In 2025, meeting rooms are under more scrutiny than ever. As organisations strive to navigate a permanently hybrid future, IT and facilities leaders are being confronted with tough questions.
How do you scale technology across hundreds or even thousands of spaces without scaling complexity? How do you deliver seamless, high-quality experiences for in-room and remote participants alike? How do you ensure your rooms are ready and fit for use? And how do you manage it all without blowing through budgets or burning out your teams?
These aren’t hypothetical challenges but urgent, structural pain points facing organisations of all sizes and sectors, from global enterprises to education institutions to healthcare providers. It’s abundantly clear that outdated room systems, inflexible AV setups, and siloed tech stacks simply don’t cut it anymore.
Cisco is tackling these challenges head-on and winning. With a distinct combination of world-class devices, AI-powered software, and open interoperability, Cisco has positioned itself as the platform of choice for organisations that take collaboration seriously.
As Tom Richards, Senior Director of Strategy and Planning at Cisco, put it: “We’re not just about making sure you can get into your meetings and have a great experience… It’s also about, ‘Is the building a healthy place for me to be? Do I have good engagement?’”
Scaling Smart Means Simplifying Global Deployment Without Compromise
Ask any IT or facilities leader what keeps them up at night, and “scale” will be near the top of the list. Whether it’s rolling out hundreds of huddle rooms or upgrading large boardrooms, deploying room systems across a real estate portfolio is no small feat, especially when headcount and budgets remain flat.
Cisco has baked scalability into the DNA of its collaboration devices. Richards explained:
“These should drop in and get configured in minutes, and move on to the next room. And we have customers who have delivered thousands of these types of rooms in a couple of months.”
But it’s about future-proofing as well as speed. Cisco Devices are built with enough processing power to support tomorrow’s AI and collaboration features, so organisations aren’t forced to revisit deployments every 18 months.
Even in more complex spaces, Cisco is eliminating traditional issues. Self-configuring microphones, IP-based power and media delivery, and embedded DSPs all reduce friction.
“We’ve taken another key approach,” highlighted Richards, “which is wherever we can drive things over IP… that simplifies the architecture.”
Cisco also delivers full oversight through its Control Hub platform, an AI-powered single pane of glass for managing every device, triaging and diagnosing problems remotely, and optimising room utilisation. For IT and facilities leaders, that means they can be more proactive; – no more firefighting, fewer truck rolls, and happier end users.
Equal Experiences: Giving Remote and In-Room Participants Parity
The difficult truth is that most meeting systems still treat remote participants as second-class citizens. They’re often stuck with wide-angle views, muffled audio, or no context of who’s speaking or reacting in the room.
Richards and Cisco doesn’t accept that. Its software and hardware are handcrafted to give every participant, wherever they are, the same quality of experience.
“The evolution is everybody needs to feel like they’re in the room. Wherever the camera looks, whatever the microphones listen to, and wherever I get content from is what I would want to look at and hear if I were in the room. That’s the goal of the AI.”
Cisco Devices deliver just that. With multiple video streams per room, remote participants can see a wide shot of the meeting and a dynamic close-up of the active speaker. That means real context, such as facial expressions, reactions, and engagement levels, is captured and transmitted intelligently.
Cisco also leverages AI to manage meeting complexity in the background. Users never need to tinker with camera controls, switch layouts, or toggle settings.
“The users are trying to get a meeting done, not to manage the AV in the room,” Richards said. “And AI is there to help us.”
Built for the Real World Means Cisco is Interoperable, Inclusive, and Effortless
In 2025, most organisations will use a mix of meeting platforms: the likes of Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. This complexity often leads to fragmentation and frustration.
Cisco anticipated this shift and built its hardware to meet it. Richards highlights this requirement:
“We must function effectively with all of this. Our solution with Microsoft means you can actually have a full Microsoft Teams Rooms experience and also a native Webex experience on our devices.”
There is no need to choose, no need to rip and replace, reconfigure and reboot; just intelligent, interoperable technology that adapts to your environment, and not the other way around.
The Cisco AI Assistant also meets the human needs of a hybrid world. It automatically transcribes, translates, and summarises meetings, which is essential for global teams, fast-moving projects, and overlapping meetings.
“Many of our customers have multiple sites with multiple locations with multiple languages,” Richards noted. “How do I transcribe? How do I translate? How do I summarise?”
These aren’t nice-to-haves but essentials for how people fundamentally work in 2025. Cisco also delivers them natively, with no patchwork of third-party tools required.
The Future of Meeting Rooms Isn’t About Gadgets But Intelligence
Modern meeting spaces aren’t defined by flashy screens or trendy room kits, but by how well they enable people to do their best work; quickly, intuitively, and together.
Cisco understands that. With unmatched hardware-software integration, industry-leading AI capabilities, and a genuine commitment to open interoperability.
“We’re part of the wider solution,” Richards said. In today’s hybrid-first world, that’s exactly what IT, facilities, and C-Suite leaders need.
Ready to Transform Your Meeting Spaces?
- Learn how Cisco Devices can help you scale smart, work seamlessly, and deliver true meeting equity—at every level – here
- Discover how to simplify rooms and accelerate deployment with Cisco Workspace Designer – a guided tool that ensures a great experience
