Artificial Intelligence is already changing the AV industry. From intelligent camera tracking and noise reduction to automated room setup and meeting summaries, AI is making collaboration technology easier to deploy and simpler to use.
Yet these innovations may represent only the first stage of a much larger shift.
For many years, the purpose of workplace AV was straightforward: ensure people could communicate effectively regardless of where they were located. The measure of success was whether participants could see, hear and engage with one another.
Today, organisations are beginning to use AI not simply to support meetings, but to participate in the flow of work itself. Discussions are being transcribed, actions identified, information surfaced and outcomes captured automatically. As this trend accelerates, the meeting room becomes more than a place where conversations happen. It becomes a source of context for the systems helping organisations make decisions.
This creates a new challenge for the AV industry. The quality of any AI system is directly linked to the quality of the information it receives. Clear audio, consistent camera coverage and reliable room technology are no longer just user experience considerations; they increasingly influence the effectiveness of the intelligence built on top of them.
For integrators and end users alike, this presents an opportunity. The conversation is shifting from deploying technology that simply connects people towards creating environments that help teams work more effectively, capture knowledge more accurately and spend less time on administrative tasks.
The organisations that gain the greatest benefit from AI are unlikely to be those with the most technology. They will be those that remove the most friction from collaboration and allow people to focus on creativity, judgement and decision-making.
In that sense, the future of AV is not only about improving meetings. It is about improving the quality of work that happens because of them.
James Knight is CEO of Pleneo, focussed on simplifying the deployment of large meeting rooms at scale. Discover more at Integrate on stand #HF5.