In 2035, nobody will say ‘unified communications’, they’ll just call it ‘talking'

Evan Damon, Wholesale Channel Manager at Wanatel.

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Imagine stepping into your workplace in 2035 and casually saying: “Call the supply chain team about the delays.” Within seconds, the system schedules a stand-up, pulls shipment and tracking data, briefs the participants in natural voice, records decisions, generates follow-ups and distributes them, all while you sip your coffee. No toggling between apps. No manual handoffs. It’s just conversation.

That’s the future of voice, data and internet connectivity. The world of “unified communications” we’re building today will feel like dial-up nostalgia a decade from now. Let’s explore why, how and what that means for your business.

Some strong currents are converging:

Unlimited bandwidth, everywhere. More devices, faster connections, better wireless. The plumbing of communications is becoming abundant. As one recent networking forecast shows, device proliferation and average broadband speeds continue to rise at pace. This means media-rich voice/video in every interaction becomes the default, not the exception.

AI understands you. Generative models are closing the gap between speech and intent. Enterprises are already piloting conversational AI for customer-facing work. According to leadership research, a large majority of customer service leaders will explore or pilot GenAI in 2025. With voice-based AI rising, the era of “just make a call” evolves into “make the call count”.

Cloud voice is commoditised. The cloud PBX and UCaaS markets are growing rapidly. As voice becomes a service, not a sell-point, differentiation shifts to value-add features like context, analytics and agent workflows rather than seat-counts or dial-plans.

Put simply: the plumbing is solved, the intelligence is arriving and the market is shifting from components to outcomes.

Here’s a framework to help map which path your business might take, or prepare for:

1. Seamless convergence (most likely baseline)

Humans talk to humans. But the network, data, device and identity layers are invisible. You switch device mid-call, your CRM data surfaces automatically and context follows you. “Unified communications” is simply “communication”.

2. Agentic assistants + human collaboration (hybrid)

Routine calls like scheduling, data checks, triage are handled by agents (AI-driven). Humans intervene for nuance, decision-making and creativity. This is the goldilocks zone: automation but still overseen.

3. Bots take the wheel (accelerated automation)

For many basic interactions, from bookings to support checks, bots indistinguishably act like humans. True human-to-human calls become premium services. This world raises issues of trust, verification and liability, but is undeniable if scale-economics win.

One of these will dominate. More likely: a blend. But the direction is unmistakeable.

If you’re selling “unified communications” today, you must prepare for tomorrow’s world of “invisible communications”. Here’s how:

• Sell outcomes, not features. Customers won’t draw diagrams of dial-plans or seat-licences. They’ll ask: “How fast can we triage incidents?” “How many follow-ups can we automate?” Your offers must align to outcomes, not modules.
• Own context, identity and trust. The difference isn’t who connects the call. It’s who owns the context, interprets it and ensures it’s secure and auditable. You’ll need to offer identity, provenance, fraud protection and service governance.
• Design workflows, not apps. Think: “What repeat interaction can we automate end-to-end?” Package it. Productise it. Position it. Too many vendors over-configure features; the next era is preconfigured flows.
• Training and talent shift. Your sales and support people won’t just talk “features”. They will understand workflows, bots, AI supervision and data insights. And the operational end will shift from configuring PBX to supervising agents and governance.
• Guard your margins and time-to-value. According to analyst reports, many agentic AI projects are cancelled before delivering value. The caution: pilot deliberately, prove value, then scale.

Consider this:

• If bandwidth, intelligence and cloud voice become ubiquitous, what exactly does your sales team sell? Maybe it isn’t seats, but outcomes, SLAs and trust.
• Will the term “unified communications” survive? Or will it become a legacy label, one you’ve already outgrown?
• If many AI-agentic projects fail (as warned), should we invest in pilots or wait? Or both: modular APIs now, pilots next quarter?

1. Develop “interaction-outcomes” offerings. Pick one high-value interactive flow (eg, appointment booking, incident escalation) and build a turnkey service around it.

2. Invest in observability and identity. Lay groundwork today for voice provenance, identity verification, audit trails and privacy compliance.

3. Pilot supervised agents in low-risk domains. Automate payroll inquiries, scheduling, standard support calls. Monitor ROI, refine governance.

4. Train your teams. Sales, support and engineering must shift language – away from “seats and features” towards “workflow, outcome and efficiency”.

We’re still in chapter one of voice’s next era. In a decade, “communications” won’t be something you buy, it’ll be something you experience. The real value won’t be in uniting channels, but in weaving context, intelligence and trust into every interaction.