NFON unveiled its new corporate strategy, NFON Next 2027, at a press event held at its Munich headquarters recently. Speaking at the event, NFON’s chief executive officer, Patrik Heider, said that the company’s focus is now on integrating AI into its cloud communication platform. Heider also shared NFON’s international expansion plans, including the establishment of a new hub in the Republic of Kosovo in April 2025.
Heider kicked off the event with an introduction to NFON and the progress it has made since its launch in 2007. He then outlined the company’s future plans and ambitions, including defining a new strategy.
“We are rethinking business communication, inspiring and connecting people to grow together sustainability – this is our guiding principle,” said Heider. “With NFON Next 2027, we will take business communications into a new dimension and are focusing on two crucial levers.
“Firstly, we are optimising our core business in order to further boost efficiency and profitability, actively driving innovations with artificial intelligence that unlock new market potential and strategically expand our portfolio. This is how we are fulfilling our mission to ensure sustainable and profitable growth – faster and stronger than the competition.”
Dual transformation
Having carried out a situation analysis to identify NFON’s key challenges, Heider said that the company agreed on an impact statement. The next step, he said, is to execute on that statement. “We defined five key objectives that we wanted to achieve in 2027,” said Heider. “From those, we then agreed upon the key results that we will measure them by.”
Central to its strategy, Heider said that NFON will be adopting a dual transformation approach of growing its core cloud PBX business and investing in and developing its AI capabilities to drive greater efficiencies for both itself and its partner and customer base.
Next up was Markus Krammer, executive vice president, go-to-market and new business AI at NFON. He was joined by Jana Richter, executive vice president, AI and innovation, at NFON, who presented NFON Intelligent Assistant, the company’s latest AI tool.
Richter outlined the company’s main AI developments. She said that among the most significant achievements were the acquisition of AI specialist Botario in August 2024 and the expansion of the company’s AI and innovation organisation, which includes its AI expertise centre.
“The transfer of the AI and innovation organisation enables us to take our technological development to the next level – and herald a new era at NFON,” said Richter.
Richter added that NFON has developed an innovation cycle that combines the initial idea and concept through to data science and engineering, as well as implementation and practical applications.
“This holistic integration ensures that innovation does not just remain theoretical but flows directly into customers’ day-to-day work as tangible progress,” said Richter. “We are continuously expanding our teams and turning ideas into real solutions. We are creating a powerful innovation portfolio that offers significant added value.”
Gradual integration
The gradual integration of AI into NFON’s existing products and the development of flexible solutions, said Richter, were key to enhancing customer satisfaction and strengthening the company’s long-term market position. By using NFON Intelligent Assistant, which was first rolled out to the company’s employees, she said organisations can connect intelligently, efficiently and sustainably.
Richter added that AI-based functions in business telephony, NFON Intelligent Assistant and customer engagement enabled companies to optimise their processes, enhance personalisation and will ensure maximum flexibility. Due to their scalability, she said that the solutions can adapt to changing market developments.
“We are not only developing leading-edge technology, we are also giving our customers the confidence to trust in solutions that will accompany them securely and successfully into the digital future,” said Richter. “Innovation, reliability and responsibility are the values that we pursue and that flow into our AI-based communication solutions – as ‘made in Germany’ stands for more than just quality.”
Richter said that NFON Intelligent Assistant was first introduced on the company’s website to provide visitors with a quick and accurate response to any queries they may have, 24/7. It’s also available on NFON’s partner portal, she said.
In addition, Richter said that NFON will launch its AI-based voicemail transcription service in March 2025, giving a live demonstration. She showed how the new function is delivered by email and enables companies to quickly and efficiently transcribe voicemails without having to listen to a voicemail. Further innovations planned for this year include call transcription and call summarisation, said Richter.
Delivering for partners
Richter said that NFON has also been continuously expanding its CC Hub with AI functions since the start of 2024, with a focus on smart automation, higher productivity for agents and optimised processes.
Current innovations, she said, include the standardised user interface for chatbot and voicebot, as well as AI-based statistics.
For 2025, she said that further innovations being worked on, including automated analysis of email attachments, smart routing for more efficient customer communication, the integration of large language models into bot workflows, and a modernisation of its look and feel.
Alexander Wettjen, VP of group sales and partner management at NFON, then revealed that NFON would be launching its Nexus Partner Programme in July 2025, uniting all existing channel programmes.
“This programme will make it easier for our partners to do business, with every partner finding a place in Nexus, whether it’s selling cloud AI services or existing PBXs,” said Wettjen. “We have 3,000 partners across Europe, and we want to work together with all of them and by having this single dedicated platform we can make it much easier for them to use our services.”
This article was included in our April 2025 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.