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Inside WebexOne 2025: Virtual Baristas, Agentic AI, and the Future of Collaboration

This year we’re heading into Fall on a high note, still reeling from all the excitement of our recent venture down south to attend WebexOne 2025 in early October. Our team was thrilled to learn about all of the up-and-coming technology tools and enhancements Cisco is bringing to the collaboration space in late 2025 and into 2026, and how we can use them to deliver better solutions for our customers. 

What is WebexOne?

WebexOne is an annual conference and showcase hosted by Cisco, where they present captivating keynotes and showcase their latest technology innovations. The event runs over the course of four days, bringing together a diverse crowd of AV partners, customers, IT specialists and other technology experts to partake in a one-of-a-kind experience. 

This year’s event took place in San Diego, California at the Marriott Marquis, surrounded by the beautiful marina and offering access to amazing restaurants and tourist attractions nearby. Cisco also pulled out all the stops for entertainment, including free professional photoshoots, race car simulators, free bike rentals and a luminary keynote presented by Ryan Reynolds. 

The theme for WebexOne 2025 was “Connected Intelligence,” with a major focus on changing the ways we connect and collaborate, and how Cisco is leveraging new technologies to expand their devices, platforms and user experience.

Who Represented ET Group?

Ahmed Ameen, Chief Operating Officer — as ET Group’s trusted leader, Ahmed makes it a top priority to stay on top of industry trends and learn about current user challenges, in order to make informed decisions about the services we provide for our customers. 

Mike Oppedisano, Director of Growth & Innovation; Design and Engineering — Mike is constantly learning about new technologies and innovative solutions that we can utilize in our custom-built space designs, as well as building and deepening relationships with our partners (like Cisco) to strengthen our product offerings. 

Lex Day, Director of Business Development — our head of Business Development always looks forward to exploring the niche needs of the mission critical industries we serve, as well as collaborating with our vendor partners to uncover new verticals we can support with our AV expertise. 

David Kerr, Director of Unified Communications — for Dave, great communication can only be enabled by a well-informed infrastructure, and he is ET Group’s expert when it comes to defining the user experience. He was most excited to see what’s coming to Cisco’s product lineup in 2026 and how we can bring the latest features to new and existing customers.

From left to right: David Kerr, Mike Oppedisano, Ahmed Ameen, Lex Day

Key Trends and Insights

With a theme titled “Connected Intelligence,” we weren’t surprised that the trends discussed at WebexOne 2025 were heavily centered around AI, customer experience and optimization of collaboration spaces and tools. 

From new Webex AI agents, to next-gen plug-and-play room systems and devices enabled by NVIDIA, Cisco is making workspaces more intelligent: 

AI to AI (or Agent to Agent) Communication

Human to AI and AI to Human are the two typical models of communication between people and agents that we are used to today. You enter a query or request into an AI tool such as ChatGPT or an image generation software (Human to AI) and the tool responds back with the desired content or information. 

Or, you’re writing an email or document, or perhaps are running a note taking app in the background of your meeting, and the built-in AI bot begins sharing prompts to speed up productivity or auto generates meeting summaries for you to review (AI to Human). These have now become typical workflows that are part of our day to day work—and beyond. 

But now, innovators like Cisco are enabling communication between different AI tools (AI to AI) that are not only able to automate and complete tasks without needing prompting or human intervention, but are also outputting content and information at a rate that is almost immeasurable. 

To put it into perspective, even though today there are approximately 8 billion people on Earth, which is already an astronomical number, it is predicted that in the next 10 years, AI to AI will be delivering a combined output that is equivalent to 80 billion people, and in significantly less time (as highlighted during WebexOne’s day 1 keynote). 

Agentic AI 

Following in line with the next phase of AI to AI innovation, it was announced during this year’s show that Cisco will be releasing 5 new AI agents within the Webex platform that will have a major impact on the ways we experience collaboration:

Source: Cisco Webex

• Notetaker Agent — stay engaged in the conversation knowing that neither you or your platform are missing any important information. The Notetaker Agent captures the important details for you, contextualizing and sharing them with relevant attendees, allowing users to remain part of the conversation and truly connect with other participants.
• Polling Agent — with the Polling Agent, meeting hosts can gather user feedback and opinions in real-time, launching live, contextualized polls throughout the conversation that prompts participants to share their thoughts without interrupting speakers or derailing agendas, while increasing engagement and inclusivity.
• Task Agent — reduce the stress of having to remember which tasks are required or assigned to who after important meetings. Task Agent auto-generates and assigns actions items based on contextualized meeting summaries and shares them with the right participants, eliminating duplication of work, confusion and the unnecessary “follow-up” meetings that lead to meeting fatigue.
• Meeting Scheduler — rather than wasting time getting frustrated over trying to coordinate schedules and playing calendar tag, businesses can leverage the Scheduling Agent to automate the process of reviewing attendee calendars to find the best time to book meetings or schedule tasks, saving upwards of 100 hours per year for your organization
  
