful interfaces currently utilized by Webex for BroadWorks, for essential functions like directory synchronization, user authentication, and provisioning. It is further complemented by SIP trunks for telephony-based hybrid services, ensuring deep integration between BroadWorks and Webex cloud services. This strategic approach allows service providers to maximize their existing BroadWorks investments while effortlessly integrating Cisco’s newest AI-powered innovations, such as Customer Assist and AI Receptionist, directly into their current offerings.
In the commercial session, we walked through investments to empower partners in migrating subscribers to the cloud when it makes strategic sense. This comprehensive support encompasses both technical and commercial elements designed to simplify the journey. The BroadWorks Migration SKU is now available, alongside enhanced automated migration tools, providing a clear and efficient path for transition. These technical advancements are further bolstered by new financial incentives, all aimed at simplifying the modernization journey for partners and their customers. Ultimately, these investments are designed to empower partners to optimize their existing infrastructure, curate the most effective service offerings for their customers, and accelerate growth by maximizing access to Webex cloud capabilities.
Moving forward with agility and innovation.
As we look beyond WebexOne, Cisco’s vision of Connected Intelligence comes into full focus. It will shape how partners deliver value — from AI-optimized customer journeys to predictive service assurance and vertical-specific experiences. For Cisco and our service provider ecosystem, it represents the next leap forward in how collaboration fuels innovation and growth.
As Ryan Reynolds reminded the audience at WebexOne, “Constraint forces you to think asymmetrically.” That mindset of creativity and agility perfectly captures how Cisco approaches innovation — giving partners smarter tools, elegant integration, and efficient architectures that unlock opportunity even in complex market conditions.
This philosophy is at the heart of our WebexOne 2025 announcements, especially within the Webex Wholesale portfolio. By embracing these advancements, partners can navigate market challenges, leverage AI to solve customer problems in novel ways, and build smarter, more profitable solutions at scale.
Together, we’re turning momentum into impact — building the most open, adaptable, and intelligent collaboration ecosystem in the market, where every advancement helps partners grow faster and deliver greater value to their customers, all aligned with the powerful vision of Connected Intelligence.
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AI Receptionist for Webex Calling
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