Cisco Systems is working to innovate 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 offers from Zoom and Microsoft saw an increase in user growth during the coronavirus pandemic, when companies were forced to switch to remote work and business travel was drastically reduced.
In an interview on “Squawk on the Street,” Robbins said he envisions a hybrid model in the future – with a return to the office accompanied by more flexibility around remote work than before the pandemic.
“In the future world, we will have people sitting in conference rooms and at home,” said Robbins, in response to a question from CNBC’s David Faber about how video conferencing will be different in five years.
“You know what it is historically to be a remote meeting participant. It has been terrible, so we are working hard on a technology that gives the same experience to both, which is the first thing, ”continued Robbins.
Over time, he said he expected more progress with Webex, which Cisco acquired in 2007.
“I think you will see real 3D experiences. You will be virtually in the room and there is a lot of work that our teams are doing now to build this next generation technology,” said Robbins. “I think that is what you will experience in a few years.”
Webex averaged 600 million users during the second fiscal quarter, Robbins said on Tuesday during a conference call 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 U.S. began to accelerate, according to Reuters.
At the same time, Cisco is among the companies that would benefit from a broader return to the office, because its network switches and wi-fi access points are used by companies. Robbins said during the call to analysts that some Cisco employees expressed a desire to return to the office or at least be working remotely on their own terms.
Robbins said that 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 to be in the room and at home,” he said. “We want to make you a productive member of the meeting, no matter where you are.”
Shares in Cisco, based in San Jose, California, one of the 30 shares in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell more than 4% on Wednesday, as investors digested ongoing challenges in the company’s infrastructure platform business, its primary product segment.
– CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.