Since the start of the decade, we’ve done a collective 180° when it comes to where, when, and how we work.

In a recent LinkedIn poll of more than 1,300 respondents, 87% said they would never again accept a role that required them to work in a corporate office from nine to five, five days a week. And according to new 2030 vision research, 60% of business leaders say that their organization’s office footprint will be reduced and used primarily as deskshare space for hybrid work or client meetings.

With the accelerated move toward a digital-first future, cloud communications has become a strategic asset, which leads to our curation of eight predictions for business communications in 2023 through 2030:

1. In 2023, 80% of companies will pivot innovation efforts from creativity to resilience. Forrester VP and Research Director Matthew Guarini says, “the stage is set for 2023. Future fit technology leaders will make wise technology investments to secure future growth while laggards will act conservatively, cutting costs to the point that they destroy customer value and collect even more technical debt.” Read more in his blog post.

2. Through 2023, more than half of contact center vendor decisions will involve the CIO or CTO. Businesses were so disrupted during the pandemic that investments in the contact center, and other customer-facing areas, became a board-level focus. Now, CIOs, CTOs, and IT leaders are being charged with how to arm agents and employees with the best communication tools to deliver optimized customer experiences.

3. Through 2023, 80% of office job applicants will have remote or hybrid work in their requirements when evaluating job postings. Requests for remote and hybrid work are likely here to stay, and the number will be higher for experienced candidates (who also are more likely to see their request granted).

4. By 2024, 25% of remote work will be conducted outside the home office. The number of digital nomads is certain to increase in the coming years. According to the ABrotherAbroad Global Digital Nomad Study, there are more than 35 million digital nomads worldwide with a collective economic value of approximately $787 billion.

5. By 2029, 15% of UCaaS/CCaaS licenses will be used by nonhumans. CDOTrends recently highlighted the growing use of AI in its article “Your Contact Person Will Be an AI in 2023.”

6. By 2030, more than 75% of companies will use UCaaS for their calling, meeting, and messaging needs. Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst at Metrigy Research notes, “today, more than 45% rely on UCaaS as their only platform for their calling and communications needs, and an additional 14% use both UCaaS and on-premises platforms in a hybrid fashion. Even more impressive, roughly a quarter of the 45% of companies still using on-premises or custom-built hosted platforms are planning to migrate to UCaaS, or are evaluating such a move.” Read more in his post.

7. By 2030, more than one-third of employees will use business communications tools that have personalized feature sets based on the employee’s role. Over the next few years, we predict that use-case-focused user experience design will move to the forefront in the evolution of collaboration.

8. By 2030, 75% of organizations will use virtual or augmented reality integrations to drive company culture and inclusivity. In a recent SHRM Chief Executive Survey, 67% of CEOs and CHROs noted that their biggest talent management challenge posed by remote and hybrid work is maintaining company culture. This is where virtual reality and augmented reality integrations will come in. With greater use in the workplace, you’ll see both the related software and VR/AR hardware go through its own transition, not just to be more portable, but also more user friendly.

Want to read more on one or more of the predictions above? Download a complimentary copy of Business Communications Predictions for 2023 and Beyond. Looking for contact center predictions? Download our Contact Center Predictions for 2023 and Beyond eBook.