Conducted by the International Avaya Users Group (IAUG) in collaboration with Swampfox, this year’s State of the Market survey captures the perspectives of 434 Avaya contact center leaders representing every major vertical, utilities, healthcare, government, technology, and financial services. It offers an unfiltered view into how enterprises are balancing modernization, cost, and control in a time of transformation.
Nearly 90% of respondents operate Avaya Aura Elite environments, confirming Avaya’s continued dominance in enterprise contact centers. Yet that loyalty now depends on visible modernization—especially around AI, automation, and hybrid flexibility. Respondents trust Avaya’s reliability but want faster innovation.

1. Avaya Is Entrenched, but Modernization Is Expected

Avaya remains the bedrock of enterprise customer experience, valued for uptime, scalability, and compliance. However, respondents were clear: legacy strength alone won’t sustain advantage. Organizations admire Avaya’s history but are actively seeking modernization in AI and advanced speech technologies.

Takeaway: Avaya customers don’t need to abandon their platforms, but they must demand and plan for innovation. Augmenting existing systems with intelligent capabilities ensures continuity while preparing for the future.

2. Cloud Interest Is High, but Premise and Hybrid Win

Forty-two percent of respondents are evaluating CCaaS alternatives such as Genesys, Five9, and NICE/inContact. Roughly one-third are exploring Avaya Infinity or hybrid paths, and only 11% are fully committed to on-prem.

This highlights a pragmatic middle ground: enterprises want cloud benefits, but not the disruption or unpredictability of full migration. The clear preference is phased evolution, adopting cloud where it adds value while retaining critical Avaya assets.

Takeaway: Cloud migration should be strategic, not forced. The smartest organizations are modernizing incrementally, creating hybrid ecosystems that protect both performance and investment.

3. AI and Advanced Speech Are Now Must-Haves

Generative AI conversations and intelligent virtual assistants each attracted 44% interest, while 40% of respondents already use third-party NLU tools like Google Dialogflow, IBM Watson, or Microsoft Azure. AI is no longer an experimental concept; it’s an operational necessity.

Takeaway: Waiting for a full cloud shift to add AI is a losing strategy. Avaya customers can and should deploy AI, speech recognition, and automation now, directly within their existing environments—to boost efficiency, personalization, and service quality.

4. Decisions Are Driven by Integration, Compliance, and Cost

Enterprises are making modernization decisions through a pragmatic lens. Top factors for remaining on-prem include integration with existing systems (46%), security and privacy (41%), and cost of change (41%). For cloud evaluation, scalability and business continuity lead.

Compliance, predictability, and risk control outweigh industry hype, especially in regulated sectors such as healthcare, utilities, and financial services.

Takeaway: Avaya enterprises should modernize intentionally, anchoring decisions in compliance, cost discipline, and interoperability, not marketing trends.

5. Avaya’s Brand Is Stable, but Vulnerable

Sentiment analysis shows Avaya is still respected: 45% of respondents view it positively, 35% neutrally, and 20% critically. Descriptions such as “trusted partner” and “gold standard” remain common, yet others cite slow innovation or competitive pressure. Customers want Avaya to succeed, but their patience has limits.

Takeaway: Trust in Avaya remains, but it’s conditional. Organizations should strengthen that trust by modernizing now, ensuring they remain agile regardless of Avaya’s pace or direction.

For many enterprises, the contact center is the operational core of customer experience. Yet years of customization and integration make change risky and expensive. The 2025 data confirms what Swampfox has long understood: Avaya customers are not resisting transformation; they’re demanding a realistic way to achieve it.

They want cloud agility and AI capability, but not at the expense of control, compliance, or cost predictability. What they need is a modernization model that blends innovation with continuity.

Swampfox’s Innovate in Place strategy embodies that balance. It allows organizations to extend the life of their Avaya infrastructure while layering in new capabilities like AI-driven speech, intelligent automation, and omnichannel integration.

Through the ICX Platform, enterprises can modernize immediately, adding value without risk. ICX acts as a unifying orchestration layer that connects existing Avaya systems with new digital tools, analytics, and customer-experience innovations. The result: faster modernization, lower cost, and zero disruption.

This pragmatic approach is exactly what survey respondents are asking for: modernization on their timeline, not a vendor’s schedule.

The complete 2025 IAUG Member Survey Report explores:

• Detailed adoption patterns for AI, NLU, and IVA
• How Avaya users balance on-prem, hybrid, and cloud strategies
• The compliance and cost factors guiding modernization
• Sentiment analysis revealing brand loyalty and risk perception
• Insights across key industries including healthcare, utilities, and finance

It’s an invaluable benchmark for anyone shaping the future of customer experience within the Avaya ecosystem.

The Avaya community has spoken.  Stability matters, but innovation cannot wait. Enterprises are ready to evolve, without disruption, without vendor lock-in, and without losing control of what already works.

That’s the essence of Swampfox’s mission: helping organizations modernize their Avaya contact centers intelligently, pragmatically, and securely.

Download the full 2025 IAUG Member Survey Report: