Today, the pace of change is accelerating faster than ever, driven by new expectations and endless possibilities. At Cisco, we see this as an opportunity to redefine what’s possible in the workplace. We’re shaping the future of work with intelligent, resilient, and human-centered solutions built for today—and tomorrow.
What’s New for Workplaces: Intelligent, Resilient, and Customer-Centric Solutions
At Cisco Live US, we’re unveiling three major advancements that redefine how people work, connect, and collaborate:
- Workplace Intelligence designed for the way we work—from AI-powered cameras to zero-touch provisioning, we’re making workplaces smarter and simpler.
- Meeting customers where they are with AI innovation and resilience, whether in the cloud, on-premises, or hybrid.
- Unified manageability and insights for IT management—giving IT teams the tools to simplify operations and optimize performance.
Here’s how these innovations are transforming workplaces and empowering teams to thrive.
Workplace Intelligence designed for the way we work
Think of a great meeting space as a finely tuned orchestra, where each piece of technology—cameras, microphones, speakers, and software—comes together with precision to create a more fluid experience. The cameras act as the eyes, the microphones as the ears, and the codecs as the brain, working in perfect harmony to ensure each voice and perspective is captured. The conductor of this symphony? Our new Room Vision PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera, powered by advanced AI to bring this orchestration to life.
Designed for workspaces of any size, this camera enhances cinematic meetings with exceptional image quality and detail. Whether it’s fluidly tracking presenters, framing speakers, or adjusting to dynamic room setups, this camera delivers exceptional image quality and detail. With the combined power of on-device AI and mechanical pan-tilt, as well as advanced optical zoom, the Room Vision PTZ reduces the need for digital panning and cropping, ensuring a clear, natural experience in every hybrid meeting. With simple single-cable Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) deployment and robust cloud-based management, it not only simplifies IT workflows but also elevates collaboration across spaces of all sizes.
The Room Vision PTZ is the latest innovation to help enable Distance Zero – our vision to help organizations overcome the barriers of distance and enable equitable collaboration anywhere.
Scaling Distance Zero is only possible if room deployments are simplified — we’re making that possible through our One Click to Distance Zero approach.
Just as an orchestra tunes its instruments to prepare for a performance, simple deployment sets the stage for technology to deliver its true value. By consolidating power, video, and camera controls into a single click of the Ethernet cable, our devices come alive—eliminating most setup headaches and collapsing the space between teams, no matter where they are. What once required specialized AV expertise and hours of troubleshooting can now be achieved in minutes with plug-and-play simplicity. This streamlined, single-cable setup not only reduces installation costs but also scales across hundreds of meeting rooms, from small huddle spaces to large boardrooms.
New zero-touch device provisioning allows devices to be pre-staged and provisioned in Control Hub, streamlining the entire deployment process. This isn’t just about saving time; it’s about empowering IT teams to deliver strategic value—not just support—to their organizations.
And because great meetings start with great preparation, we’ve introduced the AI Assistant Meeting Scheduler. By simplifying scheduling across time zones and busy calendars, the Scheduler helps teams focus on the work that matters instead of logistics. It navigates complex schedules, coordinating across multiple time zones and accommodating individual preferences. By automating these often-tedious tasks, the AI Assistant Meeting Scheduler frees up valuable time and resources, allowing teams to focus on strategic priorities, creative brainstorming, and critical decision-making. It’s more than just a scheduling tool; it’s a catalyst for increased productivity, enhanced collaboration, and ultimately, better business outcomes.
But what happens once these intelligent spaces are up and running? That’s where tools that enhance everyday productivity come into play. At Cisco, we integrate solutions like AgentForce and Jira into Webex Suite to create unified, efficient workflows. A customer service representative will be able to instantly start a Webex meeting in AgentForce to answer a customer question live or quickly act on issues by asking the AI Assistant to create a Jira ticket on their behalf within the app. Additionally, Webex Calling Customer Assist empowers front desk staff and managers to efficiently service customers with AI-powered tools built into Webex. Our new Text Queues expect to deliver convenient customer communication, while advanced supervisor and analytics tools empower teams to monitor performance and sustain exceptional customer satisfaction. It pairs seamlessly with AI Receptionist for Webex Calling, which plans to automate routine tasks like scheduling and call routing, enabling employees to focus on higher-value customer interactions. No inefficiencies, just seamless collaboration and smarter customer interactions that drive better outcomes.
