2025 Reflections and What’s Ahead for 2026
Evoke Telecom 2025: Reflections and What’s Ahead for 2026
We caught you up with Managing Director David Wardell to talk about Evoke Telecom’s journey through 2025 and what’s ahead for 2026.
It’s been a busy year for telecoms. The Vodafone/Three merger, the final stages of the 3G switch-off, 5G expansion, and huge strides in AI and communications, there’s a lot to talk about. But with 2025 coming to an end, we wanted to check in with Managing Director David Wardell to hear what he has to say when looking back over the year at Evoke Telecom and what 2026 might look like.
Looking back at 2025
What felt like the biggest shifts for Evoke this year?
2025 has been a massive year for us – a year of transition. A tough economy has seen many of our smaller and SME customers struggle. We’ve witnessed businesses fail, businesses downsize, and businesses being sold. We also saw a lot of inertia as the UK stood still waiting for the Autumn Budget, which, in truth, delivered little cheer to small and mid-sized businesses.
Being in our 12th year of business now, we also found ourselves being proactively engaged by much larger clients and working on considerably larger projects.
Working much closer with our new friends at SCG Together, we’ve been able to revisit our portfolio and strengthen our offerings around Microsoft, Cloud, CCaaS, IT services, and new emerging AI solutions. Have you met our Ellie yet?
We’ve also refreshed our own website, making it all more 2025, including the deployment of Ellie (did I already mention Ellie?), our super helpful web AI assistant.
Finally, our IT Consultancy has grown beyond all recognition, successfully delivering a large Dynamics project, ERP implementation, and a multi-thousand product line webshop upgrade. This is quite a diversification for us as we move deeper into the wider IT space.
But did anything catch you off guard?
Not that I can think of, but I must say I’m increasingly frustrated by the level of annual price rises we now see as ‘standard’ from many network service providers. It makes the conversation with customers really challenging as they increasingly focus on their bottom line.
You rolled out a few new things this year, including Ellie, your Agentic AI chatbot. How have people taken to her?
Ellie is our version of Wilma, delivered by our very clever strategic partner, Wildix. This is all part of a mindset shift, a new way of thinking that’s gently finding its way into the thinking of executives across UK plc.
Everyone has heard of AI, but few truly see where it might sit and add value to their business operations. It’s not about replacing people, it’s about delivering more. Delivering levels of service you’ve never been able to deliver before, and being able to do much, much more.
Since we launched Ellie, it’s been brilliant to see people actually use her. Visitors and customers are asking questions, getting immediate answers, and seeing firsthand what AI can do.
How did Evoke’s approach change over the course of 2025?
I think we realised that delivering more of the same will only fuel a race to the bottom in a ‘me too’ space. Our role is problem-solving, being creative, delivering ideas and solutions that work and can evolve. That’s why we refreshed our website to be fit for 2026, including deploying Ellie, our Agentic AI assistant that visitors are already using to get instant answers. The market is shifting toward innovation and real solutions, and we’re embracing that shift alongside our customers.
What are customers asking for now that they weren’t asking for before?
Integration. Without a shadow of doubt, customers are more interested in what telephony and data can do together. They’re looking at CRM integrations and the decanting of data off-system to feed tools like Power BI, for example.
Customers are also starting to see the value of integration to support, drive, and power compliance and quality assurance. Call transcriptions and summaries are increasingly garnering interest.
How are you feeling about the way AI is shaping telecoms these days?
I think it’s going to be massive. We already have Wildix Wilma, Aura from COTU, and the incredibly powerful CX/EX from COTU. At last, we can start to really use that data we gather from our telephony’s everyday interactions.
High quality call recordings and accurate transcriptions, combined with AI-driven automation, unlocks intelligence, trends, and insights, while also supporting wellbeing monitoring and compliance. By automating what was once manual, this innovation enables tasks that used to take hours to happen instantly, freeing teams to focus on what really matters: solving problems and supporting customers.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Aside from AI, what tech in telecoms should we be keeping an eye on?
Telecoms is finally delivering true IT convergence. No longer a buyer’s commodity, telephony now sits at the heart of the IT stack and will be viewed as mission-critical for delivering results. More access to open API architecture could emerge as an increasingly significant enabler in 2026.
What are you personally excited about for Evoke in 2026?
The sector is absolutely alive, it’s on fire in every area. We’re working on extremely exciting engagements with visionaries who are looking to improve performance and uplift delivery.
In a world of commodities, how we help our customers deliver more, and how we ourselves deliver better could become the true market differentiator.
What should people expect from Evoke next year?
Thought leadership, innovative solutions, and automation that handles the day-to-day heavy lifting, delivering real problem-solving, not just more of the same.
Final Thought
If you had to sum up 2025 for Evoke in under 10 words, what would you go with?
Now that’s a tough one. How about: ‘Taking the value of voice to exciting new levels.’
