What I Heard at Enterprise Connect 2026
I just wrapped up a week at Enterprise Connect in Las Vegas. If 2025 was the year of “ What is your Voice AI strategy”, 2026 is officially the year of “Voice and Agentic AI Accountability.”
The hallway conversations were louder than the keynotes. Here are the 4 major shifts I heard on the floor that will define the rest of your year:
1. From “Assistants” to “Agents”
The novelty of AI summarization has worn off. Senior product leaders have moved beyond asking, “What can it summarize?” They’re instead asking, “What can it resolve?” We are moving from GenAI (talking) to Agentic AI (doing). If your AI can’t autonomously close a ticket or trigger a workflow, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
2. The ROI Crisis
There is a growing “Trust Gap” forming between boards and IT.
- The Problem: Companies invested heavily into AI.
- The Question: “Where is the 20% productivity spike we were promised?”
- The Shift: Vendors are no longer being judged on features; they are being judged on time-to-value.
3. The “Human-in-the-Loop” Burnout
A fascinating (and sobering) CX insight: As AI successfully deflects the simpler, more straightforward Tier 1 calls, human agents are left with only the most complex, emotionally charged escalations.
- The Result: Human agent burnout is hitting record highs.
- The Fix: We need AI that supports the agent’s mental health and complexity management, not just AI that replaces the simple stuff.
4. Prioritizing Identity Verification in the UCaaS Workflow
Security should never be a side conversation; it’s the engine. High-fidelity voice cloning and video deepfakes are making the standard identity questions obsolete. Authenticating that the person on the other end of the UCaaS stream is actually who they say they are is the new #1 priority for product leaders.
If you want to learn more about identity verification in UCaaS workflows, reach out to me at tmaddock@trestleiq.com.
A few conversations that stood out:
Daniel Harris and the Vonage team: Their demo is worth seeing if you’re thinking about adding new features to your contact center.
The Regal team (Lev Sivakamur, Lucien Roose, and Ethan Goldberg) gave one of the sharpest sessions I saw on Voice AI workflows in the contact center space. Their products were created from their own deep experiences in the contact center world, and it shows!
And the Caller ID Reputation team: Their depth on call monitoring and number reputation is very impressive, specifically their DialRight product. It tackles a problem that doesn’t get nearly enough attention.
Bottom line, the “experimentation” phase” of AI is over. The “execution” phase has begun.
Standardize your stack. Prove the ROI. Secure your identity perimeter. That’s what matters for H2 2026.
