3CX vs Slack (Huddles)

The V20 line is where the product is changing: Update 10 in alpha brings MCP support, a dedicated AI Server for deploying AI infrastructure, and more administrative control, while Update 9 already ships email delivery of AI agent call details, summaries, and transcripts. Around that core, the surfaces are being tidied — the Windows Softphone V5.7 migrates extensions and accounts to the desktop app in one click, and the customer portal now lets subscribers downgrade a self-managed edition or remove hosting without going through support. Routine IP phone firmware updates and a summer support-hours notice fill out the rest of the feed.

3CX is treating AI as infrastructure a customer runs rather than a service it resells: a separate AI Server to deploy and manage, knowledge sources you prepare yourself as Markdown, and MCP as the interface for connecting outside assistants. That fits the self-hosted, admin-controlled identity the product has always sold on, and it is the opposite of the hosted-only approach most of the unified-communications field is taking. The portal changes point the same way — the subscription mechanics that used to require a conversation are becoming self-service, which is what a vendor does when it wants administrators, not account managers, driving the relationship.

Expect Update 10 to move from alpha to general availability with the AI Server as its headline, and expect the MCP surface to grow from connecting assistants into exposing call data and agent actions as tools other systems can call.