UC is now a core utility for the enterprise workplace. When voice and video wobble, the impact is immediate: meetings stall, decisions slow down, and support teams get swamped.
In 2026, buyers are responding in two ways. First, they are treating reliability as a strategic risk, not a helpdesk nuisance. Second, they are expanding their stack with tools that can prevent issues, detect them earlier, and shorten time-to-fix.
To keep this actionable, we are separating these trends by category. Take a look at the different areas within this Service Management & Connectivity, and the defining trend within it.
What are the latest ITSM trends?
One of the biggest AI-enabled ITSM trends is AI moving into everyday service work, like incident summaries and resolution notes, so teams spend less time writing and more time fixing.
Network & Connectivity Services
What it does for UC: Network and connectivity services keep the routes between employees and cloud UC platforms stable, so voice and video traffic stays smooth. In enterprise UC, this matters because even small spikes in latency can degrade real-time experience.
Trend to watch: SD-WAN plus automation becomes the default “reliability layer”
The headline enterprise connectivity trends shift is that networks are becoming software-controlled and policy-driven. SD-WAN is a big part of this because it supports dynamic, policy-based application path selection across multiple WAN connections, helping prioritize real-time collaboration traffic.
At the same time, Gartner predicts a major jump in automation: by 2026, 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network activities, up from under 10% in mid-2023.
For UC leaders, the implication is clear. Reliability is shifting from “detect and respond” to “avoid and reroute.”
UC Performance Monitoring & Quality of Experience (QoE)
What it does for UC: UC performance monitoring tools act like health trackers for calls and meetings, measuring what users feel through signals like packet loss, latency, and jitter. They help pinpoint whether the issue is the device, Wi-Fi, network path, or the UC service itself.
Enterprise Connectivity Trend to watch: QoE moves from dashboards to proactive detection
Buyers are demanding monitoring that spots quality dips before users complain and makes root cause easier to prove. Microsoft notes that device, software processing, and network latency all contribute to user experience and UC call quality.
Zoom similarly describes analyzing parameters like packet loss, latency, and jitter to improve MOS and user quality.
This is where UC call quality tech is heading: not just measuring quality, but turning it into clear actions and faster triage.
IT Service Management
What it does for UC: ITSM platforms organize incidents, changes, and service requests so issues are owned, prioritized, and resolved consistently. In enterprise UC, ITSM turns “calls are broken” into a predictable workflow with escalation, playbooks, and accountability.
Service Management Trend to watch: AI-assisted ITSM becomes the baseline, not the bonus
The most practical ITSM trends shift is AI being embedded into service workflows. ServiceNow, for example, describes using generative AI for enhanced self-service search, incident summaries, and resolution notes generation.
For buyers, the key is outcomes. If AI does not shorten time-to-diagnosis or improve resolution consistency, it is not delivering the ROI that buying committee expects.
Unified Service Management
What it does for UC: Unified service management aims to give teams one operational view across IT and UC services, so they share the same facts. In enterprise UC, this reduces delays caused by handoffs and “it’s not our problem” loops.
Service Management Trend to watch: “single view” expands to include the collaboration experience
As UC estates get bigger, more organizations want to connect the dots between QoE signals, network behavior, and service workflows. The Teams call flows model highlights that real-time communications rely on multiple network segments and components, which is exactly why shared visibility matters.
This is UC reliability innovation in a quiet form: less time arguing about ownership, more time fixing the actual issue.
API, Integration & Middleware Platforms
What it does for UC: Integration platforms connect UC tools to business systems so data and events flow automatically rather than manually. In UC operations, this enables automation like user provisioning, creating tickets from QoE alerts, and syncing changes across systems.
Connectivity Trend to watch: integration becomes a reliability feature
The trend is moving beyond “connect apps” into “connect operations.” Looking ahead, IBM highlights that iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) can provide self-service, cloud-based tools that integrate applications, systems, and data sources across diverse environments, streamlining automation and data flows.
For UC buyers, integration is how monitoring becomes action, and how service management becomes faster than email chains.
Cloud Infrastructure for UC
What it does for UC: Cloud infrastructure is the engine room hosting and scaling UC workloads so voice and video stay reliable during peaks and across geographies. It matters because real-time communications are sensitive, and resilience choices can shape performance and continuity.
Connectivity Trend to watch: resilience architecture becomes a procurement question
Buyers are asking harder questions about UC reliability, availability, regions, and media paths.
Microsoft highlights how Teams are built with a resilient microservice architecture across geo-redundant systems and operated out of at least two geographically distant Azure regions where available.
The takeaway: cloud is no longer a black box. It is part of your UC reliability plan.
Summary & Next Steps
In 2026, the organizations that win on collaboration will be the ones that treat UC like a true business service, not just a set of apps.
That means investing across the stack, from enterprise connectivity trends like SD-WAN automation, to UC call quality tech that spots problems early, to ITSM trends that reduce chaos with clear ownership and faster resolution.
The next wave of UC reliability innovation is not one shiny platform, it is how well your monitoring, service workflows, integrations, and cloud resilience work together.
Had enough of discussing trends and now you’re looking to put this into practice? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Service Management & Connectivity where we look at evaluating these tools and adopting them in your enterprise.
