Artificial intelligence (AI) has become all the rage. Just the mere mention of it makes us think of hi-tech and some futuristic state that promises simplicity and instant knowledge. According to research from O’Reilly, engagement with artificial intelligence technology grew 58% last year.* Additionally, the global artificial intelligence market is expected to grow nearly 50% in 2020, to a staggering $40.74 billion.** For the collaboration industry, their use brings hope of frictionless and instant connections.
Cisco Webex has pioneered the use of AI within collaboration to bring this hope into reality. There is no other vendor in this space with a rich history in AI innovation like Webex. All for the purpose of helping people to connect like never before from wherever they work, play, or learn. To enable a safe return to the office. And to make decisions about collaboration spaces and office floor plans. From your home to the board room, our, AI, and automation technology provide intelligent experiences and drive changes, that keep everyone safe and productive.
And it isn’t something that will happen in the future. It’s happening today; in fact, we’ve been doing it for years following our strategy to apply AI and Machine Learning (ML) to practical applications in collaboration. We identified the most important areas where machine learning would make a difference in collaboration solutions and have focused our efforts on relationship intelligence, audio & speech technologies, bots & assistant, and computer vision.
This involved the application of a range of AI-based technologies including:
To support the advanced machine learning techniques used in these technologies several of them were optimized to run on NVIDIA GPU’s. Additionally, these features were deployed in the cloud or directly on client devices in order to provide optimal processing and the best data privacy position for end users.
After several years of research and development, this was the year Webex first introduced AI that could change the way we meet and interact. For example, two big challenges we noticed back then were how we could reduce distracting noises (sirens, doorbells, dog barking, etc.), and how to present the best view of the conference room for remote participants. As a result, we introduced the following:
The rise of small, agile teams meant that collaboration wasn’t just happening in traditional conference rooms. Every shared space was effectively turning into a huddle room. Whatever space people met in, they wanted the same easy join/start/share experience. So, our engineers not only made the conference room look even better to remote participants, but also improved the experience of people in those rooms. Webex Rooms systems have a modern hardware architecture that includes NVIDIA GPUs. This architecture allowed us to build sophisticated computer vision applications and bring AI-driven features to market faster. These included:
As the remote collaboration experience became better, what people wanted next was building a better, more intimate connection to the people they were meeting with on the screen. How could we shave off the 10 minutes of going around the room for introductions, and yet help you feel you already knew everyone you were meeting with?
This was/is the year where work from home become mainstream, and #RemoteWork started trending on social streams. Working from home presents some unique challenges and it became clear that new innovations were needed to make it easier to work from anywhere, without distraction. This has been a watershed moment for needing AI in collaboration, as more people dealt with all sorts of background and noise distractions. How did Cisco Webex respond? With intelligent technology for the hybrid workplace:
When working from home, many people are faced with spotty Wi-Fi or bandwidth constrained home networks that just aren’t as robust as corporate networks. We improved Webex performance in such conditions by applying machine intelligence in a few core areas:
Webex brings powerful artificial intelligence and machine learning to your collaboration experience, at home or at the office, to help to foster relationships, enhance customer interactions, and build high-performance teams across boundaries. But what about data privacy? How are my data privacy rights being protected?
Our AI/ML initiatives are guided by a few core principles:
To get a more detailed view, I encourage you to read how Cisco treats the data it collects in this whitepaper. Additionally, this Privacy Data Sheet describes the processing of personal data (or personally identifiable information) by Cisco Webex Meetings.
Today and in the future, connected and intelligent workplaces (whether at home or at the office) will play a major role in delivering cognitive experiences that enable simple, frictionless, insightful collaboration. And we can’t wait to introduce more AI capabilities before the end of the year!
To see how you can benefit from these AI capabilities, check out our Return to Office video, and our Work from Home video.
Sources
Global Artificial Intelligence market expected to grow
O’Reilly Research- 6 trends framing the state of AI and ML
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