Enterprise Connect 2026 is less than a week away, and we couldn’t be more excited to show off the all-new EC, complete with new venue, expanded networking, and cool new activities. As program chair, I’m particularly focused on the content we’ll engage with in Las Vegas, and what we can learn about this pivotal moment in the enterprise collaboration/CX tech industry. Here are some of the big issues I’m hoping to learn about in more depth and understand better by this time next week – with links to the Conference sessions where we’ll learn about these challenges and solutions:

• How do the pieces fit together? Even in this time of incredible change, the basic job hasn’t changed for IT folks tasked with delivering collaboration and CX functionality: Provide platforms, services, and applications that let internal users connect with each other and the outside world, and let your customers interact with you in the way they want. Oh, and do it within or preferably under budget, securely. This has always been a job of orchestration, and there are more new elements to harmonize than ever before. There’s your underlying network – how will it carry not only your legacy real-time streams, but all the AI-driven traffic you now support? Another key issue is interoperability and standards. Especially for teams needing to tie together multiple generations of room video products from myriad vendors, how can you set and enforce standards, and how much real interoperability can you expect among multi-vendor estates?
• Finally, the idea of “moving to the cloud” has become much less binary (are you cloud or on-prem?) and more nuanced than the first generation of UCaaS and CCaaS tended to involve. Our program looks at this post-UCaaS world, including the new provider landscape, what a hybrid architecture looks like in 2026, and how integration challenges impact the kinds of services you can deliver, especially for the contact center. We’ll also zero in on what your 3-to-5-year plan should look like.
• How Scared Should You Be About Security? Judging by the slides I’ve reviewed so far, the answer is: Pretty scared. The statistic that jumped out at me from a presentation by Scott Murphy of Data Perceptions: 85% of organizations faced deepfake-based threats in 2025. So the issue of deepfakes isn’t coming; it’s here. Scott will detail a list of deepfake attacks on UC, contact center, and related systems, with estimated impacts as high as $25 million.
• We’re keeping a focus on security all week long, from a session in our Tuesday half-day summit on Collaboration, through to Thursday morning, when I’ll moderate a keynote panel discussion with security professionals from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, Mastercard, and Amicus Therapeutics.
• Will 2026 Make or Break AI? Last week I shared results from a survey of CIOs that found 71% believe they only have until the middle of this year to “prove AI value or risk budgets and job fallout.” Some of those 71% may feel confident they’ll be able to show such proof, while others may be a lot more nervous. Wherever your IT organization lands, you’re almost certainly not resting easy about the AI journey. Whether you’re trying to prove ROI for a contact center application; scale your deployment while grappling with build-vs.-buy questions; deal with ethical and compliance issues; understand Agentic AI; or tackle one of the myriad other challenges – the EC2026 program is as stocked with AI content as you’d expect (and require). I’m hoping to come away from Las Vegas with a better sense of where enterprises stand as we move deeper into what’s likely to be a crucial year for AI.

These critical issues will dominate the EC2026 program, together with always-important topics like E911, workplace trends, and user adoption. It’s not too late to register for the Conference, and if you opt for just a free Expo pass, that still gets you into all the keynote sessions and more. I hope to see you next week in Las Vegas!

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