Leading in CPaaS, CEP, and CDP: Why the Future of Customer Engagement is Unified

Twilio has been named a leader in three categories across the Omdia Universe reports: Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), Customer Data Platforms (CDP), and Customer Engagement Platforms (CEP). We're honored to be recognized, and see our placement as an affirmation that our bet on how communications, data, and AI will shape customer engagement is paying off.

A common theme across all three Omdia reports was platform convergence. Platforms that were once considered distinct are starting to overlap as businesses focus on end-to-end customer experiences. 

Let’s take a look at the broader trends driving this shift, and the qualities that make a leader in the market. 

CX is driving platform convergence

It’s a pattern we’ve all seen before: industries mature, customer expectations rise, and technology advances. To adapt, companies start to expand their offering, embed specialty tools into existing systems, or form strategic partnerships. 

Just look at CPaaS. In its early days, it offered APIs to developers so they could embed communication channels into applications. Then new channels emerged and consumers could move more easily between them – expecting cohesive and contextually aware responses throughout. This made the data inside contact centers or CRMs essential for personalization, blurring the lines between platforms.

Even in the past few months, several companies – from digital experience management to e-commerce – have merged with or acquired a CDP. Why? The pressure to differentiate on customer experience. And this requires 1.) high-quality data and 2.) data orchestration. 

Customers expect interactions with a business to feel like one conversation, having continuity as they switch between channels. For businesses, this means pairing communications with unified, contextual data that’s available in real time. And this is what sets Twilio apart: our unique combination of CPaaS, CDP, and CEP capabilities. 

CPaaS: From communications infrastructure to engagement engine

Modern communications goes beyond simple messaging; each interaction should reflect the  customers’ needs in that specific moment. 

Omdia cited several criteria for determining CPaaS leaders: AI features, global reach, omnichannel capabilities, and security and compliance guardrails. Twilio stood out for our extensive connectivity (4,800+ carrier partners globally, with the ability to reach customers in over 180 countries), as well as our focus on innovation. 

Our goal has always been to help businesses configure and customize their own solutions, not trap them inside rigid systems or workflows. That's why we've championed a flexible platform, with over 3,000 technology partners. It's part of our "be a builder" ethos, which is something we encourage internally, too (Twilio has over 300 product patents). 

When considering the future of communications, Omdia noted how leaders were focused on emerging growth channels (like WhatsApp and RCS), User Authentication and Identity solutions, and AI-enabled use cases. On the AI front, we’ve strategically embedded features across our platform to help scale communications, make them smarter, and more secure. These include: 

• AI-powered fraud prevention
• Conversational Intelligence that can glean user intent from conversations

• Agent Copilots, which enhances support efficiency by querying unified customer profiles during interactions to provide real-time context and personalized assistance

CDP: Unified data for real-time context

It all comes back to the data: the intelligence of AI models, the efficiency of workflows, the breadth of analytics. 

A Customer Data Platform helps collect, clean, and activate data at scale. Crucially, it’s able to merge historical and real-time data into a unified profile, which provides insight into everything from a person’s purchase history, to channel preferences, and predicted lifetime value. 

One quality that Omdia noted about Twilio Segment was our vendor-agnostic approach. Our products are built to be used with other tools and systems. We currently offer: 

• Over 500 pre-built connectors, and the ability to build custom integrations with a few lines of code

• Native interoperability with leading data warehouses like Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks, and BigQuery

• Features like Reverse ETL, Profiles Sync, and Linked Audiences to deepen customer understanding and activate data across the entire tech stack.

What also sets us apart is our strict approach to data privacy, and an emphasis on first-party data collection. While privacy regulations are still evolving, both policymakers and consumers are demanding ethical and secure data handling. (6 out of 10 consumers said protecting their data is the best way to build trust.) Features like automated data validation and PII masking help businesses manage data in a privacy-compliant way – something that's especially important for companies in highly-regulated industries like finance or healthcare.

CEP: Orchestrating smarter multi-step journeys

Bad customer experiences aren’t just a blemish on CSAT scores; they’re a cost-sink for businesses. 

A consistent drumbeat throughout the Omdia Universe reports was the importance of omnichannel engagement. This is the winning factor when it comes to acquisition, retention, and customer satisfaction. 

Our Customer Engagement Platform blends our communications and data foundations. It offers teams the ability to orchestrate multi-step customer journeys across channels, which automatically adjust based on real-time data. Our low- or no-code interfaces make it easy for non-technical teams to autonomously build these campaigns, and even leverage AI to make audience segments based on predictive traits (like their likelihood to buy).  

Another thing Omdia noted was our focus on customer outcomes – like increasing marketing ROI, reducing service resolution times, and accelerating onboarding via templates and auto-instrumentation. In a market where personalization is often promised but rarely delivered at scale, we offer the interoperability, unified data, and intelligent orchestration to create meaningful experiences that drive business growth.

The Road Ahead: Unified Experiences at Scale

Twilio's leadership across CPaaS, CEP, and CDP categories signals more than market validation—it represents the future of customer engagement. The industry is moving decisively toward flexible API-first architectures that integrate with existing enterprise ecosystems. Businesses need to build tech stacks tailored to their unique needs without vendor lock-in.

The truth is, customers don't see channels or systems, they see brands, and they expect those brands to recognize them as individuals. The companies that win will be those that unify communications, data, and AI to create experiences that feel personal and relevant at every step.