Cisco Upgrades Webex with AI for Improved Productivity and Employee Wellness

Cisco Systems Inc. has launched a new update to enhance its Webex contact center and videoconferencing platform. The updated platform now comes with expanded AI capabilities that are designed to boost productivity for workers, and enhance customer experience. The AI support takes things a step forward to boost productivity by helping managers detect employee burnout. Cisco announced the general availability and the series of AI updates to the Webex Customer Experience Essentials at the Enterprise Connect 2024.

Webex is the umbrella brand for Cisco’s collaboration and meeting tools which include desktop software for video and voice as well as enterprise collaboration and messaging tools.

The updates come at a time when the collaboration and contact center tools market, has heated up with innovation and AI infusion. Cisco's Webex is facing stiff competition from other tools such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom which are all integrating AI features in their respective platforms, according to Venture Beat. Several AI features such as automatic meeting summaries have now become standard for such tools forcing companies to innovate further to stand out.

Crucial Updates to Cisco’s Webex Platform

The Webex Contact Center is getting AI capabilities for topic analysis which would help the system analyze customer interaction to find out insights on why customers are reaching out and what are the trending issues. The system will now further provide suggested response capabilities powered by AI recommendations for agents to use. An end-of-call wrap-up and summarization feature also powered by AI has been introduced as well. However, the most ground-breaking feature is the agent burnout detection tool.

Webex’s Employee Burnout Detection Feature

Cisco has taken a step forward with AI introducing its agent burnout feature. According to its official blog, the tool uses AI to predict when an agent is getting burned out and when it is starting to affect the quality of interactions with the customer.

Managers can analyze the data and trends from the tool and help employees manage their work better to increase productivity. The AI-powered agent burnout detection will enable businesses to proactively address agent well-being and the feature can work in tandem with other tools.

To further combat burnout, Webex has also expanded its partnership with Thrive Global, which was founded by Arianna Huffington. This has led to the integration of the tool, Thrive Reset into Webex’s agent workflow, and upon detecting burnout, agents can be provided automated breaks and 60-second reset videos with breathing exercises, mindfulness, and stress-relief techniques. The videos are designed to help reduce cortisol levels in employees to better productivity.

Furthermore, Webex’s real-time AI technology will also help identify situations leading to burnout, to help managers understand workflow better.

New Hardware Launches from Cisco

Apart from the AI updates and integrations to Webex, Cisco also unveiled a couple of new hardware devices for collaboration. The Cisco Board Pro G2 which is a touch collaboration device for video conferences was introduced along with the Cisco Desk Phone 9800, which intatesegr Webex’s collaborative tools in an optimized device. 

Cisco stated that the new hardware will support the back-to-office trend citing a recent global survey of more than 14,000 employees at more than 3,000 companies, which found that 80% of employers want their employees to return to the office either full-time or part-time in a hybrid model.