InfoComm 2026: AI Workspaces with Cisco and Microsoft

InfoComm 2026 returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center June 13–19, with exhibits open June 17–19. The show floor will feature the usual energy, networking, and hundreds of exhibitors that AV professionals expect every year. But the real value this year lies in the rapid evolution of intelligent workplaces where AI transforms conferencing, collaboration, and hybrid meeting experiences. Microsoft and Cisco keynotes, combined with the new Smart Workplace Activation Hub, are putting practical AI applications front and center. This focused look delivers actionable insights on how AI is changing conference room AV infrastructure, audio capture, signal processing, and system integration.

Microsoft’s Keynote: Agentic AI and the Physical-Digital Workspace Fusion

Wednesday, June 17, 1:30–2:30 PM brings Microsoft’s opening keynote with Ilya Bukshteyn, Corporate Vice President for Teams Phone, Devices & Premium Experiences. Titled Exploring the Future of AI-Powered Collaboration and Connected Workplaces, this session moves beyond Copilot note taking into true agentic AI proactive systems that don’t just react but anticipate, act, and orchestrate entire workflows.

On Wednesday, June 17, from 1:30–2:30 PM, Ilya Bukshteyn, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Teams Phone, Devices & Premium Experiences, delivers the opening keynote Exploring the Future of AI Powered Collaboration and Connected Workplaces.

This session shifts the conversation from basic AI features like transcription and note summarization to true agentic AI  proactive systems that understand context, anticipate needs, and take action. In a hybrid meeting agentic AI can automatically surface relevant documents, assign action items adjust room systems lighting, climate, camera framing and even suggest follow up scheduling based on real time data from the physical space.

For these intelligent experiences to perform reliably the foundation must be high quality low latency audio and video capture. AI models depend on clean intelligible speech input for accurate voice isolation transcription sentiment analysis and participant identification. Poor audio quality breaks the entire chain.

That’s exactly where pro audio gear shines in conference and collaboration environments. Advanced digital signal processing is essential for beamforming microphone arrays, noise suppression, echo cancellation, and seamless routing into platforms like Microsoft Teams Rooms. Technologies from Symetrix and Q SYS excel here, offering powerful DSP engines that handle complex audio routing acoustic treatment and integration with AV over IP networks while maintaining the pristine signal quality AI systems require.

Bukshteyn’s keynote will demonstrate how Teams integrates with existing AV ecosystems to create rooms that feel truly intelligent delivering better hybrid equity, shorter meetings, and measurable productivity gains for enterprise clients.

Cisco’s Connected Intelligence: Unifying AV, IT, and AI at Enterprise Scale

The following day, Thursday, June 18, 11:00 AM 12:00 PM, Espen Løberg, VP/GM of Collaboration Devices at Cisco, presents “Powering the Modern Workplace with Connected Intelligence.”

Cisco’s vision emphasizes full stack convergence: AV over IP networks, edge AI processing, workplace analytics, and seamless interoperability between platforms like Webex, Teams, Zoom, and others. Løberg will cover how converged infrastructure delivers real time insights such as room utilization patterns, meeting dynamics, and automated adjustments while maintaining strong security and privacy controls.

Audio remains critical. Ceiling and tabletop microphone arrays must deliver directional, noise free capture even in challenging acoustic environments. DSP solutions handle multi zone mixing, automatic gain control, and low latency distribution across large deployments. Q-SYS and Symetrix processors are frequently specified in these enterprise setups for their scalability, native integration with control systems, and ability to support both traditional AV and emerging AI-driven workflows. BSS audio processing components further enhance system tuning and signal optimization.

This keynote offers practical guidance for scaling AI across dozens or hundreds of rooms without compromising performance or security.

The Smart Workplace Activation Hub: Where Theory Meets Tangible AV

You don’t have to wait for the keynotes to see this in action. InfoComm 2026 introduces the Smart Workplace Activation Hub in Central Hall, powered by FORTÉ and developed in partnership with Shure as the exclusive headline partner. This isn’t a static booth it’s a fully immersive Class A workspace environment demonstrating hybrid work, meeting equity, and humanb centered design in real time.

Shure’s enterprise grade audio forms the foundation microphones and DSP that deliver crystal clear voice capture even in reverberant or noisy spaces, enabling the AI layers above it to function accurately. Expect live demos of how these systems feed data into Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex for agentic features, room analytics, and seamless hybrid experiences. The hub also highlights meeting equity tools automatic camera framing that prioritizes in room and remote participants equally, adaptive audio mixing, and integration with lighting/control systems for presence-aware environments.

This activation hub gives you something the keynotes can’t hands on proof that these technologies deploy today without custom coding. Walk through a simulated executive boardroom, huddle space, and town hall setup to see how AV infrastructure (cameras with AI computer vision, networked audio, touch interfaces) makes the intelligent workplace operational. It’s the perfect bridge between the visionary keynotes and your next client proposal.

Broader AI Trends and Education You Can’t Miss

The keynotes and hub aren’t isolated. AVIXA’s full day AI Accelerator program dives into foundational tools already available (like AI assisted design and programming) through advanced applications in monitoring and user experience. Sessions cover ethical deployment, bias in room analytics, data privacy under GDPR/CCPA and how to integrate AI without turning every conference room into a surveillance state.

Other education tracks explore reimagining video editing workflows with AI (removing bottlenecks for faster storytelling in broadcast/AV production) and intelligent environments that learn from usage patterns. For integrators, the takeaway is clear AI success depends on.

rock-solid AV foundations reliable networking, high fidelity capture devices, and open APIs for orchestration.

Key Takeaways for AV Professionals

The consistent message across the keynotes and hub is clear: successful AI powered collaboration depends on robust underlying AV infrastructure. Low latency networking, precise audio capture, and capable digital signal processing are non-negotiable. Without them, agentic features underperform, hybrid experiences feel uneven, and clients see limited ROI.

AVIXA education sessions throughout the week will dive deeper into ethical AI deployment, privacy considerations, bias mitigation in room analytics, and practical integration strategies. Additional tracks explore intelligent environments that adapt based on usage patterns.

By prioritizing these sessions and the Activation Hub, attendees gain concrete knowledge they can apply immediately from specifying AI ready conference rooms to discussing measurable outcomes with facility managers and IT teams.

InfoComm 2026 highlights how the pro AV industry is evolving from installing equipment to building the intelligent nervous system for modern workplaces. Focusing on AI driven conferencing and collaboration this year provides far more long term value than trying to cover every booth on the show floor.

The future of workplace meetings is intelligent context aware, and deeply integrated The audio and processing layer is what makes it all reliable in the real world.