Month: October 2026

Voice Security in Customer Engagement Has Missing Pieces

by orumohiuddin, posted in Communicate, Secure
A professional portrait of a woman with long black hair, wearing a patterned blouse and a pearl necklace, against a plain background.
O. Mohiuddin

Summary Bullets:

• AI is driving up voice traffic while also making voice more vulnerable, so voice security needs urgent attention.

• The building blocks are in place, but solutions are fragmented. Voice security needs to be integrated on the carrier network level and backed by strong verification at the business.

Voice security is of paramount importance today. Advances in AI are affecting voice in two ways. First, AI is improving the voice experience as it becomes more interactive, which is expected to increase overall voice traffic. Second, AI can be used to bypass security barriers, significantly raising the threat level. The threat landscape varies depending on the call type, recipients, and network routing (such as international borders); this blog focuses on voice security within customer engagement (particularly contact centers), predominantly in the US.

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nexfibre and Netomnia: Is Bigger Better for UK Fiber Competition?

by Brendan Swan, posted in Communicate
A professional headshot of a man smiling, wearing a dark suit with a light pink shirt, set against a neutral background.
B. Swan

Summary Bullets:

• The UK’s Competition and Market Authority released its interim findings on nexfibre’s proposed acquisition of Netomnia, in which it raised concerns that the acquisition could reduce wholesale competition.

• Deploying multiple overlapping networks have put smaller altnets under financial pressure, with consolidation seemingly the only way forward.

It’s been humorously said that the UK has roughly one altnet for every postcode – well over 100 to be exact – each armed with big ambitions and a digger. It’s therefore no surprise that consolidation is now firmly on the agenda, with M&A activity set to reshape the alternative network landscape. The market that emerges could look very different from the landscape we see today. With the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) releasing its interim findings on nexfibre’s proposed acquisition of Netomnia, raising concerns that the deal could reduce wholesale competition, particularly where the two networks overlap. Yet consolidation could create a larger stronger challenger to take on BT’s Openreach. Though this raises the broader question: Does the UK need more fiber networks, or fewer but stronger networks capable of competing at scale with Openreach?

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Agentic AI Transforms the Marketplace UX as Infra Services Become Consumable Products

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Big Data
Close-up portrait of a smiling woman with blonde hair and earrings, in a softly lit setting.
C. Dunlap
Research Director

Summary Bullets:

• AI-driven conversational discovery experience boosts the relevancy of marketplaces among broader audiences.

• Network services evolve into consumable and programmable products via enterprise agents.

Agentic AI innovations have boosted hyperscaler marketplaces’ relevance, and global telecommunications giants are taking notice.

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Chinese Cloud Giants Close Enterprise AI Platform Gap with Global Hyperscalers, but Execution Lags

by Alfie Amir, posted in IT Leader
A smiling man in a formal suit and red tie, set against a white background.
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• Chinese providers are catching up with global leaders in three areas: generative AI, operationalized solutions, and agentic AI, giving enterprises broader options to diversify their AI partners.

• However, gaps in go-to-market, professional services, and model development remain large – crucial areas to drive adoption and accelerate deployments.

AI demand continues to grow rapidly. GlobalData Market Opportunity Forecasts to 2030: Artificial Intelligence (published on June 30, 2026) forecasts the global AI market to increase at 48.2% five-year-CAGR to reach $1.3 trillion in 2030. This is also reflected by 88% of the 3,069 global enterprises interviewed by GlobalData, who increased their AI budget this year (source: GlobalData ICT Customer Insights Survey 2026. Asia-Pacific shows a similar trend with a 48.6% CAGR, accounting for 36.2% of the global AI market in 2026. While growth is reported across the stack from the GPU to the application layer, cloud-based enterprise platforms remain crucial to drive adoption by providing broad and flexible capabilities to develop, govern, and scale AI deployments. GlobalData’s recent updates on Cloud-Based Enterprise AI Platforms: Competitive Landscape Assessment (September 17, 2026) shows that global hyperscalers (Google and Amazon) continue to lead the market, followed closely by Microsoft and IBM. However, Chinese players including Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, and Tencent are closing the gap. This is important especially in markets like Asia where these players already have a strong presence. This gives enterprises broader options to diversify their AI partners, but also attracts cost-sensitive customers through their cost-leadership strategy.

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