300-820 availability - Implementing Cisco Collaboration Cloud and Edge Solutions Updated: 2023

October 26, 2023, 12:00 PM EDT

From new, easier-to-implement room systems, to contact center agent wellness features, here’s a look at the AI-powered updates that the tech giant launched this week during WebexOne 2023.

Hybrid work is here to stay, which is why Cisco Systems keeps upping the ante within its collaboration business. The tech giant has spent the last several years strengthening its popular Webex platform and all its offerings, such as Meetings, Calling, and Contact Center. Cisco’s cloud-based collaboration services are among the most popular in the crowded market and the company wants to continue its reign with the help of its channel partners.

Cisco this week during its annual WebexOne event came armed with a solidified AI strategy that the company is making good on with a smattering of generative AI-based features and functionality that’s being baked into the Webex platform. The company highlighted several new device options, promoted its Apple partnership, and even discussed how teamwork and interoperability with third-party collaboration providers, such as Microsoft Teams, is the way forward. With so much at stake as customers come up on their renewal cycles following the pandemic’s panic buying, Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s executive vice president and general manager of security and collaboration, called this year’s WebexOne the “most consequential.”

CRN was on the ground at Cisco’s 2023 WebexOne event in Anaheim and rounded up the latest collaboration products and AI features that the tech giant unleashed this week. Here’s how Cisco is bolstering the Webex platform.

There’s no question that Generative AI (GenAI) applications are starting to make a big impact on enterprise applications. Until recently, however, the vast majority of the attention being given to GenAI applications for business has had to do with text-based Large Language Models (LLMs) and chatbot-style applications that leverage them. At its accurate Webex One conference, Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) made a point to emphasize how foundation models and other GenAI tools can make a powerful impact in communications and collaboration as well.

The company made several announcements regarding AI integration into its entire suite of Webex tools at the event. Most involve an additional level of intelligence being integrated into Webex, but some cover audio and video quality improvements. In addition, Cisco added to its history of Apple (AAPL) collaborations by unveiling additional support for Apple devices, including Apple TV and Apple Watch.

Of course, like all its competitors, Cisco first started offering AI-powered features in Webex, such as automatic transcription and meeting summarization, a while back. The capabilities the company just announced, however, show a new level of sophistication and provide an interesting pointer towards how GenAI-based tools are likely to evolve.

Undoubtedly the most intriguing is the introduction of a new type of foundation model Cisco is calling Real-Time Media Models (RMMs) that are based on audio and video data. According to Cisco, these RMMs can provide supplemental data and information about a meeting from things like visual cues, gestures, body language, message tone and more. As useful as text-based meeting transcriptions and summaries can be, they don’t always capture the subtle but important nuances in how things are said and how people react, both of which can have a huge influence on how certain ideas or messages are understood and conveyed. It’s this kind of information that Cisco believes it can bring to its existing AI-powered meeting notes by combining the RMM data with its existing LLM-based text contact.

In theory, these kinds of GenAI-enabled capabilities sound quite impressive, but it will take some real-world usage to see how effective they are in capturing and integrating this information into meeting summaries. Regardless, it’s an interesting example of how Webex continues to innovate in unique ways that help it stay a step ahead of its competition - not an easy task in a market that moves as quickly as video collaboration.

One of the other benefits of leveraging RMMs, according to Cisco, is the ability to create meeting summarization tools in video form. This allows people to get a movie preview-style summary of a meeting, allowing people to easily watch what happened instead of simply studying about it. Again, the proof will be in the pudding, but it’s unquestionably a great concept.

RMMs also play a role in the Webex AI Assistant. Like other digital assistant-type features, the Webex version is designed to provide intelligent responses to queries that users can type into chat-style interface. For example, people can ask the Webex AI Assistant to summarize the results of all the meetings they have missed on a PTO day or highlight the comments their boss made during a particular meeting, and so on. The difference versus similar types of features the company has introduced in the past is that the integration of the RMM data should provide the kind of additional context referred to earlier. Leveraging the RMM video data, future versions of the Webex AI Assistant might also be able to do things like automatically generate summaries of the portions of a meeting a person may have been missed because of running late or having to step out for a bit. The idea is that by analyzing the video feed, Webex will be able to determine when a person was there or wasn’t, and then fill in those missing time gaps in a seamless manner.

