Future Proofing the Workplace in the age of AI

Over the past few years, AI has radically changed the business landscape. As organizations race to meet unprecedented demands for access, connectivity, and flexibility, it’s clear our workplaces need to evolve. Modern workplaces need to be dynamic environments where people and technology intersect to drive innovation and productivity. The influx of IoT devices and AI applications has introduced new complexities. As more devices connect to networks, data demands increase, and security risks intensify. Legacy infrastructures need to modernize to support these innovations. An evolution in workplace design is needed to unlock the real potential of these technologies.

Cisco is at the forefront of this transformation, committed to delivering future-proofed workplaces by uniquely integrating networking, collaboration, and security. Our unified approach empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of modern business with simplicity and confidence. The result is secure connectivity and unrivaled collaboration experiences for employees and customers.

Delivering frictionless wireless experiences

We’ve made our mission at Cisco clear: we are simplifying IT everywhere, for businesses of all sizes. We are constantly innovating to help IT teams lead through the AI era, not just react to it. That starts with intelligent networking infrastructure, ironclad security, and proactive assurance across owned and unowned environments.

Intelligent Connectivity

To radically simplify Net Ops management, we are bringing networking skills to the Cisco AI Assistant. With the AI Assistant for networking, IT will automate routine tasks, receive instant insights into network performance, and resolve problems faster with guided recommendations and automated troubleshooting.

When we launched our Cisco Wireless Wi-Fi 7 access points in November, we went far beyond the standard to deliver a wireless solution truly capable of future-proofing every workplace. We included more intelligence, combining AI-native capabilities like advanced Radio Resource Management with a self-configuring out-of-box experience. Beginning today, we’re bringing those enterprise-grade innovations to sites of any size. The new Cisco Wireless 9172 series Wi-Fi 7 access points, together with the new MS150 cloud-managed access switch, can provide seamless and consistent connectivity across all environments. When combined with Cisco Spaces, these access points become powerful sensors that can deliver insights from every space, including utilization and device performance, to drive operational efficiency.

Secure Every Site

We know that deploying cutting-edge technology can potentially open your network up to new vulnerabilities, which is why we build security into the core of every Cisco product. From physical spaces to digital experiences, we’re helping you confidently keep your assets safe. Today we announced several new innovations that do just that.

With the new integration of Cisco XDR and Cisco Meraki MX, organizations can automatically detect and respond to advanced threats quicker and with more confidence. Through unified visibility, regardless of vendor or vector, Cisco XDR improves security resilience, ML-driven prioritization, and AI guided remediation.

To simplify connectivity across a complex network, Cisco SD-WAN Interconnect gives WAN teams a flexible, resilient way to connect their Meraki and Catalyst SD-WAN fabrics, all managed from one central dashboard.

Alongside many of the advanced security features you expect from your physical Meraki MX devices, Meraki vMX customers can now secure east-west flows within a given cloud as well as north-south traffic from workloads to the internet.

Assure Every Experience

Future-proofing your organization includes ensuring exceptional experiences for every employee and customer, regardless of whether or not you own the infrastructure. Set to launch in March, the new ThousandEyes Traffic Insights will unify visibility across internal and external networks. By correlating user traffic flows with synthetic monitoring data it simplifies troubleshooting, streamlines workflows, and makes root-cause analysis faster and more accurate. This approach enables organizations to optimize and resolve performance issues before they escalate, delivering outstanding user experiences and supporting the demands of next-gen applications and devices.

Creating Amplified experiences for employees and customers

We are also laser focused on improving experiences for employees and customers. With our AI-powered Collaboration portfolio, interactions are clearer, more immersive, more effective, and even more human. All of this is critical to building a future-proofed workplace.

Engagement and Sustainability for Every Workspace

Leaders have defined unique workstyles for their organizations, whether in-office, hybrid, or remote. The imperative now is to create smart workspaces and intelligent interactions that enhance employee engagement across all environments.

Future proofing workplaces with smart workspaces requires attention to efficiency and sustainability. Cisco Collaboration devices can deliver sustainability outcomes across the entire product lifecycle. This means devices that last longer and are more cost effective to operate. Alongside our video devices, the recently launched Desk Phone 9800 series will now support deep sleep capabilities enabling up to 81% energy savings compared to idle mode. When you combine these devices with Office Hours and Sustainability Insights in Control Hub, you get meaningful sustainability and energy efficiency gains.

Enabling seamless collaboration for everyone means video equipping every workspace, including smaller spaces where BYOD is the norm. That’s why we are excited to announce the new Cisco Room Bar BYOD, a flexible AI-powered solution that delivers an incredible audiovisual experience.

To help IT, facilities, and HR teams plan their workplace, we are announcing new room configurations for our Webex Workspace Designer. This is a first-of-its-kind interactive design tool for meeting rooms, huddle spaces, executive boardrooms, and now auditoriums and training rooms.

To further enhance our global user experience, we are expanding our cloud infrastructure to new sites across EMEA. And Webex Go, our secure and compliant mobile calling solution, is expecting to expand to 13 new countries in Europe via Cloud Connect Partners.

AI is Reshaping the Customer Experience

In a world where experience truly matters, customer needs should be anticipated and seamlessly delivered. But in an increasingly distributed and complex world, companies have struggled to make customer satisfaction gains. AI presents a way to tackle this complexity with scalable AI Agents and productivity-enhancing AI Assistants––but only if implemented in the right way to deliver frictionless, personalized, and seamless experiences.

At WebexOne 2024 we introduced the revolutionary Webex AI Agent—omnichannel, multilingual AI agents that replace existing digital chat bots and voice IVRs with intelligent, human-like conversations and dynamic automation. By offering an always-on conversational AI experience for customer interactions, human agents can concentrate on more complex, high-value interactions. We are excited to make Webex AI Agent generally available this calendar quarter.

Additionally, we are excited today to announce general availability of the Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center. The AI Assistant presents agents with automated guidance, context, wellness breaks, and summaries to optimize engagement and improve customer interactions.

Empowering Tomorrow’s Workplaces Today

Only Cisco unifies networking with collaboration and security to create workplaces that are truly future-proofed. By integrating these core elements, we help organizations not only prepare to meet today’s challenges but also thrive in the future. Our comprehensive approach empowers businesses to achieve amplified experiences, improved productivity, enhanced agility, and sustainable operations. With Cisco, the future of work is not just envisioned—it is realized.

For more info, visit:
Cisco Unveils New Future-Proofed Workplace Innovations in Amsterdam
Redefining Workplaces: Intelligent, Sustainable, and Future-Proofed
Delivering exceptional customer experiences with new AI-powered Webex innovations

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