Cisco Webex: The Workplace Is Becoming an Intelligent Participant in Work, Podcast

By Doug Green

“The workplace is becoming an active participant in work — sensing, reasoning and acting.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne, Bob Cicero, Global Director of Intelligent Workplace Experience for Cisco Webex, discusses how AI, networking, collaboration devices and workplace data are coming together to create a new generation of intelligent offices.

Cicero says the intelligent workplace sits at the intersection of people, technology and physical space.

The idea goes beyond hybrid work. Instead of simply adding collaboration technology to an office, organizations can design environments where the network, meeting devices, sensors and workplace systems work together as one platform.

That can allow the workplace to respond dynamically to what employees need.

Cicero gives the example of a meeting room experiencing a Wi-Fi problem. An intelligent system could identify that the issue is local wireless interference, determine that it cannot be fixed before the next meeting and automatically direct participants to another available room.

That experience requires networking, collaboration devices, observability, assurance and location services to work together.

Office design is also changing.

Cicero says IT traditionally entered the process late, after architects had drawn walls and workplace teams had selected furniture.

Cisco is helping turn that model around.

“Start with the end-user experience, then the technology, then the furniture, then draw the walls,” Cicero says.

The same technology can also provide organizations with a much better understanding of how offices are actually being used.

Cisco collaboration devices and networking infrastructure can provide information about occupancy, meeting sizes, temperature, humidity and other characteristics of the workplace.

That can help IT and real estate teams determine whether spaces are designed appropriately and where changes should be made.

Cicero says the best technology should ultimately disappear into the experience.

With RoomOS 27 and increasingly intelligent meeting spaces, employees should be able to walk into a room and simply have the environment work around them.

Cisco is also extending its multi-platform strategy. Webex devices can support Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet while continuing to provide workplace intelligence regardless of the meeting platform being used.

Looking several years ahead, Cicero expects agentic AI to make workplaces capable of sensing conditions, reasoning about what employees need and taking action automatically.

As digital workers take on more routine tasks, he believes the physical workplace may actually become more important for human-to-human interaction.

Visit Cisco.com and search for Intelligent Workplace Experience to learn more.