The Webex AI Assistant also has the ability to provide suggested answers for customer service agents, helping them Improve their responses, and can even make suggestions in the tone of how things are (or should be) said. One of the more intriguing aspects of Cisco’s implementation is that it said it intends to offer the ability to support several different LLMs in addition to its own RMMs in the Webex AI Assistant. In other words, it can essentially swap out the GenAI engine powering the experience in order to pick the best choice for different customers, different types of employees, etc. Again, this idea of model swapping is an intriguing concept that I expect to become more common in other types of GenAI-powered applications and services, so it’s very interesting to see Cisco jumping into this new realm so early.

The final piece of the new Webex AI strategy is an enhanced set of AI audio and video codecs that are designed to Improve the audio and video quality on video calls where the bandwidth is limited. First, these new tools can reduce the amount of data needed down to 1/16^th of what it currently is, making it easier to work in low-bandwidth environments. In addition, by leveraging GenAI, these new codecs can do things like help recreate lost packets to help ensure a smooth audio signal. On the video side, by utilizing super-resolution technologies like what’s been deployed for AI-generated image enhancement, Webex can upscale the quality and video resolution of a video signal over a low-quality or low-bandwidth connection. The net result is a smoother, more seamless experience that makes everyone in the meeting look and sound better, and avoids the annoying glitches that can sometimes occur in these types of situations.

The evolution of meeting and collaboration tools like Webex and its competitors continues at a breakneck pace, and while Cisco has once again jumped ahead in terms of innovative capabilities, it may not be long before companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Zoom (ZM) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) start to catch up. Still, it’s great to see how Cisco is pushing forward the integration of GenAI into its Webex suite and providing an intriguing view into how these technologies continue to evolve.

Disclaimer: Some of the author's clients are vendors in the tech industry.

Disclosure: None.

Source: Author

Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.

October 25, 2023, 12:00 PM EDT

‘Networking, security, collaboration and observability—all of these things start to come together. Those are the four businesses we’re in and each business makes the other business better. That’s the beauty about the flywheel effect that you get with Cisco,’ says Cisco Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration Jeetu Patel.

Cisco Systems’ popular Webex collaboration platform is getting more powerful thanks to AI and because it’s leveraging the strength the tech giant has in its other businesses like networking —something its collaboration competitors don’t have, according to Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s executive vice president and general manager of security and collaboration.

“Networking, security, collaboration and observability—all of these things start to come together. Those are the four businesses we’re in and each business makes the other business better. That’s the beauty about the flywheel effect that you get with Cisco,” Patel told CRN during WebexOne 2023.

The tech giant at the event in Anaheim, Calif., this week unveiled a series of new AI-powered features and functionality being baked into the Webex platform.

“I can actually look into anyone’s eyes and say this is categorically the best product in the market that’s about to get 10X better,” Patel said of the updates.

[Related: Cisco Injects Generative AI Into Security, Collaboration Portfolios For ‘Reimagined’ Customer Experiences ]

AI-Powered Collaboration Features

Cisco Wednesday introduced new Real-Time Media Models (RMMs) in Webex designed to pick up on visual and audible cues, such as gestures or an individual walking out of the room during a meeting. These AI-based RMMs will enhance audio and video quality by using these actions and object recognition as context, Patel said. The models will also be able to supply Webex users real-time insight about their meetings and collaboration sessions.

Patel said Webex will be able recognize that a meeting participant stepped away and capture meeting notes to bring that person up to speed when they return.

“This [technology] allows us to deliver insight like no one else can,” said Javed Khan, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration.

Also rolled out Wednesday was the new Webex AI Codec, which will ensure clear audio and video regardless of bandwidth, Cisco said.

