January 23, 2026
RCS, AI, and the End of Boring Business Messages
Business messaging was once short, functional, and easy to ignore. In 2026, that approach is starting to fail. New research from Bandwidth points to the biggest messaging shift in a decade, powered by richer channels, AI-driven conversations, and rising expectations around trust.
The 2026 State of Messaging report draws on research from over 1,000 enterprise messaging leaders and 500 consumers. Messaging is no longer about sending notifications, but providing a live, branded, interactive experience.
Rich Communication Services (RCS) sits at the very centre of this shift. Device coverage has reached 96%, largely thanks to broad carrier support and Apple’s adoption of RCS on iOS. On paper, that makes RCS nearly universal in the US.
In practice, 59% of businesses plan to deploy RCS but have not yet launched. Early adopters are already setting the standard for rich messaging, while others are still debating when to move beyond SMS.
SMS Stays, but It Is No Longer Enough
RCS allows brands to send messages that look and behave more like apps than texts. Think branded senders, verified identities, carousels, buttons, images, and secure interactions. It also removes some of the awkward workarounds that SMS relies on, such as links that break mid-journey. As analyst Dave Michels points out, RCS can deliver things like boarding passes and barcodes directly, without sending customers off to fragile URLs.
Despite all the attention on RCS, SMS still carries the bulk of business messaging volume. It remains cheap, reliable, and scalable.
Most enterprises are moving toward mixed strategies that combine short codes, toll-free messaging, 10DLC, and RCS. The difference now is orchestration. AI is increasingly used to decide which channel to use, when to escalate to richer formats, and how to personalise messages without overwhelming customers. SMS is still the backbone, while RCS is becoming the front-end experience layer.
AI Is Pushing Messaging into Multimodal Territory
The research predicts that by 2030, 80% of enterprise applications will be multimodal, blending text, voice, and visual content. Messaging will be the delivery layer for those experiences.
Instead of static alerts, customers are starting to see interactive conversations that handle questions, confirmations, updates, and exceptions in one thread. By 2028, Gartner expects 30% of Fortune 500 companies to deliver these AI-powered experiences through integrated conversations.
That only works if customer data is connected and usable. Without that foundation, conversational AI stays shallow.
Deliverability Still Beats Features
Deliverability remains the top factor when enterprises choose a messaging provider. It matters more than price and features. If messages do not arrive, nothing else matters.
As messaging grows more complex, reliability becomes more difficult. Filters, registration rules, and competition from over-the-top apps are raising the bar. Providers that can manage compliance, visibility, and delivery at scale are becoming strategic partners rather than background infrastructure.
