The Workplace Paradox
Here’s what keeps me up at night: we’re building workplaces for people who don’t work the way we think they do anymore.
I’ve spent the better part of three decades in technology, and I’ve never seen a moment quite like this. The office isn’t dead, but it’s not what it was. Remote work isn’t a pandemic relic; it’s a preference. And AI isn’t coming to transform work. It’s already here. It’s in our meetings, summarizing our calls, and quietly rewriting the rules of productivity. Yet for all this change, most organizations are still operating with frameworks built for a world that no longer exists.
That’s the disconnect. Companies are trying to solve yesterday’s problems with outdated thinking. They’re deploying AI without strategy, sprinkling it across products like seasoning without understanding the recipe. They’re investing in devices without understanding how spaces actually get used. They’re chasing innovation without asking the most important question: what are we actually trying to do?
At Cisco Live EMEA, we’re not just showcasing products. We’re presenting a vision. One where Connected Intelligence becomes the operating system for how work happens. Where people and AI don’t compete, they each make the other better. Where physical and digital spaces blend seamlessly. Where customer experiences aren’t transactional, they’re transformational.
This is about building the workplace of today for the workforce of tomorrow. And it starts with understanding that intelligence isn’t just in the cloud. It’s everywhere: at the edge, in the room, on the desk, in every conversation, and across every interaction.
Intelligent Workspaces – Where Distance Becomes Zero
For years, we’ve talked about “bringing the remote participant into the room.” Noble goal. Wrong framing. The real challenge isn’t making remote people feel included. It’s making every space intelligent enough to adapt to how people naturally collaborate, whether they’re across the table or across the world.
This is what we call Distance Zero: the idea that intelligence starts at the edge, where devices capture people, space, and context in real time, so AI can improve the work experience as it happens. Not after the fact. Not in some cloud data center. Right there, in the moment, adapting to what’s unfolding.
The Room Kit Pro G2 and Desk Pro G2: Cinematic Quality, Simplified. Walk into any executive boardroom and you’ll find a paradox: incredible technology that’s incredibly complicated. The Cisco Room Kit Pro G2 changes that equation. This is a powerful room system for large rooms with multi-camera support, one-click setup, and AI-powered video intelligence that frames speakers dynamically. Designed to simplify large rooms and the most demanding AV scenarios with advanced multi-camera intelligence, scalable AVoIP room orchestration, single-click setup, NVIDIA-powered AI workflows, and seamless meetings on any platform. This is collaboration that feels effortless.
For individuals, the Cisco Desk Pro G2 delivers that same intelligence at the desk –and now we are expanding that experience to the huddle space. With its dual-lens camera system, featuring a crystal-clear 4K 48MP lens and a dedicated 105-degree wide-angle lens, everyone in your huddle stays sharp and in frame. Pro-grade 4K display. One-cable docking. Precision whiteboarding. It transitions seamlessly from executive desks to huddle spaces, delivering elite performance wherever work happens. Plus, express installation means IT can deploy fast, and users can plug in and start immediately.
And for frontline, and mobile workers, the Cisco Wireless Phone 9821 provides secure, reliable communication that moves with them through hospitals, retail floors, and manufacturing plants. Runs on PhoneOS and designed for business calling, this phone operates over Wi-Fi and seamlessly integrates into existing communications workflows, enhancing efficiency and connectivity throughout the day. Because connected intelligence isn’t just for knowledge workers. It’s for everyone.
One System, Managed Intelligently
Cisco wants to meet you where you work. Through integrating Control Hub workspaces data with Amazon Quick, Microsoft Copilot, our own AI Assistant and more, we’re bringing conversational AI-driven management directly into the tools you already use. For the first time, Workspace Designer allows you to visualize and configure your rooms in 3D with Cisco room devices and verified Samsung Smart Displays, IT and facilities teams can design, deploy, and optimize workspaces at scale with 3D visualization and verified interoperability.
Intelligence at the edge. Devices that work as a unified system. Control at scale, without complexity. That’s Distance Zero made real.
Connected Collaboration – Where Conversations Become Context
Now let’s zoom out and talk about the system.
