Cisco recently unveiled a wide variety of new and upcoming platform enhancements powered by artificial intelligence (AI) at its annual “WebexOne” showcase event. Cisco has long been a leader in the use of AI, but the WebexOne 2024 event made it clear that the association has deepened, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Gregg Willsky, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Technology & Services at GlobalData, comments: “Cisco has done a commendable job of rapidly forming an arsenal of compelling AI-powered capabilities. The breadth of product categories that AI touches and more recently the influence that AI has had on Cisco’s organizational structure and operations are key differentiators.”
AI permeates products across the portfolio, largely in the form of the Cisco Webex AI Assistant. AI resonates in a new product organization unveiled in August 2024 that combines collaboration, networking, security, and observability. Moreover, AI influences Cisco’s go-to-market strategy underpinning three major businesses the company now operates in: powering AI-ready data centers; future-proofed workplaces powered by a core set of collaboration technologies; and digital resilience that reflects how adeptly a committed digital organization rebounds from a network outage.
Willsky continues: “AI is fundamental to Cisco. The WebexOne 2024 introductions reflect Cisco’s commitment to deploying AI broadly and support its mantra of ‘everything we do is in the service of experience’.”
A key theme of WebexOne 2024 was supporting the future of work. Cisco sees AI-infused collaboration as a key enabler for the workplaces of tomorrow that involves reimagining customer experience, reimagining workspace devices, and reimagining work itself. A sample of features unveiled at the event bears this out.
Willsky concludes: “Cisco research shows that organizations suffer from declining customer satisfaction; thus, Cisco has prioritized building tools that strengthen the customer experience such as the Cisco Webex AI Agent coming Q1 2025.
“Cisco’s device strategy is to drive inclusive experiences and let workers communicate and collaborate from anywhere; Cisco Spatial Meetings will be one means of supporting that mission when it arrives in Q1 2025. How work gets done is often influenced by the physical environment where work is performed; Cisco Workspace Designer is an interactive configurator built to help organizations design and customize their workspaces.”
