New transcription engine, leaner AI agents and more admin control.

Following on from the successful ALPHA release, V20 Update 9 BETA introduces a major new addition to 3CX AI capabilities - Grok (xAI). This integration brings a fast, simple and cost-effective option for transcription, summaries and sentiment analysis.

Alongside this, we’ve made further improvements to AI agents, refined parts of the interface and added more flexibility to holiday prompt handling across the system. Read on for more!

Grok (xAI) - Transcription, Summary & Sentiment

The highlight of Update 9 BETA is the integration with Grok STT by xAI. As previously announced, Grok transcription is significantly cheaper than Google, OpenAI and even 3CX cloud transcription.

Grok offers a straightforward approach to transcription with a single API key setup and automatic language detection. It also supports stereo recordings with per-channel speaker separation, making transcripts easier to follow and more useful for analysis.

Instead of a single block of text, call logs clearly show who said what - improving readability for summaries and sentiment tracking. Key features of Grok integration include the below.

  • Simple setup with API key only
  • Automatic language detection (30+ languages)
  • Stereo transcription with speaker separation
  • Fast and cost-effective processing

The current file size limit is 15 MB, although this is being actively increased. A full configuration guide can be found here.

Grok will also be available in the PRO Edition for voicemail transcription only.

Improved AI Receptionist - Works Better and Lower Cost

We’ve continued refining AI following Update 8, with a complete rewrite of system prompts for both the AI Receptionist and Personal Assistant.

Update 9 is meaningfully better - not because of a newer model, but because of how agents now think and respond. Prompts have been rebuilt from the ground up, reducing unnecessary context and improving how interactions are handled. This results in faster responses, more accurate routing and more reliable answers across use cases.

  • Approx. 4 times smaller system prompts, reducing context per call
  • Fewer interaction steps, reaching resolution more directly
  • Improved topics routing for more accurate intent classification
  • Better knowledge base responses with minimum relevance thresholds
  • Support for newer models, including gpt-realtime-1.5 for voice and gpt-5.4 for text

Holiday Prompt Playback

Holiday prompt handling has been expanded to Queues, Ring Groups and IVRs. Admins can now configure announcements directly within holiday routing settings, with options to play department prompts or custom messages. More details in a separate blog.

View the complete changelog here.

Get Started with Update 9 BETA

To try out these new features, upgrade to V20 Update 9 BETA:

  • Log in to the Admin Console
  • Navigate to System > Updates
  • Select Update 9 BETA and click Download

⚠️ Important: The BETA version should be installed for evaluation purposes only. It is not recommended for production systems.

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