Cisco – long a leader in the use of AI – has unveiled a wide variety of new and upcoming platform enhancements powered by the technology at its annual WebexOne showcase event to make it clear that the association has deepened, says GlobalData.
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 organisational 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 organisation 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 centres; future-proofed workplaces powered by a core set of collaboration technologies; and digital resilience that reflects how adeptly a committed digital organisation rebounds from a network outage.
“AI is fundamental to Cisco,” says Willsky. “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.
“Cisco research shows that organisations suffer from declining customer satisfaction, thus, Cisco has prioritised building tools that strengthen the customer experience such as the Cisco Webex AI Agent coming Q1 2025,” says Willsky.
“Cisco’s device strategy is to drive inclusive experiences and let workers communicate and collaborate from anywhere,” he says. “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 organisations design and customise their workspaces.”