Network impairments or connectivity issues often occur for many users, especially those working in hybrid settings. These issues can take a toll on calls and meeting quality. To that end, Cisco’s new Webex AI Codec is a generative AI offering that will redefine real-time communication and solve the challenge of audio quality, regardless of network conditions. The audio Codec works by allowing for transmission redundancy to recover from network packet loss. Even just 5 percent to 7 percent packet loss will start to impact audio, Patel said. The new technology gives users “crystal-clear” audio, even with up to 80 percent to 90 percent packet loss in certain instances, he added.

“We made the compression and the transmission so efficient that we can have 1/16th of the bandwidth that’s needed,” Patel said.

The new codec also has built-in speech enhancement features, such as noise removal, de-reverberation and bandwidth extension, Cisco said.

“You can’t have a delay on the audio and video side of things. That’s where we feel we have a fundamental [edge]. … Doing that in real time is a different art,” Khan said.

Similarly on the video quality side, Webex will apply machine learning techniques to Improve video quality using Super Resolution, the company said. Videos will be able to be scaled down to 270p and then dialed back up to 1,080p.

“That’s happening because of generative AI. When we talked about generative AI, it’s not just for text, we’re doing it in audio and video,” Patel said. “This is what Cisco does. We know how to go out and make sure that we can manage packets effectively. We are a networking company at heart, so we’ve been able to go out and use that core heritage to build something that’s fundamentally different.”

Cisco’s recently introduced Webex AI Assistant, which is already embedded in Cisco collaboration devices, now includes a new set of features that pull in RMMs and Large Language Models (LLMs) to Improve communication and collaboration for hybrid workers and contact center agents.

The new Webex AI Assistant features include Change Message Tone, which offers recommended changes to tone or phrasing within Webex Messaging and Slido. An example that Cisco gave was that Webex AI Assistant may suggest changing a stern response such as, “This isn’t good” and rework the summary to “This is a fantastic document, but the up-front summary could use some improvement.” Another new feature is Suggested Responses to messages, a capability for contact center agents responding to customers across digital channels that pulls in context history from the conversation and any previously added customer data.

Meeting Summaries, another new feature, lets users catch up on missed portions of meetings or entire meetings in real time with a summary of what was missed that will be organized into chapters and highlights. Message Summaries, on the other hand, will recap unread messages. These summaries can be customized so that a user can ask Webex AI Assistant to summarize messages from their boss only, for example. Meanwhile, Slido course Summaries generate common courses shared in an interactive Q&A and polling during virtual and hybrid events so that participants can easily see what’s trending, Cisco said.

The new AI-based capabilities are in various stages of availability. Shipping is slated to begin before the end of 2023, Cisco said.

At its annual WebexOne conference today, enterprise software and networking giant Cisco announced an ambitious new AI strategy aimed at improving communication and collaboration through its Webex video conferencing platform, making it an even more robust rival to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet (most of which have also embraced new AI features in accurate months).

WebX’s strategy combines real-time intelligence across text, audio, and video to solve everyday challenges that organizations face with their video conferences, building upon an initial set of AI updates to Webex in March, including meeting summarization. 

Further into AI

With its new updates announced at Webex One, Cisco is going dramatically further with new Real-Time Media Models (RMM) to enhance the audio and video experience, as well as an enhanced AI assistant for suggested responses and summary. 

The overall goal is to further enable Webex for the new normal of the hybrid workspace. The Cisco Webex portfolio includes both in-room video conferencing hardware as well as software that can run on regular desktop and mobile systems. 

“We’re spending our engineering resources where we are really good,  which is audio intelligence, video intelligence and language intelligence,” Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Security and Collaboration, told VentureBeat.

Patel said that the goal is to really pull Cisco’s engineering resources together so that people can take out the friction and not feel the distance or not feel the language barriers when they’re communicating with each other.

Webex AI Assistant to provide automated support across platforms

A core element of the updates is the new Webex AI Assistant.

Patel explained that the Webex AI Assistant works across the entirety of the Webex portfolio of services. The assistant will provide automated support such as tone modification when writing messages, suggested responses to received messages, and meeting summaries for those who join late or miss calls. 

