The lines between AV and IT have never been blurrier – and according to Justin Watts, Global End User Services Lead and Brand Ambassador at AMD, that is very much a good thing.
“Everything that I’ve seen has been something new that I really didn’t expect to see,” he said. “There’s been a huge focus on the experience and on how AI can enable that experience.”
AI, unsurprisingly, is the talk of the show floor. For Watts, its value lies in the efficiencies it unlocks – efficiencies that would previously have required multiple workarounds to achieve.
From smarter workflows to more meaningful reporting and monitoring, he sees AI as a genuine accelerant for the industry rather than a buzzword. “This is what drives the industry forward,” he said.
But beyond AI, Watts is most animated when talking about the shift in how organisations think about the meeting experience itself. The pandemic forced a rethink, he argues, and the industry has spent the last two years building on that foundation. The result is a move away from fixating on the hardware on the wall and towards something more holistic – ensuring every person in a room, regardless of where they are sitting, has an equitable experience. “You have to focus on the furthest person in the room,” Watts said. “Everyone has to have that meeting equity to participate.”
That philosophy extends to where Watts sees the technology heading next. Personalised displays, per-seat touch interfaces, and locally accessible software-as-a-service tools all point in the same direction – towards an experience built around the individual, even in a room full of people.
For Watts, the convergence of AV and IT is no longer a tension to be managed. It is the foundation the modern workplace is being built on.