Most collaboration tools treat meetings, messaging, and content as separate experiences. You have a meeting. Then you Slack about the meeting. Then someone asks what was decided, and you spend 20 minutes digging through transcripts. Meanwhile, action items are scattered across sticky notes, chat messages, and handwritten notebooks.
Connected Collaboration is about creating an intelligent system where conversations carry context seamlessly across tools, teams, and time. Where AI doesn’t just transcribe, it understands intent, surfaces decisions, and moves work forward.
Breaking Barriers, Building Connections
Our Speech-to-Speech Translation powered by the Translator Agent delivers real-time, human-sounding translation that enables natural conversations across languages. Not robotic playback. Fluid speech that preserves tone and builds trust. Imagine a team in Paris collaborating seamlessly with engineers in Bangalore and customer success in São Paulo, all speaking their native languages. That’s Connected Collaboration.
Ask AI Assistant for Webex Calling instantly surfaces relevant context from prior calls, meetings, and messages—and extends that context to enterprise applications through integrations with Amazon Q Index and Glean—so you can stay focused on the conversation, not on searching for information. And with AI Assistant + Copilot Connector Integration, we’re delivering seamless, bi-directional integration between Webex and Microsoft Copilot. One intelligent experience that respects how you actually work, not how vendors think you should.
Underpinning everything is Zero Trust for Suite, delivering enhanced end-to-end encryption for meetings and calls. Because connected intelligence only works if it’s built on trust.
Connected Customer Experiences – elevating operational excellence with AI
Let’s shift to customer experience, where AI reveals its transformational potential.
Contact centers have been broken for years. Long wait times. Repetitive questions. Agents buried in multiple screens. But what if AI could become an active teammate, handling routine interactions, routing intelligently, and empowering agents to focus on complex, human moments that require empathy and judgment?
That’s the power of Connected Customer Experiences: smart, personalized interactions built on trust, context, and human connections.
Smarter Routing, Better Workforce Planning, Unified Experiences
AI Routing uses intelligent optimization based on context, caller history, intent, and agent availability to match customers to the best-suited agent, for every interaction. Better experiences. Faster resolutions. Happier customers.
Native AI Forecasting and Scheduling that is intuitive and purpose-built for the AI era, accurately predicting staffing needs by modeling real-time interaction data, AI agent deflections, and dynamic business scenarios. Simple. Intuitive. Accurate.
Webex Contact Center for ServiceNow embeds enterprise-grade contact center capabilities directly into ServiceNow, creating a unified experience where cases and interactions connect automatically. No context switching. No friction.
And with Cisco AI Assistant for on-premises (CCE), we’re bringing real-time assist, wrap-up summaries, and real-time transcriptions to on-prem deployments to empower both the agents and supervisors to deliver exceptional experiences. Modern on-premises experiences with AI innovations.
Adaptive, Resilient Platform – The Foundation That Scales
Innovation is exciting. But without a secure, scalable foundation, it’s just noise.
Our adaptive, resilient platform proactively secures, manages, and scales your business without adding complexity.
Deploy, manage, and optimize from anywhere. That’s operational intelligence.
Cisco AI Pods for Webex enable secure, on-premises AI deployments with complete control over your data and compliance. Webex Calling Hybrid lets you modernize communications while leveraging existing investments, migrating on your terms with Cloud PSTN and AI Receptionist capabilities.
We are also strengthening our commitment to digital sovereignty by expanding data residency for Webex Suite in the UK. By utilizing dedicated cloud locations, we will provide in-country data processing and storage for the Suite.
Our continued investment in Cisco UCM and CMS delivers the latest security updates, new government and security certifications, and AI features for on-premises deployments. And Control Hub provides centralized administration with real-time insights and AI-powered assistance across every environment.
The Invitation
Connected Intelligence isn’t a product launch. It’s a philosophy. A recognition that the future of work will be defined by how intelligently our tools, spaces, and experiences adapt to us.
At Cisco Live EMEA, we’re showcasing what happens when devices become intelligent, collaboration becomes contextual, customer experiences become agentic, and platforms become adaptive. When technology stops being something, you manage and starts being something that empowers.
This is the workplace of today, built for the workforce of tomorrow.
And this is just the beginning.
Let’s build it together.
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Advancing The Ai Ready Secure Network New Capabilities At Cisco Live Emea
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