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AI is changing meetings.
How meetings are conducted, when they happen, who's invited, and how they're operationalized afterwards - all are being impacted by the advances in AI technology and the software that comes with it.
Sweeping changes in technology can feel daunting at times, or exciting, as if everything is going to change immediately.
The reality is that while lots will change, it can change very simply and in a very intuitive and user-friendly way. You don't need to bring 20 new pieces of software into your company.
Having effective meeting software for different purposes and different use cases, supplemented with AI, can lead to huge gains and provide all the benefits you could hope to need.
In this article, we'll explore what kinds of software a large enterprise needs in their meeting software stack for 2024. It's probably not as many as you think.
In this Xembly article, we will cover:
- What is enterprise meeting software?
- How is AI changing enterprise meetings?
- Three key types of enterprise meeting software
- 3 tools to optimize meetings in your company
What is enterprise meeting software?
Enterprise meeting software refers to tools that can be used by large organizations that care about regulatory compliance and have a variety of uses and applications for that software.
Practically, this means there are lots of products on the market for meeting software, particularly new AI that may not really service an enterprise audience as well as they service a startup audience. For example, some tools are not SOC 2 compliant, and your customers' data isn't safe and secure in their hands.
This severely narrows the amount of new tech that can be implemented and tested out by large enterprises. Fortunately, there are plenty of solutions. One such solution is software that was already servicing meeting needs prior to the AI revolution. Some of these tools have either successfully cultivated their own AI capabilities or they have become a focal point around which third-party tools have been built.
These kinds of applications have deep feature sets, are regulatory compliant, and have all the necessary human side support that a business needs, like sales and customer success, and customer support teams that know what it's like to work with businesses like yours and service your use cases.
When we talk about enterprise meeting software, we're talking about a broad range. There are small meetings, large meetings – think all hands for a 10,000-person company – webinars or presentations, meetings within meetings like breakout rooms, and there may even be interviews that get recorded as content to be uploaded and used in sales and marketing. But those are just the meetings. What about all the work that goes into supporting those meetings? Notes, tasks, updates, knowledge bases – all of this stuff falls under the banner of enterprise meeting software.
How is AI changing enterprise meetings?
The big question is: how does AI impact these use cases on a practical basis?
Well, in many ways, AI is unlikely to replace the act of you attending a meeting – well, it will, but more on that later. Most of the application of AI will be to the supporting tasks of the meeting and operationalizing what was discussed and covered within the meeting.
This means tasks like note-taking, recording action items, perhaps delegating those action items. It also means tasks like scheduling the meetings, which involves finding times where everyone is free, timeboxing, prioritizing or deprioritizing tasks and other meetings that might be blockers in calendars. It means notifying attendees of the meeting and reminding them, so the meeting isn't missed.
It includes a variety of tasks that might have fallen at different points in time to a secretary, a project manager, an executive assistant, or simply the work of individuals to do as small supporting tasks in their day. With AI enterprise meeting software, each individual worker doesn't have to worry about these tasks. They can focus on what they do best – their core work and their core responsibilities.
This software can make supporting workers like executive assistants or junior project managers much more productive and allow them to focus on more strategic elements of their roles.
AI in this setting can maybe go further and unlock things we weren't doing before. I said that the one area of meetings AI wouldn't automate is the meeting itself. But often, we are invited along to meetings, not necessarily to contribute but to have visibility or transparency and be aware of what was discussed in the meeting, or to be able to understand what was being covered. Now, it's possible to send your AI in your place, and for them to record the notes of the meeting for you and provide you with a summary at the end. As AI technology advances and becomes more complex, this summary can be further tailored to you, or your AI may even be able to ask clarifying questions in the meeting.
There are many ways with the advent of AI agents that this practice can grow and become more complex, allowing you, for example, to attend by proxy multiple meetings at once. Maybe your AI can even pull you from one meeting into another if the timing is important.
Three key types of enterprise meeting software
We're going to pull out three types of enterprise meeting software that are specifically enabled for an AI-assisted workflow: the AI capabilities, the meetings, and asynchronous communication.
AI software to knit tools together
First, for the AI software, you need a tool that integrates into the platforms you use. It needs to either integrate directly into the tool or be able to attend meetings like any other attendee, whatever software you're using for your meetings, or even perhaps for your CRM. This AI tool needs to integrate within it. It also needs the ability to perform the basic functions of an AI executive assistant: take notes, summarize notes, perhaps record tasks and delegate them, invite people to the meeting, and update schedules and calendars as necessary. Beyond that, to be enterprise-ready, it needs to be compliant with the regulations you have to adhere to. It's of no use if you cannot discuss customer data in meetings. It will record the notes, listen, hear, and may even send information and data to your CRM with read and write access. It needs to be compliant with regulations.
