A world of new opportunities awaits unified communications (UC) providers as the global market is expected to skyrocket to $143.5 billion by 2024.

That’s according to a new report by Grand View Research, which expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 17 percent. The market was $41.5 billion in 2016.

Key players in the industry include Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Verizon and Polycom, which has been acquired by Plantronics.

Expansion of organizations in international markets, and the growing need for real-time and efficient communication systems will help the industry grow over the next few years.

Global institutional and government initiatives supporting the introduction of UC deployment across various industry sectors are expected to positively impact market growth, according to Grand View. Technological advancements and surging adoption of cloud computing technologies will continue to drive demand for hosted UC.

And the contact center is changing. Artificial intelligence (AI) virtual assistants are expected to prompt greater deployment of bots as an authentic alternative to human interaction for customer service. Additionally, merging of traditional telecom and IT functions along with the emergence of convergence have allowed businesses to become more familiar with UC and VoIP concepts.

Furthermore, enterprises are planning to converge their UC applications around a single vendor, with most choosing Microsoft and Cisco, according to the report. For instance, Comcast Business has offered integration among its cloud phone service, business voice edge and Microsoft Office 365, making it possible for Office 365 to receive or initiate calls from Outlook. This integration has allowed users to make phone calls while responding to an email.

Moreover, emergence of WebRTC has allowed users to join web conferences or make calls without needing to download any plug-ins or additional software. WebRTC intends to offer economical real-time communication options with less human-resource investment, according to Grand View.