Despite more than a decade in the business lexicon, Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) still sits in a grey zone for many executives. Awareness can be high, yet understanding of its strategic potential remains patchy. Too often, discussions are dominated by “speeds and feeds”, the technical capabilities of programmable communications, rather than the tangible outcomes they enable.
As Neelam Sandhu, CMO of Vonage, observed at this year's CPaaS Acceleration Summit Amsterdam (CASA 2025):
Too often, we speak in ‘speeds and feeds,’ focusing on the technical detail without showing the real outcomes. That makes it hard for enterprises, industries, and even consumers to get excited about the vision."
Sandhu drew a comparison to the early days of cloud computing. Few were stirred by lists of virtualisation features; everyone was transformed by the collective impact of the cloud stack. CPaaS, network APIs, and their convergence with AI and UCaaS sit at a similar inflection point in 2025.
Intelligent Engagement As Orchestration, Trust, and Action
If CPaaS provides the technical foundation, intelligent engagement is the strategic layer that makes it meaningful. For Boris Maric, Head of Mid Market Customer Acquisition EMEA at InfoBip, intelligent engagement is less about raw capability and more about orchestration. “For me, intelligent engagement is really about orchestration, ensuring that all messages and interactions are coordinated effectively. In my presentation, I spoke about three guiding principles: trust, guidance, and action.”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJReaQm6yXI[/embed]
Those principles are not abstract. They speak directly to every organisation's priorities: building trusted customer relationships, guiding users seamlessly across journeys, and driving measurable actions that impact revenue and loyalty. The proliferation of customer data and communication channels has created a paradox for enterprises: everything is measurable, yet very little is orchestrated.
Maric underlined this gap: “The key is that most businesses already have the data. The challenge, and opportunity, is orchestrating that data into more intelligent, engaging interactions.”
Network APIs are Unlocking the Latent Value of Mobile Networks
The enabler of this orchestration at scale is the new wave of network APIs, exposing previously dormant capabilities within mobile networks: quality-on-demand, location, authentication, and security, all programmable via API.
As Sandhu framed it: “With the rollout of 5G, plus AI and cloud as enablers, mobile networks can now evolve into a vibrant ecosystem, platform, and marketplace, much like cloud has done.”
Ericsson and Vonage’s joint venture, Aduna, is already live in multiple countries and exemplifies this transition. Uniting operators, hyperscalers, and developers provides a consistent API layer across fragmented networks, the equivalent of AWS or Azure in the cloud’s formative years.
The GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative is accelerating this further. With more than 40 mobile operators signed on by early 2025, Open Gateway provides a standardised set of network APIs that developers can consume globally, rather than market by market. Analysts at STL Partners estimate this could unlock a $300 billion market opportunity by 2030.
Real-Life Case Studies: From Healthcare to Retail
The most persuasive arguments for CPaaS and network APIs come from applied examples. Healthcare, often cited as a bellwether, is illustrative.
Sandhu described a scenario where a first responder, equipped with a 5G-enabled tablet, transmits diagnostics to hospital specialists in real time.
