Call External RESTFul service from Siebel - IP 16 onwards

Hello,

With IP 16 we can send REST request from external client to Siebel but what about calling external REST service from Siebel?

We're integrating with many external systems today which exposes REST APIs but we've to ask our middleware team to provide SOAP wrapper proxy service.

Is integrating with external systems that exposes REST APIs became easier with IP 16?

I know Siebel provides EAI HTTP Transport BS for POST, GET, etc call but its NOT user friendly at all.

Is Siebel adding native capability to generate JSON payload using Integration object?  Also, Is Siebel adding capability to call external REST service easily with IP 16