“Imagine if I came in 10 minutes late to a meeting, wouldn’t it be nice if rather than interrupting the meeting and asking everyone to say what transpired in this meeting thus far if the system knows, I showed up 10 minutes late and it just gives me a summary of the meeting,” Patel said.

The AI assistant feature is similar to those announced by Zoom, Otter.ai, and timeOS. In fact, the integration of AI into video collaboration tools has been an ongoing trend in 2023 with rivals adding their own capabilities.Microsoft Teams integrates an AI copilot and Google has integrated its Workspace AI with Meet.

While Cisco had already been offering meeting summaries in Webex, Patel explained they are enhancing them to incorporate additional contextual details using AI. He noted that sometimes there is nuance with nonverbal communication cues that get missed out with a traditional approach to meeting summaries. Cisco is aiming to capture some of that nuance in a variety of ways.

“We have a capability with video intelligence that can tell you if I step away from a desk, that ‘this person has stepped away and we’ll be right back’,” Patel said. 

He added that the enhanced summarization will be able to take that presence awareness and merge it with the transcript. This will allow summaries to note things like a participant stepping away or detect the tone of a conversation.

AI-Powered audio and video enhancements for challenging networks

Cisco is also rolling out new AI-powered audio and video capabilities designed to Improve communication quality even on low bandwidth, high latency networks. 

Patel explained that Cisco has completely reimagined its audio and video codecs using AI to be up to 16 times more efficient. This will allow high-definition audio and video on as little as 1/16 the bandwidth normally required.It will also enable capabilities like reconstructing dropped packets through generative AI.

“This is completely revolutionary by the way because not only does it change the quality of audio in high latency, high packet loss environments, it also reduces your cost of storage for the audio file,” Patel said.”If you think about a contact center application, every single call gets recorded and stored, you will not be able to store for a fraction of the cost because you actually need less storage.”

Looking forward, Patel emphasized that Cisco will continue to expand the AI-powered capabilities of Webex.

“You should expect us to continue to keep enhancing AI use cases so that every user has an assistant that can actually do things that they were not able to do in the past by themselves, and the communication for them becomes easier and the distance gets to zero,” he said.

du today announced a strategic partnership with Cisco to offer Cisco WebEx collaboration solutions and launch cutting-edge business conferencing service.  du invites visitors to its stand at GITEX to experience advanced conferencing and collaboration solutions.

The Cisco WebEx Authorized Program allows qualified companies to extend their collaboration offerings with the addition of on-demand solutions.  Cisco WebEx solutions bring people and information together to speed the decision-making process and to accelerate innovation.  The applications are delivered as software as a service (SaaS), helping to enable greater business productivity and faster responses to market changes while taking advantage of the Cisco WebEx Collaboration Cloud to provide highly secure, reliable, high-quality collaborative experiences.

“du is committed to providing its enterprise customers with state of the art tools to revolutionise business collaboration,” said Farid Faraidooni, EVP Commercial, du. “du Business Conferencing, based on Cisco WebEx, is a sophisticated suite of applications that facilitate online meetings, presentations, training sessions and customer support functions, just to name a few. In today’s challenging economic climate, these on-demand, online collaborative solutions will help our customers increase their productivity and market reach while reducing costs.”

"Cisco WebEx solutions, a key component of Cisco's collaboration portfolio, transform business communications and collaboration," said Ismael Hassa, director of WebEx Operations, Cisco Collaboration Software Group. "As a Cisco WebEx Authorised Partner, du has made a strategic investment to offer customers superior solutions that create synergy within organizations, drive costs out of existing business processes, and maximise resources by bringing people together more effectively than ever before."

With a proven track record of promoting its customers’ success and of using the transformative nature of collaboration solutions, du is bringing Cisco WebEx solutions to the market.

