Cisco is introducing a suite of generative artificial intelligence-driven features in its Webex video conferencing platform, from meeting summaries to visual enhancements. These features are aimed at both customer communications and hybrid working end users. The company joins enterprises like Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe and Google in adding generative AI capabilities to its service. The new upgrades to Webex include AI-powered audio, video, natural language understanding and analytics enhancements. According to customer relationship management data company Datanyze, Zoom is the market leader in video conferencing, with 72.61% market share and more than 176,757 companies using it.

Conversational AI is, at heart, a new interface in computing where the computer learns how to best work with a human rather than the reverse. While primarily focused for now on tele-sales, it has several other potential uses, including personal tutors or virtual bosses. Being a digital boss myself, this last may be particularly critical during the pandemic because those working from home can get distracted by things that might not have been intrusive when in the office. The thing that will make Conversational AI different from other AI implementations is understanding context. Were it tied to your browser and productivity suite, it would know if you're working or have gotten sidetracked by another social media debate.

Last week, we had Machine Learning 101: Hype or Reality. In this meetup we will do a deep dive into the Machine Learning features of Watson Studio - IBM's Data Science Platform. We will demonstrate in form of a live demo how data can be accessed & explored and how a Machine Learning Model can be build & deployed. For building and deployment we will be using several analytical tools: Jupyter notebook, SPSS Flows, Auto AI, Watson Machine Learning. By using Webex you are free to register using an alias, to mute yourself and to switch on/off the camera option at your disposal.

Recently, we have seen artificial intelligence triumph over humans in Jeopardy and chess. And there is a growing presence of virtual assistants like Alexa, Cortana, and Siri that populate our computers, phones, and homes. It's only a matter of time before A.I.-powered assistants play a significant role in the workplace, experts say. In fact, the global intelligent virtual assistant market is forecast to be worth 5.1 billion by 2022, up from – 600 million in 2014, according to Transparency Market Research. What are the potential benefits and challenges of giving smart virtual assistants a home in the enterprise?