Cisco bets on AI agents to redefine workplace collaboration

Cisco Systems Inc. today unveiled a set of collaboration and customer experience products that transform its Webex videoconferencing platform into what executives describe as an intelligent operating system for work.

The updates span collaboration hardware, AI agents, contact center software and security enhancements that Cisco said will support a future in which AI agents work alongside employees. The company said collaboration platforms are becoming central to how organizations manage knowledge, automate workflows and connect people with AI-driven services.

The most important conversations your organization will have will happen in your collaboration platform,” Amit Barave, vice president and general manager of Webex Suite, wrote in a blog post. “Deals will close. Patients will be served. Decisions will be made. AI agents will be working alongside your people in every one of them.”

At the center of the strategy is what Cisco calls Connected Intelligence, a framework designed to carry context, knowledge and automation across meetings, messaging, customer service and workplace environments. That will be supported by a growing portfolio of AI agents intended to automate routine work. Cisco is extending existing Webex capabilities that capture meeting discussions, generate action items and update business applications with agents designed to improve meeting preparation and multilingual communication.

A new Meeting Prep Agent automatically gathers information from previous meetings, documents and message threads before a meeting begins, helping participants arrive with better context. A new Translator Agent provides speech-to-speech translation that preserves tone, emotion and speaking style across languages. English, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, German and French are among the 10 languages initially supported.

Cisco is also expanding Webex AI Agent Studio, a platform that allows organizations to build, deploy and manage voice and digital AI agents across collaboration workflows and third-party applications. The company said the platform supports features like preconfigured self-service workflows and customized enterprise agents.

Teaming with Microsoft

To support customers already invested in Microsoft Corp.’s ecosystem, Cisco announced bi-directional integration between Webex and Microsoft Copilot. That makes Webex content searchable in Copilot and Microsoft content available in Webex.

Security and governance were recurring themes throughout the announcements as enterprises grapple with how to manage growing populations of AI agents.

Cisco said its Zero Trust architecture now extends across meetings, messaging, recordings and whiteboards. New capabilities include enhanced end-to-end encryption, AI governance controls, compliance management and deepfake detection developed in collaboration with Pindrop Security Inc. The company also outlined plans for quantum-safe cryptography within the Webex platform.

A new AI Workforce Engagement Management platform was built specifically for environments that include both human and AI agents. “Managing a workforce of agents that includes both human and AI is a new operational challenge, and most WEM tools simply weren’t built for it,” wrote Vinod Muthukrishnan, vice president and general manager of Webex Customer Experience.

The new platform includes workforce forecasting, scheduling, quality management, performance monitoring and AI-assisted onboarding.
AI Quality Management is another new feature that automatically evaluates all customer interactions across both human and AI agents, rather than relying on sampling techniques traditionally used in contact centers.

AI Concierge is a configurable AI agent designed to serve as a company’s digital front door. The system integrates with knowledge bases, enterprise applications and other AI agents to provide what Cisco describes as continuous, personalized customer experiences across channels and interactions. Persistent memory allows conversations to continue across multiple touchpoints without forcing customers to repeat information.

Another addition, AI Agent 360, provides monitoring, security and observability capabilities for AI agents. Cisco said the platform combines observability, governance and security controls into a single management environment that allows organizations to evaluate agent performance and compliance throughout the AI lifecycle.

Cisco’s collaboration hardware portfolio is also getting significant updates. The new Board Pro G3 collaboration device (pictured) enables organizations to use native Microsoft Teams Rooms and Webex experiences on a single platform. The company emphasized that the device was designed to accommodate future AI capabilities through expandable compute and software architecture.

On the management side, Cisco announced the general availability of Workspace Advisor, a digital twin technology that allows administrators to configure and manage collaboration spaces remotely. The company is also integrating Control Hub into AI Canvas, enabling administrators to troubleshoot collaboration, networking and application issues using natural language queries across Cisco’s infrastructure portfolio.

Although only a minor player in general web conferencing software, Webex is the market share leader in conference room devices, according to Frost & Sullivan Ltd. Cisco is doubling down on that position by making Webex a connective layer that links people, enterprise data, business workflows and AI agents. As agents proliferate, Cisco is betting that the value of collaboration platforms will depend less on connecting people than on connecting intelligence.

Photo: Cisco