March 02, 2021

News Summary:

Starting this month: Webex customers can preview real-time translations from English into 100+ languages
Webex AI-powered, real-time translation drives more inclusive collaboration through virtual meeting experiences that are 10x better than in person interactions
Webex innovation paving the way for real-time translation beyond English

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 2, 2021 — Eliminating language barriers is a key step to enabling a truly global, hybrid workforce. To help, today Cisco announced the availability (in preview beginning this month) of its real-time translation feature while also dramatically expanding the language library from 10+ to more than 100 languages, ranging from Armenian to Zulu. As part of the all new Webex, organizations can provide employees with inclusive and seamless collaboration experiences, which is essential to supporting the needs of a workforce that is more globally dispersed than ever before.

Users can create their own personalized Webex meeting experience by quickly and easily self-selecting the language of their choice from the most commonly used languages, such as Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish, as well as more localized languages such as Danish, Hindi, Malay, Turkish and Vietnamese. The personalized language experience provides a path through one of the major hurdles in global business – the language barrier. Now users can engage more fully in meetings, translating from English to 100+ other languages, enabling teams to communicate more effectively with each other, and opening new opportunities for businesses to build a more inclusive, global workforce.

For businesses, there’s a talent and cost benefit. The feature enables businesses to focus on finding the best talent regardless of wherever they call home or their native language. And a recent report from Metrigy on intelligent virtual assistants found that nearly 24% of participants have meetings that include non-English native speakers and of these, more than half have been using third-party services to translate meetings into other languages (incurring an average cost of $172 per meeting). Integrating intelligent virtual meeting assistants with language translation capabilities significantly reduces or even eliminates this cost entirely.

“The inclusive features of Webex help create a level playing field for users regardless of factors like language or geography. Enabling global Real-Time Translations is another step toward powering an Inclusive Future, and an important component of driving better communication and collaboration across teams.” said Jeetu Patel, SVP and GM Security and Applications, Cisco. “AI technologies play an integral role in delivering the seamless collaboration, smart hybrid work and intelligent customer experiences that Cisco is known to deliver.”

Webex has a rich history of helping employees innovate and remain productive wherever they are. Since the pandemic, Webex has not only continued to help businesses thrive, it has also been an integral platform for governments to continue to lead remotely, doctors to meet with patients safely, and educators to teach students at a distance. It’s clear that the future of work will involve a combination of remote and on-site interactions, known as hybrid-work. Cisco has a clear vision of how technology can help customers realize that future today and create a more inclusive world for all, by enabling a Webex experience that is 10x better than in-person while at the same time making in-person interactions 10x better as well.

Availability

The expanded Real-Time Translation feature will be available in Webex as a preview starting this month and will be orderable and generally available in May.

Not all dialects included in translation.

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