Open CTI End of Life: Planning Your Migration to Service Cloud Voice

Key Takeaways

• Open CTI retires Feb 28 2028; plan migration now
• Service Cloud Voice moves voice handling native to Salesforce
• Three migration paths: SCV‑first, phased pilot, capture‑first
• AI transcription, summarization in SCV with licensing
• Existing telephony (e.g., Microsoft Teams) can stay unchanged

Summary

Salesforce announced that Open CTI will be retired on February 28, 2028, prompting organizations to shift their telephony integration to Service Cloud Voice, now branded as Salesforce Voice. The transition involves moving from a browser‑based CTI panel to a native voice workspace that offers real‑time CRM data linking and AI‑driven features such as transcription and summarization. Salesforce outlines three migration strategies—SCV‑first, phased pilot, and capture‑first—allowing firms to align the move with licensing, operational readiness, and long‑term architecture goals. Early planning is essential to avoid disruption and to leverage emerging AI capabilities.

Pulse Analysis

Open CTI has been the backbone of Salesforce telephony for over a decade, embedding third‑party dialers into the CRM via a browser panel. Its announced end‑of‑life on February 28, 2028 gives enterprises a clear deadline to reassess their voice strategy. While the existing integration will continue to function for now, waiting until the last moment risks rushed deployments, data gaps, and potential service interruptions. Companies that begin auditing their current CTI configurations today can map dependencies, identify custom workflows, and align migration timelines with fiscal planning cycles.

Service Cloud Voice, rebranded as Salesforce Voice, represents a paradigm shift: voice becomes a native Salesforce object rather than an external overlay. This architecture delivers real‑time call event capture, unified agent dashboards, and AI‑enhanced capabilities such as automatic transcription, sentiment analysis, and guided workflows—provided the appropriate licensing is in place. Organizations can retain their existing telephony providers, including Microsoft Teams Phone, and simply route calls through the new workspace, reducing vendor sprawl and simplifying compliance. The three migration tiers—SCV‑first for early adopters, a controlled pilot for risk‑averse teams, and a capture‑first approach for data‑centric groups—allow firms to tailor the transition to their operational maturity and budget constraints.

Strategically, the migration is less about swapping software and more about building a modular, future‑proof voice architecture. Firms should prioritize clean data capture, establish a single identity and security layer, and design workflows that can evolve as AI features mature. A phased rollout, starting with a pilot group, enables feedback loops, training, and incremental refinements before enterprise‑wide adoption. By initiating planning now, businesses not only avoid the 2028 disruption but also position themselves to harness next‑generation AI tools that will redefine customer service interactions.