Over the past year or so, virtual assistants have become huge in the technology world. It all started with Siri on the IPhone, and now people can buy the Amazon Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant. As a result of this changing technology, Cisco has decided to start using a new system for meetings called Spark Assistant.
Spark Assistant is a voice activated Artificial Intelligence system that will make setting up and holding meetings a lot easier. It will allow employees to join and leave meetings, book available rooms for meetings, and access relevant files to the meeting using voice command. Cisco will continue to add additional features to the process and is going to start using Spark Assistant with a small group over the next year.
After testing the technology out with a small group of people, the company will be able to fix any issues to usability and ease of access. Cisco is following a plan similar to that of Microsoft as they also plan to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into their company and meeting systems.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3236147/collaboration/with-spark-assistant-cisco-adds-voice-activated-ai-to-videoconferencing.html
I agree with Addison when he says that this is a great tool to use for virtual team meetings. Virtual teams are already a great concept because it allows company meetings to have a lot more flexibility with the workers. I think this new artificial intelligence is a lot more sustainable especially because of the screen sharing tool. Although I know paper faxing and printouts are less common than they used to be, they still exist and this is one step towards eliminating that kind of waste. It also just allows for easier and faster sharing of documents between partners. I think the feature that I find most useful is the part where they record the meetings and conversations so that the employees can later go back and access the information for further use and the highlighting of relevant documents prior to the meeting will make the meetings more efficient and fast. They can use that extra time analyzing and applying the outcomes of the meeting to their work. I think this technology is really advanced and helpful and proves that technology is headed in the right direction when it comes to advancing human productivity.
For the business world this would be a great idea to pair with the trend of virtual team meetings becoming more present. The reason for this is because it is efficient for costs and employees. With the amount of money a company can save through these A.I. technology systems, a good idea might be for companies to invest in them. Employees also could potentially save time and can increase their productivity. Spark Assistant eventually could replace the jobs of some actual assistants with how fast technology is advancing, but for now it sounds like a great tool for businesses to start experimenting with.