3 takeaways for CIOs from the Enterprise Communications Landscape

2023 was a year of new challenges and opportunities for IT leaders around the world: Global contact centers suffered at the hands of fraudsters, generative AI got its moment in the spotlight, and some Unified Communications providers branched into the Contact Center space, while others nailed their niche. And throughout it all, the fight for customer loyalty carried on. 

In the 2024 Enterprise Communications Landscape, over 1,000 IT leaders across 40+ countries told Bandwidth how they’re navigating this year. And while this article won’t delve into every insight gleaned from respondents, we’ll give you three highlights

IT leaders are prioritizing user experience with cloud innovation

The top three priorities for IT leaders this year? Implementing artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), improving user experiences (UX), and migrating to the cloud.

Most enterprises have already migrated parts of their employee and customer communications to the cloud. But now, they’re feeling pressure to prove the value of these investments via happier, more productive users.

While enterprise priorities include AI/ML adoption and improving user experiences, these aren’t the things that keep them up at night. Find out what the biggest challenges your peers are facing in 2024, and how to circumvent them, in the full report. 

Cloud-to-cloud migration is surging

Nearly half of CCaaS users have hybrid deployments—and they plan on staying that way. While the majority of businesses have migrated their contact center to the cloud, over half of respondents say they’re going to try a new provider in 2024. This cloud-to-cloud migration isn’t just applicable to CX leaders—54% of UCaaS users are evaluating other employee collaboration solutions.

But enterprises haven’t always had a wandering eye when it came to their employee and customer communications solutions.

It’s been four years since 2020’s instantaneous, COVID-induced cloud migration. Now, many contracts have (or are about to) expire—bringing newfound freedom to move to a new UCaaS or CCaaS solution.

The exception? Session Border Controllers (SBCs). The 2024 report found that decision-makers in those organizations that are cloud-curious (but not ready to migrate) keep their SBCs on-premise for more control over routing. 

Oh, the places AI will go…in your contact center

CX leaders have spoken: they trust AI to handle customer interactions. 92% of respondents have adopted AI in their contact center, and respondents lean on generative and conversational AI solutions to supplement customer and agent needs. 

However, enterprises don’t trust AI when it comes to internal employee collaboration tools. And even though UCaaS providers are using AI to differentiate, these use cases aren’t being met with the same enthusiasm as contact center use cases. 

Lastly, AI-powered authentication tools like voice bioauthentication can’t be ignored. 85% of respondents are concerned over their contact center security, and it makes sense: fraudsters are evolving faster than enterprises can.

That’s why CX leaders need crisis-hardened caller authentication strategies for ironclad protection of agent productivity and customer data.