Generative AI is the buzz word of 2023. Ever since ChatGPT came on the scene, companies have been scrambling to figure out how to use it. The big tech companies are integrating AI into their products, while most of the non-tech companies are trying to figure out how to apply it in their business to generate more revenue, provide better customer service, or to gain efficiencies with mundane tasks.

At Telcion, we’ve been having similar conversations as we try and figure out where this new technology can be applied to help our clients. Here’s what we are finding so far:

AI for Communications & Collaboration

Webex by Cisco already has some great AI built into it that has powerful use cases, with a lot more functionality on the way. From walking into a meeting room and just saying “Webex, start my meeting,” to having a transcription of the meeting available to you after the meeting, AI is already making collaboration more smooth and intuitive. But, I’m really excited about what’s coming: imagine that you missed a meeting but instead of going back and watching the whole meeting, Webex could tell you what the highlights and action items were? You could shrink an hour meeting into 5 minutes. Meeting summaries powered by AI are going to make collaboration in the hybrid work era that much more seamless, whether you’re coordinating between different time zones or juggling staggered PTO.

In the contact center, AI is being applied to the customer experience throughout their journey. We’ve all been there. You jump on the phone to get help with something, have an automated system collect your information, and when you finally get to an agent that can really help you, they have to ask you all the same info you’ve already provided. AI is going to collect and summarize this journey for the agent so they can get caught up on everything that has already been done or collected. This includes chats, help suggestions that were already tried, and previous interactions. Now the agent can be fully briefed when your customers finally connect and get right to the issue at hand, reducing resolve times and providing a smoother experience for everyone involved.

AI for Cybersecurity

On the security front, we all know that there are too many threats happening for our security analysts (you have one on your team right?) to evaluate in real time. This creates a real dilemma and a significantly increased cost in human resources if you really want to tackle the issue at scale. With AI, security analysts can be told which threats are the most urgent and provide the necessary details to quickly mediate the issue. What’s exciting though is that very soon we will also be able to just verbally communicate with the AI engine to implement the solution.

Imagine this: You say, “Cisco, implement a security policy to block all communications throughout the network with this threat vector” and then the AI engine goes out and talks to all of the security devices in the network, figures out the best policy to use, and puts it into production. This is a game changer in determining what kind of speed we can implement changes. And if you think you can get by without this technology, what you need to remember is that the bad guys have access to AI technology too, and they are going to be using it to hack your network. They will simulate your voice, be able to answer deep personal questions about you, and compromise your identity to gain access to your data. It’s a scary thought. You will need to have the tech in place to fight back at the same speed.

AI is going to be awesome, and it will evolve very quickly. But don’t wait for it . . . get in the game by leveraging what’s available now so you’re ready for advancements when they come.

This post was contributed by Lance Reid, our CEO. Lance has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years. He became a Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert (CCIE) in Collaboration in 2005 and has been serving on Cisco's SMB Advisory Board since 2013.

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