AI is moving into every business conversation. The question is no longer whether, but who keeps the value.
That is the question at the heart of the State of Intelligent Engagement 2026, published today. It succeeds last year’s State of CPaaS 2025, and the change of name is deliberate. CPaaS made communications programmable. The question now is who captures the value as intelligence moves into every interaction a business has with its customers, partners and people.
The report brings together a year of market evidence, CPaaSAA’s own research on AI Voice and Network APIs, and what more than 150 industry leaders said and voted at CASA26 in Amsterdam, 21–23 September 2026.
The six paths, one year on
In 2025 we set out six paths to growth for this industry. A year on, our verdict is mixed but directionally right.
- AI Voice exceeded expectations. It moved from concept to deployment, and operators entered the call path with real products.
- Enterprise demand for trusted AI exceeded expectations too. Trust has moved from a reputational programme to a requirement of product architecture.
- Network APIs and conversation data products are on track, with the first commercial network API deployments landing.
- RCS is behind. It is growing fast from a small base, but largely as migration from SMS rather than as a new value pool.
Expectation versus evidence
The industry is confident. At CASA26, participants expected intelligence to become a major source of revenue by 2030, and four in five expected it to earn better margins than transport.
The accounts don’t show it yet. Across seven listed messaging and voice players, separately identifiable intelligence revenue is about 0.6% of combined revenue, and blended gross margins have held flat at around 50% for three years. The true intelligence figure is probably higher, because most companies don’t report it separately. But the gap is real, and whether it reflects timing, optimism or both is something we will track over the next twelve months.
Four futures for 2030
The report sets out four scenarios, built on two questions: how telco-positive the engagement market becomes, and whether this industry captures the value of intelligence or sees it migrate to CRM platforms, hyperscalers and AI-native specialists. For each, it sets out what it looks like, what has to be true, and the signposts to watch.
Half the CASA26 room backed Platform-Led Intelligent Engagement. That is not a story of operators losing out: operators still supply the transport and the trusted identity signals everything depends on, a third of participants expect telco-integrated models to lead in AI Voice, and partnership routes into the AI Voice runtime are already live. For operators, 2030 may simply be early.
Where the value is moving
Across the sessions, speakers pointed the same way. Value is gathering around vertical applications, the AI agent in front of the call, orchestration, the conversation record and trusted network signals. Those are the layers where competition for intelligence value is concentrating, and where AI-native and vertical challengers, unburdened by legacy economics, are moving fastest.
Trust is the asset that isn’t getting cheaper. When anyone can generate a voice or a message, knowing who is on the other end becomes the product, and network identity and provenance are assets this industry holds that model builders cannot readily replicate.
What comes next
The AI Voice and network API markets will take shape over the next three to four years, and the positions established now will strongly influence who captures their value. That leaves three questions we will take forward with our members:
- Where is the value from intelligence really going to land?
- Are you changing enough, and fast enough, to be there?
- Who else needs to be in the room to make sure this industry captures its share?
Members will receive a briefing on what the findings mean for their businesses, and the CASA26 sessions behind the report are being released as videos and blogs over the coming weeks.
Thank you to our Accelerate members KPN, Proximus Global, Radisys, Sinch and Vonage, and to everyone who spoke, voted and argued at CASA26.
Download the State of Intelligent Engagement 2026
I've spent my career in IT and telecoms building bridges, from the early days of cloud communications to today's reset around APIs, CPaaS and AI.
As Founding Partner of The Next Cloud and CPaaSAA, I help telcos, CPaaS players and AI-native scaleups work out where they fit in the AI era, through strategy, ecosystem building and events.
My view: the value is moving from platforms to outcomes, and real innovation comes from ecosystems, not incumbents acting alone.
Based in Amsterdam, usually somewhere else.
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