SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 9, 2026--
Zultys, the channel’s only true hybrid unified communications and integrated contact center provider, today announced Release 19 and ZAC 10 — introducing a powerful suite of AI-driven capabilities designed to make conversations more accessible and insightful across the platform — alongside its newest product, Zultys AI Receptionist™.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260409404542/en/
Release 19 introduces AI-enabled capabilities including real-time closed captions and sentiment analysis, and live and post-call transcripts — allowing users to follow conversations in the moment and revisit key insights later. It also advances the traditional dial-based auto attendant with the Zultys AI Auto Attendant™, which uses AI to interpret voice requests and route callers to the right person or department within the MX system. Together, these capabilities turn everyday conversations into searchable, actionable data that supports better decision-making and elevates the customer experience.
Zultys AI Receptionist, also launched today, is a new AI-powered voice agent designed to serve as a 24/7 front-line tool. Using natural language understanding and conversational AI, the AI receptionist can answer questions, manage interactions, and intelligently route calls without relying on traditional menu-based systems.
“Release 19 represents a major step forward in how organizations can utilize AI to capture and act on communication data,” said Tim Larson, Vice President of Engineering Services and Channel Support at Zultys. “By combining AI call transcription, sentiment analysis, and semantic search across conversations, we’re giving users and supervisors the ability to quickly surface meaningful insights from every interaction — without adding complexity to their workflows.”
With Release 19, Supervisors gain deeper insight into agent activity within a single screen in ZAC, with access to interaction history, AI-driven customer sentiment, and AI-generated transcripts through the new centralized contact center call log. Additional enhancements include expanded capabilities in the browser-based Web Admin, improved parity across desktop and Mobile ZAC, and a refreshed ZAC interface for a more consistent user experience.
“Too much of the AI in our space is being rushed to market — complex, hard to control, and often creating more problems than it solves,” said John Osgood, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Zultys. “With Release 19 and our Zultys AI Receptionist, we’ve taken a different approach: focused, practical AI that intelligently routes calls without menu friction, while delivering the control, predictability, and compliance safety businesses actually need.”
Release 19, ZAC 10, and Mobile ZAC 2.2 are available now. AI capabilities can be enabled through Zultys AI Services or via a Bring Your Own (BYO) AI API model, offering flexible deployment options based on customer needs.
About Zultys
Zultys is a business communications platform that unifies telephony, collaboration, and an integrated contact center to deliver a consistent user experience across every deployment model. From cloud to on-premise to the channel’s only true hybrid powered by Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS), Zultys brings together reliability, accountability, and AI you can trust—enabling intelligent interactions across voice, video, chat, and SMS within a secure, flexible environment. Please visit https://www.zultys.com for more information.
Zultys officially launched AI-enabled capabilities for business communications with Release 19 — their latest software release and a major AI milestone for the platform. This comes alongside new versions of ZAC and Mobile ZAC, and the introduction of their newest product, Zultys AI Receptionist.
The Justice Department is investigating the NFL for potential anticompetitive practices, according to a government official.
The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday, said the investigation is “about affordability for consumers and creating an even playing field for providers.”
The investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The NFL has not received a notification that the league is being investigated, according to two other people with knowledge of the situation. Those people spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on possible legal matters.
The investigation comes amid increasing federal scrutiny of the amount of money fans are paying to watch sports on television. The Federal Communications Commission, for example, is seeking public comments on the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming services.
The NFL said in a statement Thursday that over 87% of its games are available on broadcast television, including all that are played in a team's local market.
“The NFL’s media distribution model is the most fan and broadcaster-friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry. The 2025 season was our most viewed since 1989 and reflects the strength of the NFL distribution model and its wide availability to all fans," the league said in its statement.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, chair of the Senate judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy, and consumer rights, wrote a letter to the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission on March 3 urging them to review whether the NFL’s distribution methods are in line with the Sports Broadcasting Act, which grants limited antitrust immunity to allow teams to collectively license game broadcasts to national networks.
"The modern distribution environment differs substantially from the conditions that precipitated this exemption. Instead of a small number of free broadcast networks, the NFL now licenses games simultaneously to subscription streaming platforms, premium cable networks, and technology companies operating under different business models,” the Republican senator wrote. “To the extent collectively licensed game packages are placed behind subscription paywalls, these arrangements may no longer align with the statutory concept of sponsored telecasting or the consumer-access rationale underlying the antitrust exemption.”
Lee said in his letter that football fans spent almost $1,000 on cable and streaming subscriptions. Forbes estimated the cost of watching every NFL game via streaming last season at $765.
The NFL aired games last season on CBS, NBC, ABC/ESPN/ESPN+, Fox, NFL Network, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and YouTube TV.
The Sports Broadcasting Act exemption passed in 1961 applies only to broadcast television. Courts have ruled in the past that it does not apply to other media, including cable, satellite and streaming.
The Sports Broadcasting Act includes a rule allowing blackouts of local games, which still applies to out-of-market packages sold by the league. The NFL ended local TV blackouts, which applied to games within 75 miles of a team’s market if they did not sell out 72 hours before kickoff, after the 2014 season.
Last year, the House Judiciary Committee requested briefings from the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB on whether antitrust exemptions should still be granted for coordinating their broadcast television rights.
All four of the major North American professional sports leagues have deals with streaming platforms.
In 2024, a jury in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruled the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service and awarded $4.7 billion in damages.
A federal judge overturned the verdict in the class-action lawsuit because the testimony of two witnesses for the subscribers had flawed methodologies and should have been excluded.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the “Sunday Ticket” package on DirecTV of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons.
Because damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could have been liable for $14,121,779,833.92.
Reedy reported from Cleveland and Tucker from Washington.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2021, file photo, an NFL logo is displayed on a goal post pad during an NFL preseason football game between the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions in Detroit. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski, File)
