Cisco Systems is innovating its video conferencing platform, Webex, to make virtual participation in a personal meeting a more productive experience, CEO Chuck Robbins told CNBC on Wednesday.
Webex and competing offerings from Zoom and Microsoft saw an increase in user growth during the coronavirus pandemic, as companies were forced to turn to remote work and business travel was sharply curtailed.
In an interview with “Squawk on the Street”, Robbins said he foresees a hybrid model going forward – with a return to the office, coupled with more flexibility around remote work than before the pandemic.
“In the future world, we’re going to have people sitting in conference rooms and having people at home,” Robbins said in response to a question from CNBC’s David Faber about how video conferencing would be different in five years. .
“You know how historic it is to be a remote meeting. It was awful, so we work hard on technology that gives both of them the same experience, which is the first thing,” Robbins continued.
Over time, he said he expects further progress with Webex, which acquired Cisco in 2007.
“I think you’re going to see real 3D experiences. You’re going to be virtually in the room and there’s a lot of work our teams are currently doing to build the next generation of technology,” Robbins said. “I think that’s what you’ll be experiencing in a few years.
Webex had an average of 600 million users during the fiscal second quarter, Robbins said Tuesday during a conference to discuss the company’s earnings report. This is an increase from the 324 million users that Webex saw in March when the Covid pandemic in the US began to accelerate, according to Reuters.
At the same time, Cisco is one of the businesses that will benefit from a wider return to the office because its network switches and wi-fi access points are used by businesses. Robbins said during the analysis call that some Cisco employees had expressed a desire to go back to the office or at least work remotely on their own terms.
Robbins said Cisco’s goal for Webex is to level the playing field during meetings when people are more flexible about their location. “I think it will become less and less important whether you are in the room or whether you are at home,” he said. “We want to make you a productive member of the assembly, no matter where you are.”
Shares of Cisco, one of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average in California, fell more than 4% on Wednesday as investors continued to face challenges in the company’s infrastructure platforms business, its leading product segment.
– CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.