Cisco Systems is working to innovate its video conferencing platform, Webex, to make virtual participation in an in-person meeting a more productive experience, CEO Chuck Robbins told CNBC on Wednesday.
Webex and competing offerings from Zoom and Microsoft have seen strong user growth during the coronavirus pandemic as companies have been forced to switch to remote working and business travel has been severely restricted.
In an interview on “Squawk on the Street”, Robbins said he envisions a hybrid model in the future – with a return to the office and more flexibility in working remotely than before the pandemic.
“In the future world, there will be people in conference rooms and we will have people at home,” Robbins said in response to a question by CNBC’s David Faber about what video conferencing will look like in five years. .
“You know how historic it is to join a meeting remotely. It was awful, so we’re working hard on technology that gives both the same experience, and that’s the first,” Robbins continued.
Over time, he said he expected further progress with Webex, which Cisco acquired in 2007.
“I think you’ll see real 3D experiences. You’ll be in the room virtually and there’s a lot of work that our teams are doing right now to build that next-generation technology,” said Robbins. “I think you’ll experience that in a few years.”
Webex had an average of 600 million users during its fiscal second quarter, Robbins said on Tuesday during a conference call to discuss the company’s earnings report. That’s an increase from the 324 million users Webex saw in March as the Covid pandemic in the US began to accelerate, Reuters said.
At the same time, Cisco is one of the companies that would benefit from a greater return to the office as the network switches and Wi-Fi access points are used by enterprises. Robbins said during the analyst interview that some Cisco employees have expressed a desire to return to the office or at least remotely rework on their own terms.
Robbins said Cisco’s goal for Webex is to level the playing field in meetings when people have more flexibility regarding their location. “I think it’s becoming less important whether you’re in the room and whether you’re at home,” he said. “We want to make you a productive member of the gathering wherever you are.”
Shares of San Jose, California-based Cisco, one of 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell more than 4% on Wednesday as investors took on the ongoing challenges in the company’s infrastructure platforms, the leading product segment .
– CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.