LAS VEGAS — Cisco has introduced generative AI into its collaboration and security software to improve employee productivity while enhancing safety in the hybrid workplace.
Cisco announced upcoming AI capabilities for its Security Cloud and Webex video conferencing and collaboration platforms this week at the Cisco Live customer and partner conference.
Within the Webex Suite, Cisco leveraged generative AI to give employees a summary of missed video meetings, conference calls, and group chats. Employees can also opt-in to automatically receive key meeting elements, key takeaways, and items that need to be addressed.
Webex allows managers and others to distribute information by sending videocasts instead of meetings. Cisco’s AI technology organizes video casts into chapters, allowing employees to quickly navigate to key segments.
Within the Security Cloud platform, Cisco has launched a generative AI preview that simplifies policy management and strengthens cybersecurity within organizations. The cloud-based Security Cloud leverages network telemetry to defend against cyberattacks against remote workers, office workers, on-premises and cloud applications.
Creating and managing security policies implemented by Cisco firewalls and other appliances is complex. Cisco plans to offer a generative AI policy assistant that allows security administrators and her IT administrators to write detailed policies and assess their impact across their security infrastructure.
At Cisco Live, the company previewed how Policy Assistant can help implement rules within the firewall’s management console, the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, application control, intrusion prevention, URL filtering, and malware protection.
Cisco’s ability to provide comprehensive security for the Webex platform is a differentiator in the collaboration market, said Irwin Lazar, president and principal analyst at technology research firm Metrigy. The company also has an extensive hardware portfolio and his Webex integration with Microsoft Teams, a stronger competitor in the collaboration market.
“Cisco’s main differentiators at the moment are around security, integrated software and hardware management, hardware quality, interoperability with Teams, and use of AI to improve voice and video. is,” Lazar said.
Cisco plans to roll out AI-powered Security Cloud and Webex capabilities by the end of the year.
Early next year, Cisco plans to launch Security Cloud AI Assistant for Security Operations Centers, facilities where information security teams monitor and analyze potential cyberthreats.
When threats are discovered, the assistant contextualizes events across email, web, endpoints and networks to help you understand their impact. Analysts can interact with assistants to determine remediation approaches.
Antone Gonsalves is the Networking News Director for TechTarget Editorial. He has deep and broad experience in technology journalism. He has worked at his UBM since the mid-1990s. information week, tech web and computer reseller news. He also wrote for Ziff Davis. computer weekIDG’s CSO Online and IBT media Cruxial CIO, and capped it all off by covering the Bloomberg News startup. He began his journalism career at United Press International, working as a reporter and editor in California, Texas, Kansas and Florida.Any tips on the news? Drop him e-mail.