News Summary:

• The new Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 wireless earbuds are equipped with features critical for today's hybrid workforce, including enhanced security and device management for IT teams.
• The earbuds can seamlessly interoperate and are optimized for Webex Meetings and Calling.
• Customers also benefit from high-fidelity audio, luxury design, unmatched comfort and fit that Bang & Olufsen is widely renowned for.

ANAHEIM, Calif., Oct. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Bang & Olufsen (CPH: BO) today unveiled new true wireless earbuds built with enterprise-grade features customized for professionals on-the-go. Furthering their partnership to provide customers with top-quality audio experiences whether they're at home, at work or in transit, the Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 delivers a high-end aesthetic and premium sound combined with advanced security and manageability features.

This product release is an extension of the Cisco and Bang & Olufsen partnership, which addresses increased customer expectation for multifunctional devices that fit their lifestyles in and out of work. As hybrid work continues to enable flexibility in how and where people work, the Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 enables crystal-clear audio for seamless collaboration from any setting. The earbuds are fully manageable in Cisco's Control Hub platform, giving IT greater visibility and control over their entire fleet of collaboration devices and peripherals.

"As businesses continue to embrace the flexibility of hybrid work, employees need professional-grade tech solutions that enable work from any setting," said Snorre Kjesbu, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Webex Devices at Cisco. "We're excited to expand our partnership with B&O to deliver exceptional audio experiences with extensive functionality and timeless design and craftsmanship."

"We're excited to expand our partnership with Cisco to deliver the Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950," said Duncan McCue, Vice President Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Bang & Olufsen. "Equipped with Cisco's advanced features for secure collaboration and Bang & Olufsen's unparalleled capabilities in sound innovation and design, these earbuds are perfect for hybrid workers who want immersive audio experiences."

 Key features of the Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 include:

• Enhanced connectivity and functionality: With a long battery life, high-fidelity audio, Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, in-ear voice notifications, on-ear controls and Bluetooth 5.2 for quick pairing, the Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 provides an elevated user experience.
• Enterprise-grade security and management features: IT admins can easily maintain and securely update the device in Webex's Control Hub, the central dashboard for Cisco Collaboration Devices and Webex services. They can also get valuable insights on device inventory and utilization, to help maximize their return on investment.
• Extended interoperability: The Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 is optimized for Webex and pairs perfectly with other Cisco collaboration devices, with call controls and prioritization for calling and meetings. The earbuds are also platform agnostic and able to quickly and simultaneously pair with both Android and iOS devices without compromising sound quality.
• Tailored fit: The earbuds have a sleek ergonomic design, plus four sets of silicon tips and one pair of foam tips for comfort and fit based on preference.

Availability

The Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 will be available for order starting this November. For more information about Cisco's full portfolio of headsets, please visit the Bang & Olufsen Cisco 950 product page to learn more – and to see the full Cisco headset portfolio, click here.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that securely connects everything to make anything possible. Our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all by helping our customers reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks.

About Webex by Cisco

Webex is a leading provider of cloud-based collaboration solutions which includes video meetings, calling, messaging, events, polling, asynchronous video and customer experience solutions like contact center and purpose-built collaboration devices. Webex's focus on delivering inclusive collaboration experiences fuels our innovation, which leverages AI and Machine Learning, to remove the barriers of geography, language, personality, and familiarity with technology. Its solutions are underpinned with security and privacy by design. Webex works with the world's leading business and productivity apps – delivered through a single application and interface. Learn more at webex.com.

About Bang & Olufsen

Bang & Olufsen is a luxury audio brand founded in 1925 in Struer, Denmark, by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen whose devotion and vision remain the foundation for the company. For nearly a century, Bang & Olufsen has been pushing the boundaries of audio technology and the company continues to sit at the forefront of acoustic innovation. Today, every Bang & Olufsen product is still characterized by the unique combination of beautiful sound, timeless design, and unrivalled craftsmanship. The company's innovative and progressive products are sold worldwide in Bang & Olufsen stores, on bang-olufsen.com and in select retailers. The company employs approximately 900 people and operates in more than 70 markets. Bang & Olufsen's shares are listed on NASDAQ Copenhagen A/S.

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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.