Report: 99% Value Omnichannel, Few Move Past SMS

Survey Also Reveals 86% of Organizations That Recently Added a New Channel, Experienced Increased Customer Engagement.

MMDSmart MessageWhiz, a leader in CPaaS messaging, today announced the release of its 2026 State of Digital Customer Communication Survey Report, a global study of senior marketing, product, and operations leaders that highlights a gap between omnichannel ambition and execution, and shows how messaging is evolving into a revenue driving channel.

The report finds that omnichannel communication is a universal strategic priority, with 99% of respondents saying it’s important to their organization’s growth strategy. Yet execution lags. Only 43% of companies have expanded beyond email and SMS to support real-time and conversational channels, and just 11% report full integration between messaging platforms and CRM or business systems.

“We found that mid-sized businesses across industries struggle with their Omnichannel implementation and are leaving revenue on the table,” said Karen Krivaa, CMO at MMDSmart. “Teams are dealing with fragmented tools, partial integrations, and disconnected workflows. This makes it extremely difficult to add channels, automate workflows, analyze campaign results, and manage conversations instead of silos. The intent exists. The execution layer is what is missing.“

The report highlights a number of key messaging trends and challenges:

• Messaging remains operational first: 99% of organizations use messaging for notifications, alerts, and customer service, while only 53% use messaging for growth activities like promotions and retention.
• Channel expansion delivers measurable impact: Among organizations that recently added a new messaging channel, 86% report increased customer engagement.
• Growth use cases are accelerating: Over the next six months, planned usage of individual promotional messaging is projected to increase by 158% and loyalty messaging by 96%.
• AI interest is growing, but not yet decisive: Only 42% say AI is very or extremely important when selecting a customer communication solution.
• Strong forward-looking momentum: 98% of respondents plan to add new customer communication channels in the next 12 months, and 62% expect to increase messaging investment in 2026.