Did you know that 98% of all meetings will now have at least one remote participant? This hybrid world we find ourselves in is rapidly changing the way we interact and share data, and all for the better. But as state and local governments experience this permanent shift in the workplace to a digital environment, they must be sure to deliver a user experience that feels familiar to the user while providing frictionless engagement. Artificial intelligence (AI) holds great promise in this area. That's why AI and hybrid work, works with Webex.

With the full acceptance of a remote work culture among workers, the public sector is often finding it difficult to enforce return-to-office mandates. To overcome this, state and local governments should take a closer look at their workplaces and seek to create frictionless, culture boosting environments that people eagerly desire to be an active part of, rather than be forced to sit in day after day. Citizens are also demanding faster, more personalized engagement. Governments should address this need in tandem with that of their workers.

This new workplace government leaders find themselves shaping holds a tremendous amount of opportunity - but only if they take steps right now to leverage the generational change that AI and hybrid work solutions offer them.

AI and Hybrid Work for a frictionless experience

AI is not new to Cisco. We've been working with it for decades, leveraging AI with audio, video, natural language understanding, and analytics to create unrivaled experiences that engage users. However, there is something new: advancements in large language models and generative AI which allows us to deliver unrivaled collaboration experiences.

AI is core to our entire collaboration portfolio, from Webex for Government to devices like headsets, phones, and our award-winning room systems. AI is also deeply embedded in our Customer Experience portfolio. So, while AI is the latest buzzword, our decades of investments and experience with AI are helping customers to optimize collaboration, reimagine workspaces, and maximize customer experience.

For example, Webex is underpinned by the industry's best AI, security, and manageability for a more frictionless experience:

• Purpose-built AIfor audio and video intelligence that promotes greater inclusion and well-being. Video intelligence features such as facial and gesture detection, which let you communicate without saying a word.
• Be Right Backknows when you're distracted. By leveraging our facial detection technology, Webex will sense when you step away and replace your video feed with a sign that says, "be right back."
• Smart lightingwhich automatically adjusts the video lighting based on the time of day or even the weather to ensure you look your best in any environment.
• Super resolutionthat delivers high-definition meetings without high-definition bandwidth even in low bandwidth conditions. And no choppiness, even with packet loss.
• Background noise removaltechnology that has removed over 96 billion minutes (about 180,000 years) of background noise. We're extending this capability to PSTN calls with Webex Calling, so users on both ends of the call be heard clearly.

AI, Webex - and Microsoft Teams

We're also opening up a whole new world of multiplatform collaboration for our government customers via Cisco Devices. Our new Cinematic meetings, directed by RoomOS, brings multi-camera support that automatically transitions between shots to make sure everyone is seen and heard at just the right moment. And when rooms have glass walls, the new Meeting Zones feature lets you define a visual perimeter for the meeting, and AI will focus only on people within that perimeter. This keeps your secure areas and information secure.

In addition, Cisco Board Pro, plus other Cisco devices and peripherals, are now certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms. This includes support for our AI-enabled audio and video intelligence technologies to drive better user experiences in Microsoft Teams Rooms. Plus, Webex Contact Center is now certified for Microsoft Teams.

AI and Hybrid Work is maximizing citizen engagement

AI and hybrid work solutions have also risen to meet a new bar of instant and personalized service. Customers now expect government to know who they are, to be proactive, and to personalize engagement. Not once, but across the entire interaction.

To maximize the value of AI and hybrid work for our government customers, we've powered up Webex Contact Center with machine learning capabilities:

• Topic analysisbuilt using an AI large language model (LLM) that surfaces trends for why customers call the contact center, providing actionable insights.
• Proprietary agent answersoffers AI-enabled recommendations in real-time to agents from a knowledge base built from customer queries.
• Intelligent chat summariesautomatically summarizes an entire chatbot conversation delivered at the point of handoff to a live agent.

At Cisco, we're leveraging our decades of experience working with AI and hybrid work solutions to create digital environments for government that deliver a familiar and frictionless user engagement. By actively embedding purpose-built AI into our hybrid work solutions, we're redefining and optimizing collaboration while reimagining workspaces and maximizing citizen engagement.

Additional resources

• Improve Incident Response with a Collaboration Platform You Can Trust
• Webex Connect | Latest Channel Updates and AI Innovations| Latest Channel Updates and AI Innovations
• Delivering customer experience for the next normal with Webex Contact Center
• Cisco solutions for State and Local Government