Happy New Year 2024!
With the new year comes a new trends blog, where we spotlight the topics and themes that will guide the VoIP world in 2024. 1 or 2 trends make repeat appearances, having been listed in our 2023 VoIP and tech trends and 2022 cloud VoIP trends blogs. The rest of the list is rounded out with new innovations that meet the quickly changing norms of the business world. Does your organization have plans to address these key areas in the upcoming year?
1) AI and Hosted VoIP Phone Features
2023 was certainly a banner year for artificial intelligence (AI), with AI services and technologies regularly making the news. And AI continues to work its way into hosted VoIP services, refining IVR features, aiding customer service efforts, and providing more insight into call data and calling patterns.
Sentiment analysis software tracks a caller’s tone of voice over the course of a call, helping agents and supervisors know which calls may be going badly and need to be attended to. And AI programs are being used to generate written summaries of conference calls, providing employees with another source of data besides the call recording itself.
And, as you’ve probably guessed, AI has popped up as a new –aaS software model, with AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) delivering AI technologies to businesses in a scalable, customizable, and affordable model.
Be on the lookout for VoIP platforms to include AI-supported communication features over the coming months and years.
2) The Future of VoIP: Supporting Hybrid Work Models
While the move back to the office has been well underway, hybrid and remote work models are still being supported by organizations across all industries. And hosted VoIP services are perfectly suited to unite employees who are working in separate locations.
In place of desk phones, employees can log into softphones on their laptops or smartphones and have a full-featured business phone whether they’re at their office or home office. Video conferencing enables staff to keep holding morning meetings, strategy sessions, or sprint reviews even when some team members are not in the office. And virtual receptionists and IVRs can route callers to employees working at home, at a different office branch, or while on business travel. Look for the further development of innovative VoIP features that help a mobile workforce communicate while on the go.
3) Mobility and Mobile Apps
With flexible work environments being the norm, communication features need to be mobile to be useful. We previously mentioned softphones; these come in the form of desktop, web browser, and mobile apps. Once logged into, these apps provide a centralized dashboard where users can make and take calls, start video conferences, play voicemails, view presence statuses of coworkers, and configure other call preferences.
VoIP desktop and mobile apps are powerful precisely because they work seamlessly on portable devices. No longer do you really need a physical desk phone—just log into the desktop app on your laptop and you’ll have your own customized and portable business phone with you wherever you go. We’re excited to see what other mobile VoIP features get developed in the coming year.
4) WebRTC and VoIP: A Powerful Combo for Business Calling
It’s surprising to think that Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) has been around for over 10 years now. All the major web browser developers (Google, Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft) are actively supporting the open-source project, and organizations like the World Wide Web Consortium and Internet Engineering Task Force have defined and published the technological specifications that make up WebRTC.
Simply put, it’s the technology that enables voice, video, text, and file sharing (all forms of real-time communication) between and among web browsers and mobile applications. WebRTC defines a common set of protocols and standards that allow disparate software and interfaces to communicate.
OnSIP has been an avid supporter of WebRTC since almost the beginning, and our Engineers have created more than a few communication apps that work with WebRTC protocols. One such example is the OnSIP web app, our softphone available in web browser windows. Customers do not have to download any plugins, widgets, or software—they simply go to app.onsip.com and log in with their user credentials. Once in, they have a complete phone in-the-browser and can make/take work calls, video call coworkers, and host video conferences with internal colleagues and external parties.
With each passing year, WebRTC’s communication potential is being brought into reality with novel and ground-breaking applications. We’re enthusiastically waiting to see what’s around the corner for WebRTC and VoIP.
5) Security, Security, Security
If there’s one sure topic that you can bet will make these yearly lists, it’s cybersecurity. Malicious actors and malware continue to threaten governments, businesses, and individuals alike, and both personal vigilance and technological tools are needed to squash cyberthreats.
Phone call encryption, multi-factor authentication, recurring employee training on social engineering attacks, penetration tests and advanced antivirus programs to uncover zero-day attack exploits—these are all important measures companies can use to safeguard their data and bolster their security. It will be the same for the future of VoIP platforms, as well (if providers haven’t already implemented them).
6) Sustainability in Cloud Computing
Green computing was a big focus area in our 2023 trends list. In 2024, a related offshoot of this field is making the list: Sustainable cloud computing. As Forbes notes, “The big cloud service providers have all made net-zero commitments, not just for their own operations but in order to help customers who use their services to reduce their carbon footprints. Amazon has pledged to achieve zero emissions by 2040, and Microsoft aims to beat this by ten years. Along with Google, they have also all stated their intention to generate 100 percent of the energy used in their operations from renewable sources.”
While sustainability in cloud computing may be more of a focus for the broader cloud technology environment, hosted VoIP continues to play an important role in the green tech movement. We’ve previously written about how VoIP helps businesses reduce their carbon footprint while also minimizing the amount of hardware (phones, telephone equipment, wires, etc.) needed to be used in offices. Hosted VoIP continues to be a valuable choice for businesses that want to implement sustainable technologies in their operations.