Beyond SMS: How Engati’s AI Agents on RCS Are Powering the Conversational Pivot
In business communication, the gap between what brands say and how customers respond has never been smaller or more crucial. Customers today expect conversations, not campaigns. They want quick responses, contextual information and the ability to take action within seconds, all inside the same chat window.
The demand for richer, two-way messaging is growing, and RCS (Rich Communication Services) is helping brands turn simple messages into meaningful conversations.
What Is RCS? The Evolution Beyond SMS
For decades, SMS has been the default channel for business communication - simple, reliable, universal but extremely limited. It worked well for short notifications as plain text but failed to meet the growing demand for richer, interactive experiences.
Enter RCS, or Rich Communication Services, an evolution of SMS built for the smartphone era. To solve that, RCS (Rich Communication Services) was introduced as the next evolution of SMS — designed to make everyday messaging more dynamic with features like images, videos, and read receipts. It brought chat-app-style richness to your phone’s native Messages app.
Now, we’re seeing the next big step: RCS for Business. This takes the same rich capabilities and brings them to the brand–customer relationship enabling two-way, interactive conversations between verified businesses and their audiences.
With RCS, brands can send:
- Images, carousels, and videos
- Branded templates with logos and verified sender IDs
- Interactive buttons and quick replies
- Suggested actions, like “Book Now,” “Track Order,” or “Call Doctor”
Customers can initiate conversations with your RCS Agents in multiple ways - by scanning a QR code, clicking a link or even finding your business through search. No downloads. No app installs. Just a richer, more engaging experience inside a native, carrier-verified channel. It’s not a small update. It’s a complete reimagination of mobile messaging, one that combines the ubiquity of SMS with the interactivity of modern chat apps.
Why RCS, and Why Now
Customer communication has evolved faster than most businesses can keep up. People are inundated with messages across platforms, and brands are fighting harder to stand out. Traditional SMS feels impersonal; WhatsApp is competitive and expensive; apps require effort to download and maintain.
RCS solves all three problems:
- It’s native: pre-installed on devices and directly integrated into Google Messages.
- It’s secure: messages come from verified business accounts, minimizing spam and fraud.
- It’s rich and measurable: enabling buttons, carousels, and read receipts within a single channel.
Most importantly, RCS brings two-way, conversational commerce into the user’s default inbox where engagement rates are exponentially higher. According to Google data, RCS is already used by over 2 billion people worldwide and the messages achieve 4–10x higher read and response rates than traditional SMS, making it far more effective for reaching customers.
In short: RCS is where scale meets intelligence, helping businesses turn ordinary texts into meaningful, results-driven conversations.
Engati’s Role: From Messaging to Meaningful Conversations
While RCS provides the channel, it’s Engati that turns it into meaningful conversations..
At its core, Engati accelerates sales & growth powered by AI Agents, built to help businesses move from transactional communication to intelligent conversations. Our partnership with Google RCS adds a powerful new dimension to that vision.
Introducing: Agents on RCS
Imagine if every customer text could be met by a trained, context-aware digital agent, one that understands the brand, anticipates needs, and can complete actions like booking an appointment or initiating a payment, all within RCS.
That’s what Engati’s Agents on RCS delivers.
These agents combine:
- AI-driven conversational flows
- Interactive rich messaging templates
- Omnichannel continuity (from RCS to WhatsApp, Web, and beyond)
- Integrated back-end connectivity (CRMs, ERPs, booking systems)
The result? A human-like, branded, and intelligent conversation that goes far beyond a message blast.
For the customer, it feels personal and effortless. For the business, it’s scalable, measurable, and ROI-driven.
Why Agents on RCS Is a Game-Changer
- Always-on availability: Customers can engage anytime without delays.
- Automated follow-ups: Leads are nurtured even after initial contact.
- Cost-efficient scalability: RCS runs at nearly a quarter of WhatsApp’s per-message cost.
- Brand authenticity: Verified business profiles, logos, and colors boost trust.
- End-to-end journey completion: From inquiry to transaction - all in one thread.
Whether you’re a hospital converting consultations, a university guiding admissions, or a real estate brand scheduling site visits, Agents on RCS turn interest into action in real time.
Top 5 Industry Use Cases: How Agents on RCS Are Transforming Customer Journeys
RCS is not just a messaging upgrade, it’s a business performance enabler. Here’s how five key industries are leveraging Engati’s Agents on RCS to enhance engagement, improve ROI and redefine customer experience.
1. Healthcare: From Appointment to Aftercare
In healthcare, patient communication is often fragmented. Calls go unanswered, forms get lost in emails, and SMS lacks the depth to convey care details.
With RCS, hospitals and clinics can:
- Showcase healthcare services and treatments, with easy in-message appointment booking
- Send personalized reminders with action buttons that allows them to confirm or reschedule or pharmacy reminders for refills
- Share treatment plans, doctor introductions, or procedure explainer videos
- Enable query handling through RCS Agents
- Retarget unbooked or dropped leads with personalized messages
2. Hospitality: Every Guest, a Conversation
The hospitality industry thrives on experience but that experience often starts before check-in.
Traditional emails and SMS notifications get buried; guests want instant confirmation, personalized offers, and local recommendations.
With Engati’s Agents on RCS, hotels can:
- Send interactive itineraries or property previews and make reservations
- Send booking confirmations, dining options or loyalty rewards within chat
- Automate check-in/check-out assistance
- Handle guest support without switching channels
3. EdTech: From Prospect to Enrolled Student
For educational institutions, engagement is everything. Students and parents expect guidance throughout the decision journey, from initial inquiry to course registration.
RCS agents powered by Engati enable:
- Instant course brochures and video explainers sent via RCS
- AI-powered query resolution
- Personalized lead nurturing with reminders for deadlines and fee payments
- Admission process automation, including document upload prompts and confirmation steps
4. BFSI: Trust and Transactions at Scale
Banking, financial services and insurance brands face one of the toughest engagement landscapes where trust, compliance and convenience must go hand-in-hand.
RCS solves key pain points in BFSI communication:
- Verified sender IDs ensure security and brand authenticity
- Interactive carousels simplify complex product comparisons
- RCS agents handle KYC reminders, premium renewals, and claim updates automatically
- Personalized nudges drive cross-sell and upsell (e.g., credit cards, loans, insurance add-ons)
5. Real Estate: Turning Site Visits into Sales
For real estate developers and brokers, speed and personalization are everything. Leads often go cold due to delayed responses or too many handoffs between agents and CRM systems.
With RCS agents, property brands can:
- Send property carousels with images, prices, and location maps
- Allow direct booking of site visits through interactive buttons
- Automate follow-ups with lead segmentation (budget, location, intent)
- Share virtual tour videos or walkthroughs within the same chat thread
Building the Future: Where RCS Meets AI
RCS alone enhances messaging; Engati’s AI turns it into a business accelerator. As consumer journeys become more nonlinear and cross-channel, brands can’t rely on fragmented tools. They need unified, intelligent communication, the kind that’s contextual, automated and scalable.
Engati’s RCS Agents make that possible by merging:
- Rich media and interactivity (RCS)
- Intelligence and personalization (AI)
- Automation and workflows (Engati Platform)
The results are consistent: faster responses, lower costs, and measurable ROI.
RCS is the next big leap in customer communication. For brands, it offers a rare blend of reach, richness, and reliability. For customers, it delivers immediacy, authenticity, and convenience. And with Engati’s Agents on RCS, this technology evolves from simple messages into meaningful, revenue-generating conversations.
The future of brand engagement is conversational. And that conversation, increasingly, starts with Engati on RCS.
