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What’s the News?

Metrigy’s recently published Workplace Collaboration and Contact Center Security and Compliance: 2026 global study of 305 organizations notes organizations are increasing their efforts to ensure compliance as AI dramatically reshapes internal and customer-facing communications. Compliance leaders are now heavily involved in application selection and roll-out, with 71.9% of participants saying that compliance officers provide app selection guidance, and nearly 57% saying that compliance teams must approve new communications apps.

Unfortunately, just half (49.8%) of companies have implemented a structured security and compliance program to protect their data assets and applications. Nineteen percent combat risks by blocking apps or turning off features such as meeting recording and transcription, AI copilots, or employee video creation. Often the “just say no” approach leads to the rise of shadow IT, with employees resorting to using unapproved applications, like AI notetakers, outside of IT control. Shadow IT creates potential risk of data loss, and as we’ve seen repeatedly over the last few years, the potential for large fines resulting from the use of non-compliant unsecure and unmonitored communications channels.

Proactive Strategy = Real World Benefits

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Kick off the year with Metrigy analysts, who share what’s top of mind for them in customer experience and workplace collaboration as 2026 gets underway.

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Metrigy’s annual study on workplace collaboration and contact center security and compliance paints a disturbing picture of growing attacks and increasing threats, often driven by AI. But, companies are slowly improving their security posture.

Attacks on the Rise

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In today’s fast-paced business world, companies are embracing AI capabilities and cloud-based services to enhance employee and customer engagement.

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It is clear now that we live in the age of AI. Companies are rapidly rolling out AI tools to support employees in a variety of ways, from coding to business intelligence to customer service and more. AI is transforming from a static tool to query information into agentic AI, where AI agents take action on their own, based on what they’ve learned and what they’ve been configured to do.

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Newly Released Metrigy Workplace Collaboration MetriCast 2025 Study

November 24, 2025 – Research and advisory firm Metrigy released its Workplace Collaboration MetriCast 2025 market research study of nine key technology areas driving successful collaboration interactions. Many companies are keeping near-term spending flat across multiple areas including UCaaS, SIP trunking, headsets, and video conferencing headsets the study finds.

In the Workplace Collaboration MetriCast 2025 study, Metrigy analyzes buy-side market data provided by 775 IT leaders from 10 countries and 18+ vertical industries with operational and/or procurement responsibilities. Metrigy looks at technologies in use, providers, spending, ratings of the providers, and relative success using the products. Metrigy also examines the percentage of companies that are changing or planning/evaluating a change in providers, what’s driving them to leave, and which new providers they are considering in the following categories:

• PBXs
• Unified communications as a service (UCaaS)
• Meeting applications
• Video conferencing equipment
• IP desk phones
• Headsets
• Team collaboration
• SIP trunking
• Enterprise session border controllers (SBCs)

UCaaS has become the predominate phone and collaboration tool for businesses worldwide. While a number of companies are looking to keep UCaaS spending flat, beyond the core capabilities of phone, meetings, and messaging, 35% of businesses are willing to pay upwards of 20% more for enhanced features, the study finds. “There is an increasing level of importance in UCaaS bundled with productivity tools such as email, calendar, document creation, and file storage,” says Diane Myers, Metrigy senior research director.

This MetriCast study is part of Metrigy’s MetriCast Service, which also includes market forecast and shares across select customer experience and workplace collaboration technology categories, with quarterly updates; MetriRank vendor ratings across select categories; and the annual MetriStar Awards for vendors earning top customer sentiment ratings and whose customers achieve top business success. For more information, visit www.metrigy.com. 

As communication, collaboration, and customer engagement channels grow, and AI becomes commonplace, security and compliance risk are increasing as well. Companies must proactively secure these platforms to protect customer data, safeguard intellectual property, meet appropriate compliance requirements, and ensure brand reputation.

Metrigy’s latest research study, “Workplace Collaboration and Contact Center Security: 2026,” provides data-driven, actionable insights for successfully creating and implementing security and compliance strategies to maximize the ROI of emerging technologies like generative AI.

The Rising Tide of Security Incidents

The data is clear: security incidents are on the rise. A significant 30.5% of companies reported experiencing an attack on their communications and collaboration applications in 2025, which is up from 20.5% in 2023. That represents a more than 300% increase since we first started tracking attacks 2021. Furthermore, 28.0% of companies had an attack on their contact center platforms. These incidents often involve account takeover, deepfake voice/video impersonation, and malware/phishing.

The consequences of failing to address these risks are severe, including potential data loss, reputational harm, and a negative business impact from improper app security. Ignoring these issues can even incentivize employees to bypass IT and use unsanctioned consumer apps.

Taking Proactive Steps: The Security Advantage

Our study demonstrates that companies who proactively address security and compliance are better positioned to achieve measurable business benefits from adopting emerging technology. These “Success Group” companies show significantly different practices:

• Formal Security Programs: Nearly half (49.8%) of all companies have a formal workplace collaboration security program, with 53.2% of the Success Group having one, compared to 48.0% of the non-success group. For the contact center, 50.5% have a formal security strategy.
• Leadership Involvement: Success Group companies are more likely to involve their CISO/CSO. For workplace collaboration apps, 89.8% of the Success Group receive CISO/CSO guidance before deployment, versus 76.9% of the non-success group. A staggering 84.4% of the Success Group have a Chief Compliance Officer, compared to just 51.0% of the non-success group.
• Increased Spending: A majority of companies (64.6%) are increasing their security spend for workplace collaboration, driven primarily by the need to improve their overall security posture. Notably, 79.8% of the Success Group are increasing this spend, versus 56.1% of the non-success group.
• AI Security: As generative AI use grows (49.8% of companies are using or planning to use it), 58.1% of those using it have adopted a security and compliance policy, with human review of output being the primary component.

Leveraging Technology and Compliance

The study also highlights the increasing role of technology in defense:

• Third-Party Platforms: 43.0% of companies now use a third-party security management platform for workplace collaboration. The reported benefits are substantial: a 44.3% reduction in Mean Time to Detect and a 98% reduction in Mean Time to Resolve an incident.
• Compliance for Intelligence: Almost 70% of companies use compliance data for business intelligence, which can help identify discussion topics, workflow bottlenecks, risks, and incidents.

To thrive amidst the digital shift, securing your collaboration and customer engagement platforms is non-negotiable. Don’t fall behind the curve.