Cisco reimagines Webex with AI strategy announcement
Cisco has unveiled a pioneering AI strategy for its Webex platform at the WebexOne conference. This solution sets itself apart from other text or document-centric AI by leveraging real-time communications for audio and video to tackle common issues, like maintaining high-quality audio and video calls and meetings even in low bandwidth situations.
Webex AI Assistant is equipped with advanced features designed to boost productivity and precision for its users. The newly introduced Webex AI strategy and the Webex AI Assistant will be integrated across the comprehensive Webex portfolio. This includes the Webex Suite, Cisco Collaboration devices, Webex Contact Center, Webex Connect, and Webex Control Hub.
Cisco customers like McLaren Racing and Team DSM are already exploring the potential of Webex’s new AI capabilities and it represents a significant stride in Cisco’s commitment to improving user experience and productivity through AI technology.
“We’re at the tipping point of a new era of hybrid work, with AI holding the key to helping us bridge the gap and enable us all to work and communicate to our full potential,” said Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager, Cisco Security and Collaboration.
“Our Webex platform has long enabled our rapid pace of innovation. Today’s announcement is a monumental step forward, as customers will benefit from AI being pervasive in every aspect of the Webex platform.”
Introducing real-time media models
Visual and audible cues like gestures and walking out of the room during a meeting provide invaluable context about human interactions. Cisco’s new real-time media models (RMMs) in Webex will enhance audio and video quality.
The models can take multiple media streams and produce multiple outputs, such as people and object recognition and action analytics like movement and gestures.
RMMs in Webex will also enable audio and video channels to be used as signals of context in traditional text-based capabilities like meeting summaries and highlights. By uniquely fusing together AI for text, audio and video, Webex users will benefit from rich real-time insights. For example, in the future, Webex may be able to recognise that a meeting participant stepped away from a meeting, and capture meeting notes to bring that person up to speed when they return.
New Webex AI Codec helps customers achieve high quality
AI Codec in Webex is a new generative AI solution that will redefine real-time communication and solve the challenge of choppy audio quality. The audio Codec aims to deliver crystal-clear audio regardless of network conditions, even in areas with spotty connections.
Webex’s efficiency with its AI Codec allows for massive transmission redundancy to recover from network packet loss. It also has built-in speech enhancement functions like noise removal, dereverberation and bandwidth extension, to deliver unprecedented audio clarity.
Webex will similarly apply machine learning techniques to improve video quality using Super Resolution which delivers high-definition meetings regardless of bandwidth conditions.
Helping workers and customers
Cisco launched the AI solution to minimise work and costs for IT, to drive business value for its customers.
The company understands that certain Large Language Models (LLMs) will be better suited than others based on the use case and training and has allowed Webex to use a combination of best-of-breed models. Webex’s federated approach combines commercial, open source, Cisco-proprietary and select customer models to deliver the best possible experience.
Cisco has leveraged AI with natural language, audio intelligence, video intelligence and analytics for years; all designed with attention to security, privacy and human rights built in from the start. Realising AI’s significant promise while adhering to standards for transparency, fairness, accountability, privacy, security and reliability is an ongoing mission at Cisco.
This is the promise of Cisco’s Responsible AI Framework, which applies to our AI offerings. The Webex AI strategy and Webex AI Assistant capabilities are secure and align with this position.
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