Cloud Connections 2026 felt like a checkpoint for the cloud communications business.
Not as a result of the room was downbeat (it wasn’t), however as a result of the conversations have been unusually direct. Throughout the occasion, the identical realities saved surfacing: development is tougher to return by, differentiation is tougher to show, and AI is now concurrently the most important alternative available in the market and the most important supply of noise.
Keynote speaker Mike Tessler’s thought of “the Fog” captured it effectively: a second the place choices can look interchangeable from the skin, pricing strain retains tightening, and purchaser confidence relies upon much less on function lists and extra on belief, governance, and outcomes. The constant message wasn’t “look ahead to the fog to clear.” It was: decide a lane, construct defensible worth, and execute.
Listed here are the ten takeaways that stood out most from Cloud Connections 2026.
Contents
1) The “Data Navigator” second
CCA Chairman Clark Peterson opened the day with an Apple idea video predicting AI brokers, video conferencing, and digital assistants. The twist: it wasn’t made in 2026. It was made in 1987: practically 4 many years earlier than at this time’s instruments caught up.
“That is actually the primary AI agent,” Peterson advised the room. “And if there was anyone who was going to be visionaries for this business, they’re all sitting on this room proper now.”
The broader level: cloud comms is shifting from merely connecting individuals to orchestrating work. The query now isn’t whether or not the imaginative and prescient exists—it’s whether or not the business can flip it into sturdy merchandise and enterprise fashions.
2) The generalist supplier is getting squeezed out
Mike Tessler (former BroadSoft CEO and now Managing Associate at True North Advisory) urged the room to select: “Cease chasing every part.”
With function parity largely in place throughout main platforms, “generalist” positioning more and more turns into worth competitors. Tessler’s push was to decide on a lane—vertical, geography, or a selected buyer downside—and change into meaningfully higher than anybody else in that house.
“It’s very reactionary,” Tessler mentioned of the market’s present state. “It’s very tough to determine the way to get out of the fog… and admittedly, for many individuals, the expansion hasn’t returned.”
3) Information is changing into the product, not simply the byproduct
For years, suppliers have carried monumental volumes of dialog knowledge throughout their networks and monetized primarily the transport. That mindset is altering.
The Information is the New Oil and vCon Modifications Every part discussions pointed towards a brand new industrial mannequin: seize dialog knowledge through requirements like vCon, construction it, analyze it with AI, and promote insights and outcomes again to prospects.
“We’ve obtained all this content material flowing by means of our networks,” Peterson famous. “We haven’t monetized it, apart from charging prospects to let it circulate.”
4) RAG is the AI structure enterprises can truly deploy with confidence
In AI Will get Actual: How GenAI and RAG Are Reshaping Cloud Communications (Gerry Christensen, Mark Lindsey, Jeffrey Korn, Yusuf Mirza), the emphasis was on Retrieval-Augmented Era (RAG): maintaining generative outputs anchored to accredited sources of fact so AI can function inside actual enterprise workflows.
The shift underway is from “AI that may speak” to AI that may reply precisely utilizing your knowledge. That’s what makes enterprise AI deployable at scale—particularly inside cloud comms environments.
5) Compliance is transferring from obligation to differentiator
Compliance isn’t a tax on innovation however one thing suppliers can bundle, automate, and promote: particularly as AI touches extra buyer interactions and knowledge sorts.
Related periods included:
The Subsequent Frontier of Voice & Messaging: AI, Accountability, and Monetizing Compliance (Tom Sheahan, Invoice Placke, Jeff Potter, Mark Vange)
From the Cloud to the Hill: CCA’s Advocacy in Motion (Jonathan Marashlian, Michael Pryor, Mark Iannuzzi, Chip Pickering)
Compliance is shifting from a back-office obligation to a front-of-house differentiator—significantly as provenance and accountability change into important in AI-mediated communications.
6) Belief—safety and privateness—stays the actual adoption bottleneck
The largest blocker to AI in cloud communications isn’t functionality: it’s danger.
The dialog repeatedly returned as to whether prospects can belief AI with delicate content material, and whether or not suppliers can confidently function inside unclear or evolving regulatory environments.
Safety and governance aren’t facet quests any extra—they’re conditions for mainstream AI adoption in UCaaS/CCaaS.
7) UX is now not a “good to have”—it’s a aggressive weapon
As platforms’ capabilities converge, they’re differentiated by how easily customers can full actual work throughout voice, collaboration, and buyer workflows.
In Past the Name: Rethinking UX in Cloud Collaboration (Nicholas Clapper, Sanjay Srinivasan, Sachin Vengurlekar, Joshua Lesavoy, Jason Shawgo), the argument was easy: scale back friction or lose consideration.
In a feature-parity market, the “finest product” more and more appears to be like just like the one which feels easiest—particularly as soon as AI is layered into day-to-day workflows.
8) The sensible cash is making an attempt to monetize the stack, not substitute it
Many suppliers aren’t making an attempt to exchange the dominant collaboration environments. They’re making an attempt to revenue by enabling them—voice enablement, integrations, help, governance, and compliance wrapped round platforms prospects already standardize on.
This concept surfaced in Monetizing the Stack: Voice-Enabled Groups, Zoom & Webex with CallTower (William Rubio): be important infrastructure, not simply one other app.
The takeaway: the monetization battle is shifting down the stack—voice, numbering, compliance, and enterprise integration are the place differentiation and margin can nonetheless reside.
9) M&A and analysts saved coming again to at least one check: decide a lane
The M&A and analyst periods underscored that strategic positioning issues greater than ever—particularly as patrons and buyers consider defensibility in an AI-accelerated market.
Related periods included:
Offers, Disruption & the Subsequent Wave: M&A in Cloud Communications (Ari Rabban, Joshua Reilly)
State of the Cloud: Analyst Views on What’s Now and What’s Subsequent (Irwin Lazar, Matt Townend, Catharine Trebnick, Clark Peterson)
Valuation discussions are more and more tied to readability of lane—what an organization is (and isn’t), what moat it has, and the way it expects to win as AI adjustments value constructions and have differentiation.
10) Routes to market are being rewritten in actual time
Go-to-market and associate fashions are below strain—particularly as AI adjustments how worth is delivered (and due to this fact the way it’s offered and priced).
Related periods included:
Economics of Partnering (Janet Schijns)
What Brokers Actually Need: The Reality About Routes to Market (Janet Schijns, Roger Blohm, Lou DiMuzio, Anita Patel, Chris Dennis)
Associate Enablement That Really Permits (Katie Merrill, Amy Bailey, Stephanie Benzik, Randall Meeks)
The business is now not treating “channel” as a packaging downside. It’s treating it as a method downside—how companions create and seize worth as platforms change into extra AI-driven, extra built-in, and tougher to distinguish on primary options alone.
