The CPaaS Revolution: APIs, AI, and the New Era of Communication

Frost & Sullivan’s 2025 IT decision-maker (ITDM) survey was conducted to gain insights into the following end-user organizations’ priorities:
- Current communications and collaboration technology adoption rates and future adoption plans.
- Demand for communications platform as a service (CPaaS) and programmable communications functionality through flexible application programming interfaces (APIs)
- Demand for the various communications modalities or digital channels currently available in CPaaS solutions

The survey also aimed to understand:
- Growth opportunities within the CPaaS market for the entire enterprise communications ecosystem, including telecommunication carriers, unified communications as a service (UCaaS) providers, unified communications (UC) technology vendors, and other ecosystem partners.
- Buying preferences and obstacles to adoption
- CPaaS adoption trends by vertical industry

The vast majority, more than 84%, of surveyed organizations in the 2024 Frost & Sullivan study expected to have adopted programmable communications by the end of 2026, suggesting significant growth potential for CPaaS providers. More than 50% of organizations are likely to increase their CPaaS investment over the next three years across various API-enabled communication modalities (e.g., email, messaging, voice, video).

Even when many organizations undergo technology transformation, the majority are challenged by their fragmented systems/ platforms as a productivity barrier. CPaaS, initially adopted to enhance customer interactions, is now primarily valued by IT decision-makers for driving internal productivity and workflow automation. About 35% of IT decision-makers lack understanding of the technology’s benefits, potentially hindering adoption and highlighting the need for increased awareness and ROI discussion.

Author: Krishna Baidya