• AI Receptionist — businesses with contact centres or customer support lines will be able to fast track the way they collect customer information and provide one-call resolution with the AI Receptionist. This agent will be able to provide contextualized answers to customer queries and automate basic tasks like transferring calls to relevant teams and scheduling meetings or appointments. 

Another honourable mention is Cisco’s Director Agent that delivers a truly innovative meeting experience, but we’ll touch on that later. 

Cisco’s investment in enhancing AI features and licenses throughout their ecosystem further emphasizes the critical need for businesses to incorporate these technologies into their long-term strategies, or risk falling so far behind they force themselves into obsoletion.  

Contact Center and Customer Experience

One of the key areas where these many new and/or improved AI capabilities will come into play is Contact Centers and similar touchpoints that can make or break the customer experience.

The AI Receptionist will help to streamline calls, with prompts and questions that you can personalize to ensure customers are directed to the right resources, and your team can enter the conversation with the right context and information available. All without that frustrating experience of feeling like you’re just talking to “robots” and navigating phone trees, as the AI Receptionist is designed to deliver a person-to-person like conversation.

Source: Cisco Webex

Within the Contact Center platform, users can also view real-time information such as the sentiment of the conversation (is it going well? Is the customer speaking in a way that suggests they are having a negative experience?), as well as receive prompts with suggested next steps or relevant information based on what the call is about and who is on the line.

Source: Cisco Webex

Conversation data will be safely stored in the Webex platform and viewable from within the call, so anyone on your team can reference important information such as troubleshooting data at any time. If they call again, the next person to chat with your customer(s) will be able to jump straight in without forcing them to repeat information.

It is predicted that Cisco Contact Center will save an average of 3-4 minutes per call, and this will only increase as they continue to expand and enhance the platform and AI capabilities. 

RoomOS 26 

During the show, Cisco announced that RoomOS 26 is coming. The latest OS is focused on delivering Cinematic Meetings through next-gen devices powered by NVIDIA, that leverage AI to optimize camera angles, display real estate and sound during your meetings. 

This is where we will see the AI Director Agent come into play, a new capability that can “anticipate and adapt to [your] meeting flow, autonomously delivering engaging, cinematic views.” More than ever before, Cisco devices will be able to track speakers and transition display focus more smoothly and organically, block distraction zones caused by common triggers like reflections in glass, and isolate and suppress background noise. 

We can also expect updates coming to Control Hub, where users can manage these device capabilities, access enhanced meeting analytics, data and troubleshooting via Canvas AI for better IT management, and now take advantage of Cisco’s new digital twinning feature. 

Source: Cisco Webex

Digital twinning, powered by NVIDIA, utilizes information captured by your room’s AI cameras, microphones and other devices to create a virtual “mirror” of your space Control Hub’s Workspace Advisor. You can then visualize and test your exact camera angles, audio zones and acoustic quality to determine whether your meeting setup offers an optimal experience, or if there are gaps where improvements can be made. 

And to make the Cisco experience even more seamless, plug-and-play deployment is a key feature of their devices. All you need to do is plug in the device and enter the Media Access Control (MAC) address in Control Hub. From there, the device will automatically register via internet connection and users can enjoy their new tools right away. 

Open Platform that Encourages Multi-Player Collaboration 

Although WebexOne is all about the amazing experience delivered by Cisco’s devices and platforms, they also prioritize and encourage other platforms and technology providers to leverage their capabilities to enhance their own deliverable experiences. 

This is why Cisco utilizes an open-platform model so that customers who use other collaboration systems such as Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) or Zoom can still enjoy the benefits of Cisco technology, prioritizing interoperability for a better user experience. 

For example, customers can now have a native Zoom experience within the Webex platform, by deploying a Zoom Room container—or leverage Cisco’s AI enhanced Room Kits in their MTRs. 

In fact, it was stated during the show that more than 3500 organizations have designed their MTRs using Cisco devices due to their reliability, innovation and flexibility, prompting an official partnership between Cisco,  Microsoft and NVIDIA that enables Cisco’s unique AI features to be accessible across platforms. 

