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Cisco teams up with Nvidia to unveil next-gen Webex AI assistant, merging RMM and LLM capabilities

Vyra Wu, DIGITIMES Asia, Taipei 0

Credit: Cisco

Cisco has recently shone a spotlight on Webex's advanced features, unveiling a fresh lineup of collaboration devices that harness the capabilities of Nvidia's accelerated computing and AI engine. This innovative integration is poised to revolutionize hybrid meetings.

The discussion touched upon Webex's generative AI model, known as Real-Time Media Models (RMMs). Cisco emphasized that RMMs represent unique and proprietary technology designed for handling real-time audio and video. It distinguishes itself from traditional Language Models (LLMs), which are more text-centric, by addressing real-time voice and media.

Cisco's collaboration with Nvidia, particularly its use of Nvidia chipsets in Webex devices, was highlighted. This partnership has been instrumental in enabling AI capabilities, making Webex devices capable of performing complex AI functions.

The newly launched Webex AI Assistant has the potential to change message tone and provides recommended changes to tone, format, and phrasing in Webex Messaging and Slido. A user can ask Webex AI Assistant to summarize messages from their boss within a space containing messages from other colleagues. Organized into chapters and highlights, Meeting Summaries assist users in catching up on missed portions of meetings or entire meetings in real-time and provide summaries of what they missed, thus helping people stay updated by recapping unread messages or reviewing space activity.

Webex AI Codec was detailed extensively. The platform utilizes AI to enhance audio quality in real-time communication, irrespective of available bandwidth. AI technology eliminates background noise during capture, reconstructs lost data during transport, and proactively predicts network conditions to adapt to available bandwidth. Similarly, Webex will apply machine learning techniques to improve video quality through Super Resolution, ensuring high-definition meetings with exceptional video quality regardless of bandwidth conditions.

Addressing market competition, Sandeep Mehra, Managing Director of Collaboration Sales for APJC at Cisco, acknowledged the challenges posed by other collaboration platforms such as Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet. However, he emphasized that innovation, affordability, and partnerships have been vital in helping Webex regain market share.

Webex currently supports real-time translations in 13 spoken languages, which can be further translated into 108 text languages. The platform provides support for Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Hindi in the Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China regions.