Cisco is adding a suite of new AI capabilities to improve the Webex user experience across the board. This should make Webex a serious contender for Teams and Zoom.

Cisco is the next company to go full throttle in the rollout of AI capabilities. The company announces a hefty dose of artificial intelligence for its Webex video conferencing platform, which it says will enable it to deliver “unprecedented hybrid work experiences.” The addition of artificial intelligence is mainly to improve the overall user experience, although even Cisco can’t resist jumping on the generative AI hype.

First let’s look at the video part. Thanks to the Super Resolution function, every meeting now runs in HD quality, even if your webcam doesn’t support it. The lighting is also artificially enhanced. In hybrid meetings, where multiple people join from a conference room, the camera captures who is speaking.

If a closed room is not available for the meeting, the manager can create a room himself by delimiting virtual zones. Only who and what is within this delimited area will be received during the meeting. Cisco is also adding something for those watching the meeting from home. For example, if the doorbell rings in the middle of a conversation, Webex automatically displays a notification that you’ll be away for a while.

Artificial trainer

With new features for the Webex Contact Center, Cisco wants to use AI to improve the customer experience. Agent Answers acts as an artificial coach for customer service agents. You can let AI overhear conversations between employees and customers and broadcast the conversation in real time.

The topic analysis then analyzes the conversations. This gives the company bite-sized insights into why customers are calling customer service. This information can be used to better prepare employees for situations they may find themselves in. Chat conversations with customers can also be automatically summarized, and with automated coding, you can fully customize each customer’s customer journey.

Compete with Teams and Zoom

Cisco gave Webex a new look two years ago to compete in the competitive video conferencing software market. While the company can proudly announce that Webex has ten million users, it still can’t compete with Microsoft Teams and Zoom. It remains to be seen whether the addition of AI functions will turn the tide, because the competition does not sit still in the field of artificial intelligence either.