WebexOne 2024: Cisco’s vision for the future of immersive collaboration

At WebexOne 2024, Cisco introduced main developments in AI and XR for its Webex platform, redefining what collaboration can imply for companies at present. 

Held on the Diplomat Resort in Hollywood, Florida, the third annual WebexOne showcased Cisco’s growth from a video conferencing platform into a classy suite that helps AI-driven workspaces, immersive buyer expertise options, and cutting-edge XR applied sciences. 

Since its $3.2 billion acquisition of Webex in 2007, Cisco has leveraged the platform as a basis for redefining enterprise collaboration, evolving far past the expectations of WebEx Communications, Inc.’s founders.

AI-enabled partnership with Nvidia powers Cisco’s evolution

Cisco’s dedication to AI started with its long-standing partnership with Nvidia in 2015. Leveraging Nvidia’s high-performance GPUs, Cisco has enhanced video high quality, enabled real-time processing, and launched superior AI functionalities that facilitate spatial conferences, laying the groundwork for its XR integrations with Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional. 

Cisco’s Govt Vice President Jeetu Patel emphasised the significance of this foundational partnership: “We’re centered on offering the infrastructure for AI — low-latency networking, high-performance techniques — all of which place us as leaders in AI-driven enterprise options.”

Patel defined that Nvidia’s processing capabilities have enabled Cisco to develop clever collaboration instruments to maintain tempo with the advanced necessities of hybrid and distant work environments. This partnership has fueled the evolution of AI inside Webex and positioned Cisco to combine seamlessly with Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, opening the door to immersive, spatial collaboration experiences.

Cisco’s full-stack strategy: AI that goes past conferencing

Along with XR, Cisco’s strategy to AI features a holistic “full-stack” mannequin that integrates networking, safety, and collaboration. Snorre Kasbo, Cisco’s VP and normal supervisor of gadgets, described the “full-stack collaboration” mannequin as a vital framework for simplifying scalability in hybrid workplaces: “We consider networking, safety, collaboration, and observability as a layered set of capabilities. Solely full-stack collaboration can help an IT crew increasing from 5 to 300 rooms with a crew of two.”

This full-stack strategy positions Cisco to help seamless, enterprise-level collaboration that goes past video conferencing and allows organizations to handle and scale with minimal friction whereas sustaining dependable, safe connections.

Webex AI Agent: Fast deployment of clever customer support brokers

One in all Cisco’s flagship bulletins at WebexOne was the Webex AI Agent, a platform designed for fast and complex AI agent deployment. This low-code, self-service resolution offers organizations with the instruments to rapidly develop AI brokers that may deal with advanced, multichannel buyer interactions, from easy inquiries to superior automation duties.

Throughout a dwell demonstration, Anurag Dhingra, Cisco’s SVP and GM of Webex buyer expertise options, showcased the AI Agent Studio. In simply minutes, the Studio allowed customers to create AI brokers from scratch or with pre-built templates, integrating them with backend techniques for duties like HR inquiries, appointment scheduling, and account administration. Jay Patel, Cisco’s SVP of buyer expertise options, described the platform’s agility:

“Our AI brokers are designed to deal with every part from easy inquiries to advanced, multi-step requests with out demanding in depth technical setup. With Webex AI Agent, companies can deploy AI-driven help that feels pure, adaptable, and contextually correct in actual time.”

The Webex AI Agent natively incorporates retrieval-augmented technology (RAG), dealing with knowledge retrieval seamlessly on the backend. This construction contrasts with different techniques that require advanced knowledge administration setups, permitting companies to focus solely on customer-facing interactions. Cisco’s versatile “bring-your-own-LLM” mannequin permits customers to combine most popular language fashions based mostly on their particular wants, equivalent to OpenAI’s fashions by way of Azure or Amazon Bedrock.

The Webex AI Agent exemplifies the transformation AI can convey to buyer engagement, bridging operational gaps, enhancing productiveness, and enabling constant, on-brand help that minimizes repetitive duties.

AI’s inside functions at Cisco

Internally, Cisco has deployed the Webex AI Agent inside its HR division, automating responses to widespread profit questions and releasing HR groups to concentrate on strategic actions. Ted Kezios, Cisco’s SVP of individuals and communities, famous the impression: “The AI Agent dealt with many routine profit questions, permitting our HR groups to concentrate on advanced duties. This software goes to redefine how we handle worker wants.”

Cisco’s use of the AI Agent in HR illustrates how AI options can reshape workflows, offering measurable productiveness features that straight profit workers.

Boosting productiveness with Cisco AI Assistant

Complementing the AI Agent, Cisco’s AI Assistant, launched with the corporate’s cybersecurity resolution in December 2023, has been prolonged to Webex and now Webex Contact Heart. The AI Assistant, an LLM-based software being rolled out throughout all of Cisco’s cloud choices, is designed to optimize inside productiveness by automating routine workflows. 

The AI Assistant integrates seamlessly throughout enterprise functions like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, permitting customers to carry out actions inside these platforms straight from Webex. Along with conventional actions like ticket submitting, the Assistant options interactive Slido polls for real-time engagement and Vidcast capabilities to create and distribute customized video displays.

Anurag Dhingra illustrated the Assistant’s practicality: “Think about being in a buyer help dialog and instructing the AI Assistant to file a ServiceNow ticket — now you’ll be able to.”

These capabilities assist streamline workflows, permitting workers to focus on high-value duties and leaving repetitive duties to AI automation.