Meeting Customers Where They Are with AI Innovation and Resilience
At Webex, we understand that organizations have diverse needs, and we are committed to supporting them wherever they are on their journey. We provide flexible solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments, helping create workplaces that can adapt and thrive as they evolve. Whether it’s a smooth connectivity, advanced AI features, or robust on-premises capabilities for our Contact Center Enterprise customers, our focus is on empowering businesses to remain productive, secure, and operational—no matter their unique requirements.
To meet these demands, we bring advanced AI capabilities to on-premises meetings, allowing businesses to securely adopt cutting-edge tools without compromising sensitive data. Features like background noise suppression and virtual background blur create distraction-free, personalized experiences that help users stay focused and productive—all while keeping their data secure on-premises.
And to expand on security for organizations operating in highly sensitive environments, we’re introducing on-premises meeting security which will provide an additional layer of control, enabling features like encryption keys, local recordings, and private/internal meeting options to greater safeguard confidential discussions.
But flexibility and resilience extend far beyond compliance. In mission-critical environments, downtime is simply not an option. That’s why we’re developing site survivability for cloud Meetings and Calling, a solution designed to maintain continuity when it matters most, like when an outage happens and your business stops. With site survivability, meetings continue seamlessly even if the cloud becomes temporarily inaccessible. This isn’t just about maintaining functionality; it’s about providing peace of mind and helping ensure critical operations never miss a beat.
Unified Manageability and Insights for IT Management
As mentioned before, behind each seamless employee experience is likely an IT team working tirelessly to make it happen. These teams are the unsung heroes of the modern workplace, and we’re giving them the tools to manage and monitor their organizations from end to end.
We’re introducing a new way to manage AI within Control Hub, which makes it possible for organizations to customize their AI workflows, integrating them into existing systems like Jira or Salesforce, and setting up guardrails to ensure proper use. This enhances the ability to rapidly innovate and adapt service request processes, leading to the development of entirely new and efficient workflows. One of our customers told me how they leveraged this to create an entirely new workflow for handling service requests. “It’s like having an innovation lab at our fingertips,” they said.
And the all-new AI dashboard in Control Hub allows IT administrators to monitor AI adoption, track trends, and analyze metrics—all from a single pane of glass. This level of visibility not only helps optimize performance but also enables IT teams to demonstrate the value of their investments. In addition, AI-powered reports in Control Hub will make it easier for administrators to interact with the AI assistant to create reports with actionable insights or ask questions using natural language to get clear answers without visiting the troubleshooting dashboard.
While these AI-driven advancements enhance productivity and provide deeper insights, Control Hub also prioritizes security and flexibility through Role Based Access Control (RBAC) management capabilities. With the new Custom Role Builder capabilities, administrators can create roles tailored to their organization’s specific needs, such as managing licenses, accessing analytics, or configuring features. These updates enable the right people with the right level of access, making it easier to delegate responsibilities securely and efficiently.
Finally, we are expanding the ways our customers can gain visibility and control across Cisco’s portfolio to simplify management and drive better outcomes. Our Webex Calling and Meraki integration unites communication and networking to simplify IT management in Control Hub. By providing integrated troubleshooting with clear, full path visibility, IT teams gain the power to instantly pinpoint and resolve Webex Calling issues. This crucial capability establishes reliable performance and helps them confidently deliver the seamless experiences users depend on. And admins will be able to centralize energy management across networking and collaboration devices by leveraging smart power technology integrated into the new C9350 Smart Switch and Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series in Catalyst Center. This allows for unified policies, more sustainable power management, enhanced diagnostics, and improved troubleshooting.
The Future of Work Is Now
Reflecting on the innovations that are being showcased at Cisco Live, one thing is abundantly clear: modern work is more complex than ever. But with the right partner, you can navigate that complexity with confidence. That’s the future we’re building at Cisco, hand-in-hand with our customers and partners every day.
Many of the products and features mentioned are still in development and will be made available as they are finalized, subject to ongoing evolution in development and innovation. The timeline for their release is subject to change.
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