“Cisco device quality, ease of use, and innovation—these are all the things that drew us to the partnership in the first place.”— Ilya Bukshteyn, Microsoft Teams Rooms

Cisco for Government

One key focus vertical that stood out to us at this year’s WebexOne was Cisco’s solutions for government clients. 

Their goal is to future-proof workplaces for government agencies “with a fully stacked end-to-end collaboration offering” that prioritizes security and compliance. 

This offering includes accessibility across devices, meeting rooms and office buildings, with a variety of deployment methods such as FedRAMP Cloud, on-prem, cloud or hybrid-based. Government customers can still enjoy the full suite of video conferencing, events and webinar services, as well as safely store recordings and transcripts, with confidence that their data remains fully private. 

A key part of ensuring security and privacy is the Webex Compliance Hub, developed in collaboration with Theta Lake. Compliance Hub “aims to centralise compliance across voice, video, SMS, AI assistants, and beyond, ensuring that interaction with or between AI tools does not pose any risks regarding exposure or theft of government (or anyone’s) data. 

Featured on the Show Floor

Beyond the keynotes and exciting announcements, WebexOne also had a whole showcase where they demonstrated all of the upcoming features discussed above, as well as some other new devices, tech innovations and use cases. Here are some of the popular standouts:   

Quiet Cubes

Source: Cisco Webex

Starring the Cisco DeskPro and Webex AI Agent, Quiet Cubes allow users to streamline and quickly complete both basic and complex tasks such as managing their bank account or booking a medical appointment with voice activated AI. Think of it like your own version of Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S., that enables you to have human-like conversation, detecting and understanding the context of your inquiries, responses, vocal cues and more.

These pods also offer privacy and security, so you can discuss your personal information without worrying about eavesdroppers or stolen data. 

AI Barista

Source: Cisco Webex

If attendees needed a refreshment while exploring the show floor, they could order from the Webex Café—via the Voice AI Barista. All you had to do was call the café from your phone, from anywhere in the venue, and order the same way you would as if speaking to a person at the counter or at a drive thru. The AI agent was able to understand order modifications, casual lingo and catch any last-minute corrections if you changed your mind or misspoke. 

The AI could also communicate any menu changes or time sensitive information regarding your order.

Build-Your-Own AI 

Source: Cisco Webex

Cisco also had a booth showcasing the AI Agent Studio (accessible in the Webex Control Hub) where anyone could design and implement their own AI Agent—no engineering degree needed. Through simple prompting and information you choose to import, the studio enables users to personalize their AI Agent to meet their exact needs. 

Desk Phone 9800 Series 

Source: Cisco Webex

Designed to enhance Webex Calling, the new Cisco Desk Phone 9800 Series leverages AI to provide voice call transcriptions alongside one-touch meeting join, hot-desking and customizable quick action buttons to speed up time sensitive activities such as calling emergency services, or making company announcements. 

These devices also offer best-in-class security and authentication, so they can be trusted to be used for even the most confidential of conversations, ideal for customers in government, finance or healthcare organizations.

A Sensational Experience 

Aside from all the tech updates and business insights, if there was one thing Cisco delivered it was an engaging and fun experience for all attendees. 

Our team had a great time taking advantage of free bike rentals, complimentary professional head shots and taking strolls along the waterfront that provided a beautiful backdrop for the entire show. 

Since returning from the event, our team members have continued to stay in touch with new connections and access exclusive content from WebexOne’s comprehensive conference app, featuring the Webex AI Concierge. The app was key to the experience, keeping participants informed about event schedules, way-finding, learning materials, key contacts and other ongoing communications. It was a great way to personalize the show for each attendee and keep the excitement going from home. 

And finally, we can’t talk about this year’s show without highlighting the luminary keynote from superstar Ryan Reynolds, who brought his unique brand of humour to an enlightening discussion about innovation, customer experience and how to stay agile in the ever-evolving world of tech. 

Check out some photos of our trip below: 

Source: ADM Creative Group

Looking Ahead: The Future of Connected Intelligence

WebexOne 2025 made one thing clear — the future of collaboration is not only intelligent, but deeply connected. From AI-to-AI communication and cinematic meeting experiences to digital twins and open-platform design, Cisco is reimagining how people and technology work together.

At ET Group, we’re inspired by the possibilities these advancements unlock — helping teams stay connected, empowered, and adaptable no matter where they work. The insights and connections gained at WebexOne are already shaping how we think about the next generation of workplace collaboration, and how we can bring even more intelligent, human-centered solutions to our clients.

Here’s to what’s next — and to continuing to build a world where technology helps people work better, together.

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