So you’ve future-proofed your contact center and cloud unified communications. Then the future arrived ahead of schedule and rewrote telephony requirements—again.
As the pace of tech speeds up and customers skyrocket their standards, it’s worth asking whether your cloud communications platform can deliver on agility, control, experience, security, and compliance (even while CFOs want all that for less).
To understand how enterprise IT leaders are working through these challenges, Bandwidth asked 757 of them about their tech challenges and priorities in an environment that won’t stay still.
Here’s what the 2025 Enterprise Communications Landscape reveals about cloud-based communications.
Enterprise cloud migration has settled, but it hasn’t stalled
Cloud migration continues to see more converts, with adoption up 11.8% for UCaaS and 7.5% for CCaaS compared to 2024. Yet the urgency to “get to the cloud” has cooled. In 2025, just 28.7% of IT leaders named enterprise cloud migration a top hurdle—a notable drop from 47.5% the previous year. The decline partly has to do with businesses having already completed their move. Nonetheless, the job isn’t over. The cloud conversation has evolved from making it there to making the infrastructure work better.
The new focus of enterprise cloud migration is also reflected in the rise of hybrid cloud communications platforms. Rather than going 100% cloud or staying tethered to on-prem, enterprises are layering both using adaptive cloud migration solutions. 39.1% use hybrid cloud unified communications, while 38.2% run hybrid contact center platforms. And this cloud-based communications trend is gaining traction: 48.8% expect to have hybrid UC and 46.3% hybrid CC by the end of this year.
IT leaders are juggling fewer carriers and cloud communications platforms
Today, 73% rely on five telecom carriers or less, and only 7.8% manage ten or more. Single-carrier usage has more than tripled, jumping from 5.9% to 17.8%. It’s a similar story with cloud communications platforms: most organizations stick to just 1–3.
Customized carrier consolidation is making all of this possible. With reliability and quality the main concerns—and price point not far behind—53.4% have already implemented cloud migration solutions such as Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC), and another 19% plan to follow.
That narrowing brings pressure to get cloud-based communications right, especially when the average enterprise tech purchase takes 17 months and ends in regret 80% of the time. No wonder 44% of companies switch cloud communications platforms every year or two, or even sooner, and the majority are reexamining their setup: 51.9% are evaluating alternative cloud unified communications, and 43.7% are looking at contact center options.
Cloud-based communications stacks are getting rebuilt around CX and EX
User experience matters more than ever, and much of how cloud-based communications platforms drive customer engagement depends on the stack behind them.
However, when it comes to managing cloud communications platforms, almost 60% of enterprise IT leaders say their comms stack is moderately to highly difficult to wrangle, and 48.4% struggle with third-party integrations. Even so, plenty are trimming where they can. 77% use six or fewer contact center tools, up from 66.5% last year.
One thing that’s getting easier? Speed of delivery. It has fallen from 33.6% to 19.8% on the list of tech problems, thanks to contact center AI making workflows more efficient. That’s why 48% of businesses are prioritizing AI/ML implementation to improve CX/EX. Chatbot usage saw a 19% bump from 2024, call transcription by 17%, and agent assist by 12%. Dev teams especially benefit from AI with the ability to generate code up to 45% faster.
At the same time, comms leaders are doubling down on high uptime and call quality. Nearly 40% are upgrading their support plans, followed by those revisiting SLAs. About a third are investing in redundant software, hardware, or carrier services.
Fraud problems rise, and so do trust issues
Contact center security keeps more than half of IT leaders up at night, particularly when dealing with common outbound calling obstacles. But as call labeling intends to address security concerns, it can introduce trust issues.
Phone numbers get mislabeled often, and the cost is anything but small: 42% of organizations have their legitimate calls marked as “spam risk” or “scam likely,” with energy and utilities, government, and hospitality contact centers hit the hardest. Meanwhile, 81% believe they’ve lost money due to improper call labeling.
But enterprises are fighting back harder to protect themselves and their customers. They’re using call label monitoring/remediation and branded calling to combat number reputation and mislabeling issues. On the inbound side, companies are adding security and authentication tools to their cloud communications platforms. For example, 40.4% use ANI validation today, and 36% plan to implement deepfake detection within the year.
Simply put, fraud and security threats don’t cause the same frantic scramble they used to. Businesses are baking in security early instead of merely cleaning up the crisis after the fact.
Confidence in compliance is still playing catch-up
Telephony lives under constant regulation. Organizations must meet IT privacy and security protocols along with complex industry and government mandates like STIR/SHAKEN, Kari’s Law, and the RAY BAUM’s Act. And some teams know they’re not there yet.
87.5% worry about staying compliant. Multi-region enterprises struggle even more, with 26% less inclined to say they’re highly confident about meeting emergency regulations everywhere they operate. Government, finance, and energy & utilities industries face the most pressure to keep up.
Compliance gets even trickier if you factor in company structure. For instance, over 54% of companies run primarily hybrid setups and have to account for employees’ dispersed physical locations.
In 2025, it’s imperative to have a clear handle on the rules applicable to your office sites. The stakes are too high that 30.52% look for regulatory compliance support when choosing a telecom provider.
Explore the 2025 Enterprise Communications Landscape
In a year of ever-shifting demands and escalating threats, see how enterprise IT leaders are reworking their cloud-based communications and take away what you need to map out your next move.
