Enterprises in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are approaching communications modernization with deliberate caution in 2026, prioritizing uptime, compliance, security, and trust in one of the world's most regulated and fragmented regions. While AI holds strong potential for richer customer experiences and efficiency, adoption remains measured, focused on building resilient foundations rather than rapid transformation.
This is the central finding of "The State of EMEA Enterprise Communications 2026," a report published by Bandwidth Inc. in partnership with Cavell. The research draws on insights from 500 IT and telecom decision-makers at EMEA-headquartered companies with 1,000+ employees, supplemented by comparative data from more than 750 North American IT leaders.
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"Enterprises are advancing their communications strategies carefully, balancing innovation against regulatory readiness, security risk and the realities of operating across multiple countries," said Finbarr Begley, Senior Analyst at Cavell. "Security, fraud and compliance are different corners of the same maze in EMEA, and together they shape how quickly organizations can modernize."
"EMEA enterprise leaders must walk a tightrope: innovating with purpose, modernizing with caution and building infrastructure that's resilient and adaptable," said Timir Patel, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Voice Plans at Bandwidth. "For progress to speed up, enterprises must first solve platform-level complexity across countries, regulations and use cases. Bandwidth's platform is designed to meet the demanding needs of this environment."
The report highlights a contrast with North America, where lower complexity and earlier cloud/AI investments allow faster optimization and scale. In EMEA, progress is intentional: AI is layered into trusted, compliant infrastructures rather than deployed impulsively. Trust in voice communications is eroding across both regions due to widespread spam mislabeling, underscoring the need for resilient, adaptable stacks that protect uptime and customer engagement.
Managed service providers play a pivotal role in this landscape, evolving from transactional vendors into long-term operational partners that handle end-to-end service management, integration, and modernization in fragmented environments.
The full report, based on a survey of decision-makers across financial services, retail, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, and other sectors (primarily U.K., France, and Spain), is available for download here.
About Cavell
Cavell is a leading research and consulting firm specialising in the telecommunications industry, with a strong focus on business communications technologies including UCaaS, collaboration, contact centre and customer engagement software, business messaging and Microsoft Teams. We provide insights, analysis and advisory services to help you navigate and succeed in these rapidly evolving sectors.
About Bandwidth Inc.
Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) is a global cloud communications software company that helps enterprises deliver exceptional experiences through voice calling, text messaging and emergency services. Our solutions and our Communications Cloud, covering 65+ countries and over 90 percent of global GDP, are trusted by all the leaders in unified communications and cloud contact centers—including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Google, Microsoft, RingCentral, Zoom, Genesys and Five9—as well as Global 2000 enterprises and SaaS builders like Docusign, Uber and Yosi Health. As a founder of the cloud communications revolution, we are the first and only global Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) to offer a unique combination of composable APIs, AI capabilities, owner-operated network and broad regulatory experience. Our award-winning support teams help businesses around the world transform their communications every day.
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