Video conferencing with a full suite of features
The second aspect is the meeting software itself. It used to be that large enterprises would have maybe a variety of meeting tools within different teams for different purposes: a whiteboard tool, a meeting tool, a presentation tool, and these would all be different software. Now, with the acceleration in this space as a result of the pandemic, these have largely been condensed into one. Some people don't like Zoom as much as they used to because its added complexity and expanded feature set make for a bulkier piece of software, but it is now more suited than ever before to enterprise needs. This one piece of software can service all the use cases you require from it and has the necessary security, permissions, and regulation compliance that you don't have to worry about. In fact, there's a good chance you're probably already using it.
A general communication tool to stay in the loop
The third aspect is asynchronous communication because the best way to automate meetings is to not have them. We need a tool where we can minimize meetings and not have them whenever possible. When you're a manager in a large enterprise, it can feel like the meeting is the work. But for individual contributors, meetings often get in the way of them delivering the value that they are there to provide. Having a tool where you can jump on very quick clarifying synchronous meetings or send extended voice notes or video recordings, and can put long announcements or short DMs is essential.
3 tools to optimize meetings in your company
These are the three tools we use for communication. We integrate and automate between them to create a seamless experience.
Enterprise Meeting Software #1: Xembly - Your team’s AI executive assistant
The first tool is Xembly. Xembly is AI executive assistant software designed by and for enterprises. Yes, Xembly is SOC 2 compliant and has the full feature set you would expect from AI executive assistant software. Xembly isn't built to just work for individuals, but to work for teams. Its ability to work seamlessly across teams leads us to often call it an AI chief of staff. Xembly also has permissions, roles, and security built in, with features for enterprise needs rolling out every month. While other AI executive assistants are great for individuals, Xembly is the only one that services the needs at scale for large teams. Check in with us to see how Xembly can service your company.
We've found so far with enterprises that Xembly saves each team member about eight hours each week, about 17% of their time saved. These efficiency savings are too good to miss.
Enterprise Meeting Software #2: Zoom - The best enterprise-grade video conferencing all-rounder
The second tool is Zoom. As I said earlier, you probably already use Zoom or have used Zoom. Zoom has a full feature set and is able to provide meetings of all types at high quality, low latency, and with great security, roles, permissions, and other enterprise features compliant to all regulations that you would need it to be. And everyone knows how to use it. Why have many tools when you can have one?
Enterprise Meeting Software #3: Slack - For asynchronous communication and everything else
The third tool again is one you may already use or have used, which is Slack. Since being acquired by Salesforce, Slack has expanded its enterprise offering considerably. Slack is brilliant for jumping on little huddles if you just want to clarify something quickly and has excellent voice note capabilities with auto transcripts, and does strong one-to-one and one-to-many communications. Slack also has a range of integration possibilities and automations, particularly into the Salesforce ecosystem, but also way beyond that. With tools like Slack and Xembly, you can automatically send data around from your CRM and Salesforce or HubSpot to meetings and back, into chats and out of chats, with read and write access. Everything becomes so much easier.
The future of enterprise meetings
A simple workflow is a strong workflow. If you can minimize the number of tools you need to use to achieve the outcomes your enterprise needs, then you can minimize costs and maximize productivity. It's easier for people to use a small number of tools and learn those tools and their advanced capabilities than it is to try to achieve mastery over a full suite of meeting-related software. Often, the biggest efficiency gains you'll see come from using advanced features, and from taking advantage of automations and integrations, all of which come from complete uptake and adherence within the team.
All of these things are easier to achieve when you use a smaller number of individual softwares, especially those that are user-friendly and ones the team is already familiar with. By using a general communication tool like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Facebook Workplace, and a dedicated meeting tool like Zoom, you only need to add one AI enterprise meeting software to transform all of that into a complete AI-assisted and enabled enterprise meeting architecture.
But where will AI take meetings next? Will you be taking meetings in the metaverse, walking around with no legs? It's hard to say. But the future where AI attends meetings for us and participates in meetings on our behalf has already partially arrived.
Xembly turns AI executive assistants into an AI chief of staff
Xembly is an AI chief of staff - scheduling meet ups, attending your meetings, recording the notes, creating action items, assigning tasks, and helping team members manage their time so that work gets done.
Here are three advantages of using Xembly:
Smooth AI scheduling
Xembly enables 1:1 appointments and complex multi-person scheduling requests with ease. Whether it's via email, Slack, or a dedicated scheduling link, Xembly's AI aide, Xena, coordinates the details for you and your participants.
Accurate meeting documentation
Xembly documents the essential aspects of your meetings, leaving out anything unnecessary. It provides notes, recordings, and compiles video snippets of important segments. Whether meetings are remote, hybrid, or in-person, Xembly helps you focus on meaningful conversations.
Intelligent task oversight
Xembly’s Task Manager gives direction to your calendar through its auto-task monitoring and time allocation. With Xembly’s Task Manager, users experience a 26% uptick in task completion rates. It creates time for meeting tasks and shapes your timetable to help you get them done.
If you're still not sold, check out our happy customers:
Try Xembly now by clicking here.
