• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Resources
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Project of the Week
  • About Us
    SEARCH
Mobility, News, Unified Communications

Virtual Assistants Are Quickly Becoming Part of the Workforce

Virtual assistants like Cortana and Alexa are becoming a larger, more integrated part of the conference room and our workplace experience.

August 18, 2020 Zachary Comeau Leave a Comment

Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana and others have been a helpful aide in the lives of many consumers. These assistants help users buy goods, schedule activities and turn appliances on and off.

Now, these intelligent assistants are becoming our coworkers as Amazon and Microsoft along with hardware partners take steps to bring Alexa and Cortana into the conference room and our workstations.

In recent years, these artificially intelligent assistants have become part of the workplace. Amazon launched Alexa for Business in 2018 and Cortana is now becoming a larger part of the Microsoft 365 and Teams experience. Now, enter COVID-19, and there’s an even greater demand for these assistants to help streamline virtual meetings and allow for contactless interaction with conference room infrastructure.

Virtual assistants are part the new normal

In July, Microsoft announced that it would be bringing its virtual assistant Cortana to the Teams mobile app to help users make calls. The company is also releasing Teams-dedicated displays through Lenovo and Yealink with Cortana built in for hybrid work environments.

And, Cortana will also be enabled for Microsoft Teams Room devices to in-room participants can ask Cortana to join and leave a meeting, add a participant from the address book to a meeting, and more.

In an email, a Microsoft spokesperson said Cortana can help users perform tasks like making a call, joining a meeting, sending chat messages, sharing files and more. Microsoft wants Cortana to help workers get things done throughout the course of the day rather than simply answering questons or setting timers.

“A place where we see people really needing that extra assistance is with their work, their email, their meetings and those mundane tasks like scheduling, setting reminders, managing email and other tedious tasks that can take a lot of time out of your day and shouldn’t,” the spokesperson said. “When it comes to a meeting room specifically, we want an assistant to help with joining calls, dictating meetings and action items, sending messages, sharing files and so much more. We have started to get some of these functionalities off the ground and are continuing to explore and innovate to add even more.”

Virtual assistants could especially be helpful at home while workers juggle work and their personal lives, according to Microsoft.

“This hands-free and natural language assistance, to us, is even more important while we work remotely and manage the rest of their lives during these challenging times,” the spokesperson said. “We want to continue creating an assistant that can help you get things done faster, easier so you can focus on all the other important things you have going on in your life.”

Going forward, end users could expect to see more natural language tools and functionalities around email, calendar and meeting management for both remote work and in-office use.

“An area that is fascinating to us is how we can take it further when it comes to dictation, tracking action items spoken aloud in meetings and how can integrate that into email, chat and document sharing,” the spokesperson said.

Making use of what’s already there

In January 2019, Gartner Research published a study that found the use of virtual assistants in the workplace is growing.

The research organization predicted that 25% of digital workers will use a virtual employee assistant on a daily basis by 2021. That’s up from less than 2% in 2019.

“We expect VEAs to be used by an increasing number of organizations over the next three years,” said Annette Jump, senior director at Gartner. “Industries such as insurance and financial services are showing strong interest in piloting VEAs internally. We’ve also witnessed VAs being used in IT, customer service and information queries.”

Examples include Amazon’s Alexa for Business helping employees delegate tasks such as scheduling meetings and logistics operations, and Nokia’s MIKA helping engineers find answers as they perform complex tasks or diagnose problems. “Ultimately, VAs used in the workplace and VEAs will increase employee productivity and foster constructive engagement,” added Ms. Jump.

What Gartner didn’t take into consideration, however, was the demand for contactless technology coupled with the demand for videoconferencing and unified communications and collaboration amid a globa pandemic.

Prior to Logitech’s integration with Alexa, videoconferencing provider Lifesize brought what it says was the industry’s first native integration with Alexa for Business.

That included a wide range ofproductivity-boosting voice-acticated controls for existing Lifesize meeting room systems without requiring additional hardware.

That was similar to the Logitech integration, but also included the possibility to control other appliances like lighting and power shades.

Logitech and Amazon also partnered on an integration hat helps enterprise customers prepare for hybrid work environments in Logitech Zoom Rooms. The integration incorporates Amazon Web Services’ intelligent assistant into the meeting room for use with several Logitech solutions, including the Logitech Tap controller, Mini PC and Zoom-certified Logitech Rally or MeetUp conferencecam.

Geno Zahari, the director of appliances and GTM at Logitech, said in an interview that COVID-19 has presented a use case for the concept that was once considered to be primarily complimentary in nature.

Within the Logitech Zoom Rooms solution, Alexa for Business lets users schedule and reserve meeting rooms, start meetings, end meetings and more.

However, Logitech and AWS were developed the integration well before COVID-19 hit. The integration was originally intended to help organizations with a large suite of conference rooms help manage that real estate.

“It feeds right into that,” Zahari says.

Rather than needing another Alexa device, microphones on Logitech Zoom Room devices can detect Alexa voice commands.

“It’s kind of a nice story of centralizing and leveraging what’s already there,” Zahari says.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!

Tagged With: Alexa, Cortana, Logitech, Microsoft, Microsoft 365, Poly, Virtual Assistants

Related Content:

  • Rearview shot of two young designers giving each other a fist bump in an office, on display is Crestron desk scheduling device Crestron Introduces Desk Q and Desk Touch Scheduling…
  • CI SSI cover Commercial Integrator and Security Sales & Integration Magazines…
  • cyber-attack-skull Spike in Cyberattacks Exposes Vulnerabilities in University Security…
  • OptixAV RMM Solution Solutionz OPTIXAV RMM Platform for AV Environments Now…

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate SpacesWorkplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces

    From lobbies and shared spaces to conference rooms and multipurpose facilities, you need high-performing AV technology to effectively share information. From the initial design and evaluation process through installation, you need the most reliable and high-quality display and image processing products possible. This new download, “Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces,” provides examples of successful […]

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the FREE Tech Decisions eNewsletter

Sign up Today!

Latest Downloads

Download TechDecisions' Blueprint Series report on Security Awareness now!
Blueprint Series: Why Your Security Awareness Program is Probably Falling Short

Learn about the evolution of phishing attacks and best practices for security awareness programs to ensure your organization is properly prepared t...

Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces
Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces

From lobbies and shared spaces to conference rooms and multipurpose facilities, you need high-performing AV technology to effectively share informa...

ChatGPT, generative AI, enterprise, workplace
Blueprint Series: ChatGPT and Generative AI in the Workplace

This latest release of the TechDecisions Blueprint Series explores the new phenomenon of tools such as ChatGPT and how IT leaders should go about d...

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!
Sharp Microsoft Collaboration HQ Logo

Learn More About the
Windows Collaboration Display

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

AV-iQ

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!
Emerald Logo
ABOUTCAREERSAUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERSDO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATIONTERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

© 2023 Emerald X, LLC. All rights reserved.