May 2025 Summaries

UK businesses are optimistic about the future of business messaging, with a growing volume and high ROI. RCS is expected to play a significant role, with 93% of UK senders looking forward to its expanded reach. Deliverability is considered the most important factor in choosing a provider, followed by capacity for UK senders and price for US senders. Customer experience is also crucial, with top use cases including appointment confirmations, on-time payments, and purchasing behavior. Businesses are predicted to prioritize providers offering RCS, SMS for business, and WhatsApp, and create seamless customer experiences through the integration of Voice and Messaging with AI tools.

The business messaging landscape is poised for a major transformation with the adoption of Rich Communication Services (RCS) Business Messaging, as more carriers support this feature and businesses can now create engaging, branded experiences directly in customers' messaging apps. RCS offers several key features, including rich cards, carousels, interactive elements, read receipts, and verified brand presence, which creates immediate trust and recognition. The channel is currently undergoing an inflection era, with accelerated development, and will enter a rapid growth phase in 2026. A new pricing structure, including three-tiered models for basic messaging, single rich messages, and conversational messaging, opens up possibilities for customer service and AI-driven conversations without per-message costs spiraling out of control. The verified brand presence is critical to trust and engagement, with US carriers collaborating on verification standards. Businesses should begin preparing for the rapid growth phase by evaluating existing SMS campaigns, gathering brand verification materials, experimenting with basic RCS features, and planning for more sophisticated implementations as the ecosystem matures.