Breakthrough XR collaboration with Room Bar Professional and Imaginative and prescient Professional integration

Cisco’s most bold announcement at WebexOne 2024 was its deepened XR partnership with Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional, positioning Webex as one of many first collaboration platforms to combine Apple’s immersive spatial computing. 

As an official launch accomplice for Imaginative and prescient Professional in February 2024, Cisco initially introduced Webex to the Imaginative and prescient Professional platform. It has expanded these capabilities with stereoscopic Spatial Conferences to rework distant experiences into lifelike, 3D interactions.

The Room Bar Professional gadget, launched in June of 2023, amplifies this integration, leveraging a software program improve for stereoscopic imaging to transform assembly areas into immersive 3D collaboration studios. This integration aligns with Cisco’s “Distance Zero” imaginative and prescient, which goals to dissolve the bodily and digital divide, so distant and in-person attendees really feel equally current in any interplay.

The Room Bar Professional and Imaginative and prescient Professional setup allows numerous functions throughout industries:

• Product demonstrations: Industries like manufacturing and retail can current 3D-rendered merchandise to distant purchasers, who can examine intricate particulars, supplies, and mechanisms as in the event that they had been dealing with them. This immersive expertise deepens engagement with out requiring journey.
• Coaching and training: Best for sectors equivalent to healthcare and engineering, this setup allows hands-on, immersive studying. Medical college students, for example, can examine 3D anatomical fashions intimately, enhancing retention and understanding.
• Collaborative design and planning: For design-driven industries, the Room Bar Professional allows real-time collaboration on 3D fashions. Architectural companies can showcase true-to-scale fashions, simulating walk-throughs, lighting changes, and texture evaluations, making distant displays as efficient as in-person conferences.

Past the Imaginative and prescient Professional integration, Apple options had been prominently featured throughout the WebexOne present ground, illustrating the businesses’ shut alignment. 

A well-liked demo space showcased Apple’s spatial capabilities, permitting attendees to expertise firsthand the impression of Apple’s {hardware} within the hybrid workspace, from enhanced gadget compatibility to seamless integration with Cisco’s clever collaboration instruments.

The partnership with Apple highlights Cisco’s shift towards constructing an ecosystem of interconnected, high-quality XR instruments to facilitate the subsequent technology of office collaboration. By adopting Apple’s design ethos and pushing spatial assembly know-how boundaries, Cisco continues redefining the chances for hybrid work environments.

Supporting applied sciences

Cisco’s Ceiling Microphone Professional enhances the visible expertise of the Room Bar Professional by offering adaptive audio seize that adjusts to the place of every speaker. This all-in-one audio resolution enhances Cisco’s XR-enabled setups, bettering total engagement and making certain that voices are transmitted clearly.

Cisco’s Workspace Designer net software additional helps XR-enabled environments by simplifying the design of layouts optimized for the Room Bar Professional, Imaginative and prescient Professional, and Ceiling Microphone Professional. Organizations can create immersive workspaces rapidly, constructing collaborative, partaking hybrid work environments extra simply.

Sustainable design in collaboration

For example Cisco’s {hardware} design evolution and sustainable strategy, the corporate has taken direct inspiration from Apple’s streamlined design rules, even incorporating experience from former Apple designers into its present crew. These designers have introduced a minimalist, user-centric perspective, specializing in multifunctionality, intuitive interfaces, and eco-friendly supplies.

Merchandise just like the Room Bar Professional are designed with modular elements to scale back waste and permit for future updates, reflecting Apple’s philosophy of making “eternally” {hardware} specializing in longevity. Anurag Dhingra, Cisco’s SVP of buyer expertise, emphasised the synergy of mixing {hardware} and software program: “If you design {hardware} and software program collectively, you’ll be able to create interactions that bridge distances and switch workplaces into sensible areas.

By means of this design ethos, Cisco delivers high-performance gadgets and adheres to eco-conscious practices, embodying perform and kind. This holistic strategy to {hardware} minimizes environmental impression, aligning with Cisco’s broader sustainability objectives and dedication to producing forward-thinking, fashionable office options that meet the calls for of at present’s hybrid environments.

Management views on accountable AI and XR innovation

The thought management classes throughout the keynotes at WebexOne included insights from Apple’s Mike Rockwell and Scale AI’s CEO Alex Wang, who confused the significance of moral and accountable innovation in AI and XR.

Mike Rockwell, Apple’s VP of AR/VR engineering, mirrored on the emotional energy of XR know-how:

“Spatial imagery has a profound impression on you emotionally. It connects you in a method that simply would not occur if you take a look at a flat 2D display screen.”

Alex Wang echoed the significance of moral issues, emphasizing:

“Knowledge is gold; it’ll differentiate and energy the subsequent technology of highly effective AI capabilities… We have to be considerate about its impression and regulatory issues.”

Cisco’s VP of Gadgets, Snorre Kasbo, added:

“We’re dedicated to constructing an open ecosystem… It is a few mixture of {hardware} and software program that works seamlessly collectively.”

These discussions highlighted Cisco’s dedication to moral innovation and a dedication to high quality throughout its total know-how stack.

A reworked model for immersive collaboration

The WebexOne occasion emphasised how Cisco’s Webex has developed from a primary video conferencing software into a sophisticated platform for clever, immersive collaboration. Cisco’s strategic partnerships with Nvidia and Apple reveal its dedication to main the business in AI and XR, showcasing a transparent imaginative and prescient for the way forward for hybrid work.

Cisco envisions the way forward for collaboration as a seamlessly related expertise that permits individuals to work collectively effortlessly, wherever they’re. By means of sustainable design, accountable innovation, and modern AI and XR know-how, Cisco is setting the usual for clever collaboration within the fashionable office.