Webex has revealed several new AI-powered features to help brands combat rising customer expectations.
Announced at Cisco Live US – the company’s premier tech vendor event – Webex’s software will be undergoing a series of enhancements and additions aimed at boosting its customer and employee experience offerings.
Chief among these improvements are the additional capabilities of the Webex AI Assistant, which now includes Assistant for Meeting Recordings, Custom Dictionary, and a ‘Be Right Back and Catch Me Up’ feature.
The first two features are currently slated to be released in Beta in July, with the former allowing users to easily revisit topics and discussions that have taken place during recorded meetings by asking the AI assistant.
Regarding the latter, organizations will be able to introduce commonly used terms and acronyms that are specific to their team into AI assistant training data.
The “Be Right Back” tool – which will become generally available in June – builds on the functions of the Meeting Recordings Assistant.
The solution uses video intelligence capabilities to detect when a user leaves an in-progress meeting, automatically muting the microphone and disabling the camera, and providing a summary of the major points missed during their absence.
The “Catch Me Up” feature was mentioned by Aruna Ravichandran, SVP & Chief Marketing and Customer Officer at Webex by Cisco, when discussing the company’s latest AI releases:
While we continue innovating, one of my favorite capabilities is “Catch Me Up.” Life happens, and sometimes, I need to step away from my desk or join a meeting after it has started.
“With ‘Catch Me Up,’ the AI Assistant can quickly tell me what I’ve missed and capture any action items.”
Why Now?
With the vast majority of the customer experience and service sector currently investing in various forms of generative and traditional AI, Webex’s releases could have been just another example of a tech provider leveraging the latest technology.
However, the company states that its solutions are specifically in response to a study conducted by Dimensional Research on the role of AI in the CX space.
Sponsored by Webex, the research surveyed over 500 business leaders and executives on the current state of AI adoption, with the findings outlining a disconnect between the impact of AI and how efficiently companies are deploying it.
While those surveyed were overwhelmingly positive about the impact of AI – with 95% of contact center leaders deeming it critical to improving CX, and 97% of companies believing that AI will improve the work experience for customer-facing personnel – there were clear deficiencies in the implementation of the tech.
Indeed, only 36% of respondents admitted to having an AI strategy, with only 31% having deployed some form of GenAI, and 30% having incorporated conversational AI.
