3CX Unveils AI-Powered Personal Assistant and Knowledge Base Features in Latest Beta Release

December 8, 2025 — Communications software provider 3CX has announced the second beta release of its V20 Update 8, introducing significant AI enhancements designed to transform how businesses handle executive calls and customer interactions.

AI Personal Assistant for Executive Call Management

The centerpiece of the update is a new AI Personal Assistant (PA) role that functions as a virtual gatekeeper for executives. The PA Agent can screen incoming calls, access the executive's personal phonebook, and enforce availability rules while respecting department status and profile settings.

According to Nicholas Borg, 3CX Product Manager, the PA is designed to handle calls on behalf of busy executives by managing caller requests, collecting messages, and directing callers to voicemail when appropriate. The system only permits transfers to the designated executive, rejecting requests to route calls elsewhere. Additional PA capabilities are planned for future releases.

Knowledge Sources Bring Context-Aware Intelligence

Perhaps the most significant enhancement is the introduction of AI Knowledge Sources, which enable AI Agents to access company-specific information during live calls and chats. Administrators can now build custom knowledge bases by uploading various file formats including PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and HTML files.

The system uses vector-search technology similar to that employed across the OpenAI ecosystem, allowing agents to quickly retrieve relevant information from internal policies, FAQs, routing rules, and product guides. This capability transforms AI agents from generic responders into informed representatives with access to organizational knowledge.

Enhanced Boss-Secretary Functionality

The update also expands the Boss-Secretary feature, which requires an 8SC+ PRO, Enterprise/AI, or Enterprise Plus license. Extensions with Manager-level roles and above can now configure the feature directly from the Admin Console, while end-users gain self-service control through the 3CX App's avatar menu.

Users can toggle Boss-Secretary on or off, set active hours, specify which call types to allow (internal, external, or all), and maintain a list of approved direct callers—all without requiring administrator intervention.

New Transcription Tier and Enterprise Plus Edition

3CX is introducing a new Enterprise Plus edition with substantial cloud-transcription allowances: 30,000 minutes annually for 8SC licenses and 60,000 minutes for 16SC licenses. The company is also expanding access to private cloud and on-premise transcription services, now available for licenses with 16 or more simultaneous calls, down from the previous 32-call minimum.

Following the official release of Update 8, legacy builds using 3CX Cloud transcription will cease processing call transcriptions, though third-party services like OpenAI and Google will remain supported. Customers requiring 3CX Cloud call transcription will need to upgrade to Enterprise Plus.

Basic and PRO licenses will not include voicemail or call recording transcription features.

Additional Enhancements

The update includes improvements to queue voicemail functionality, adding an option to send voicemail as an attachment to additional recipients while deleting the message from the system—useful for mailing lists or external recipients who don't need messages stored internally.

3CX emphasizes that the beta version is intended for evaluation purposes only and should not be deployed on production systems. Organizations interested in testing the new features can access Update 8 Beta 2 through the Admin Console's System > Updates section.

For more information about 3CX V20 Update 8 Beta 2, visit the company's official blog or view the complete changelog.