At the Fall ’25 vCon in Washington, D.C., Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Jon Arnold, Principal of J Arnold & Associates, about why vCon matters, how it fits into the broader AI and communications landscape, and why legal frameworks around compliance and consent are as important as the technology itself. Arnold situates vCon—“virtual conversations”—as a response to a world where interactions are no longer just human-to-human, but also human-to-bot and bot-to-bot, generating vast amounts of conversational data that most organizations are not yet capturing or using effectively.

Arnold explains that vCon is not a product but a standard—much like SIP was for VoIP—designed to create an open, interoperable ecosystem for conversational data. By encapsulating both data and metadata from calls, chats, and other interactions into a secure, portable container, vCon can help enterprises manage and analyze conversations across multiple channels, platforms, and use cases. This, he notes, is critical for domains such as UC, customer service, and broader AI-driven applications where structured and unstructured conversational data is becoming a strategic asset.

A distinguishing feature of this event, Arnold observes, is the strong presence of legal and policy experts. With AI amplifying both innovation and risk, he underscores the centrality of compliance and consent. Without clear regulatory frameworks and governance, vCon-style capabilities could accelerate a slide toward a “surveillance society,” where every interaction is recorded and tracked without adequate safeguards. Getting lawyers and regulators involved early, Arnold suggests, improves the odds that vCon will scale in a way that balances innovation with consumer protection and trust.

On the question of monetization, Arnold draws parallels to the early days of hosted voice and UCaaS: the ecosystem is still forming, a few players are close to real revenue, and many potential use cases are only now being discovered. As with other major technology shifts, he expects some of the most valuable applications to emerge “off-label,” driven by users who find unexpected value once the tools are in their hands. With an open standard, an emerging community, and early traction among sponsors and innovators, Arnold sees strong potential for vCon to become a foundational layer in the next era of AI-enabled communications.

To learn more about Jon Arnold’s research and analysis, visit https://www.jarnoldassociates.com/.