In the event you walked ISE’s ground this 12 months you’d have seen the standard spectacle: wall-sized shows, immersive audio demos, and sufficient LED lighting to energy a small metropolis.
However sit down with the individuals deploying this expertise—the integrators managing world rollouts, the enterprise IT groups supporting hybrid work, the schooling leaders making an attempt to standardise tons of of lecture rooms—and also you hear one thing completely different.
They’re not asking for extra innovation. They’re asking for much less complexity.
The questions at ISE 2026 had been variations on the identical challenges: How can we obtain consistency throughout tons of or 1000’s of rooms? How can we add AI capabilities with out creating safety issues we are able to’t handle? And the way can we make choices in the present day that also make sense in 5 years?
UC At present was on the bottom in Barcelona to search out out the solutions.
Platform Methods Substitute Product-by-Product Choices
QSC President Jatan Shah described AV shifting from product-by-product choices towards platform methods that cowl complete environments. His framework begins with functions—audio, video, management—however locations them inside areas like assembly rooms, which collectively kind locations: workplaces, campuses, venues.
Shah described shifting “past particular use instances” towards utilizing information and sensors to create “insights that truly make… outcomes which are significant for the workplaces that we’re specializing in.”
That considering appeared repeatedly throughout the present ground. Clients need fewer silos, fewer one-off room builds, and a unified administration layer that scales.
The language has shifted from “integrations” to full-stack positioning. For consumers, selecting a platform is now an operational determination, the place supportability, safety mannequin, and lifecycle administration matter as a lot as specs.
Watch: UC At present’s ISE 2026 interviews (LinkedIn)
In order for you the unfiltered booth-floor model of the themes on this round-up, these brief clips are the quickest method to catch up.
QSC at ISE 2026: Platform methods changing product-by-product choices — watch on LinkedIn
Dell at ISE 2026 (clip 1): What’s altering in enterprise AV/IT shopping for — watch on LinkedIn
Linked Classroom: Why “studying in all places” is reshaping room design — watch on LinkedIn
Managed providers / human connection: What consumers are actually outsourcing — watch on LinkedIn
Public security: AV and operational readiness in high-stakes environments — watch on LinkedIn
Dell at ISE 2026 (clip 2): Infrastructure priorities driving refresh cycles — watch on LinkedIn
Google Meet: Interoperability with Microsoft Groups (and what it alerts) — watch on LinkedIn
Interoperability Turns into Infrastructure
Google Meet’s interoperability with Microsoft Groups launched throughout ISE week. Google Meet Product Lead Quentin Esterhuizen confirmed:
“One [announcement] is our last interoperability with Groups. In order that’s been a very long time coming.”
The transfer acknowledges what enterprise IT groups already know: you may’t implement platform uniformity throughout suppliers, companions, and inside groups. Combined estates are normal working actuality. Cross-platform becoming a member of must work with out friction, particularly in customer-facing conferences and multi-tenant buildings the place you may’t management what platform the opposite get together makes use of.
For distributors, interoperability is shifting from a aggressive differentiator to a baseline requirement. Organisations operating a number of collaboration platforms—which is most giant enterprises—will more and more deal with seamless cross-platform becoming a member of as non-negotiable in procurement evaluations.
AI Shifts to Agentic Fashions, and Governance Will get Pressing
AI was in all places at ISE 2026, however the dialog has matured. Not a lot an illustration of generative options, extra scrutiny about what issues AI really solves and the way organisations govern techniques that may act autonomously.
Keynote speaker Sol Rashidi highlighted the transfer from utilized AI by means of generative AI’s explosion to 2026’s rising concentrate on agentic AI—techniques that take motion, not simply generate content material. She stated:
“Agentic AI is a unique beast. Brokers can take motion.”
When AI techniques can execute duties and make choices autonomously, coverage paperwork aren’t sufficient. Organisations want automated governance and monitoring. Rashidi’s recommendation: “Now outsource your duties, not your vital considering, vital considering and your capability to assume independently, assume deeply, assume autonomously, and your capability to discern, so extracting sign from noise are going to be the 2 greatest attributes you may preserve.”
The safety implications got here up repeatedly. Promethean Chief Product Officer Lance Solomon was blunt when requested about main challenges in 2026:
“I feel the largest is safety, fairly frankly.”
For consumers, this implies treating AI options as a part of danger evaluation, with questions on information dealing with, replace schedules, and the way governance operates when techniques act autonomously.
Simplicity and Consistency: The Giant Room Downside
One of the vital concrete themes at ISE 2026 was the place deployment challenges are shifting: to bigger, extra advanced rooms. Logitech’s Nathan Coutinho recognized the shift: “I feel simplicity, consistency, and this wasn’t a difficulty a pair years in the past. It’s extra of a difficulty now, as a result of there’s 1000s of convention rooms.”
Coutinho and colleague Neil Fluester argued that huddle and medium rooms are largely solved issues. The problem now’s bigger rooms: that includes increased stakes, extra advanced setups, and extra frequent expertise failures. “I feel the present this 12 months, there’s two elements,” Fluester stated. “It’s iterative and innovation.”
The requirement isn’t higher cameras or extra microphones. It’s consistency: be a part of experiences that work each time, rooms that don’t want native experience or instruction playing cards. Coutinho put it plainly:
“You don’t need to be a human being strolling into a large convention room and, oh, look, there’s 15 cameras. This appears to be like like a science experiment, proper?”
For organisations deploying tons of or 1000’s of rooms, the precedence is repeatability and manageability over showcase specs. Standardisation and operational tooling matter greater than novelty, particularly for world rollouts the place consistency determines whether or not the deployment succeeds or generates limitless assist tickets.
Training: Manufacturing Workflows and Safety Pressures
Training expertise at ISE 2026 centred on two operational shifts. First, increased schooling content material cycles are compressing. AVIXA’s Pam Taggart described establishments capturing periods, producing transcripts and summaries, then redistributing content material in a number of codecs—rapidly. School rooms and lecture halls have gotten manufacturing environments the place workflow issues as a lot as {hardware}.
Second, accessibility is shifting from lodging workflows to designed-in approaches. Johns Hopkins College’s Erin Maher Moran emphasised making accessibility purposeful and fewer conspicuous, requiring collaboration throughout networking, services, infrastructure, and AV/IT groups. She confused standardisation for scale however warned in opposition to requirements too inflexible to evolve with educating strategies. She defined:
“You possibly can’t put various things in each single room, after which count on that we’re going to have the ability to assist that simply. So it truly is about making an attempt to stay to a typical, however not so inflexible that it could actually’t evolve and alter with the wants of of the college and courses.”
What Modified at ISE 2026
The shift at this 12 months’s present was delicate however vital. The consumers getting airtime—integrators, enterprise IT groups, and schooling leaders—are asking completely different questions. Not “what’s the newest function?” however “how does this scale?”
Three developments look seemingly earlier than ISE 2027. Interoperability will develop into a typical procurement requirement—distributors with out credible cross-platform tales will face tougher questions. Giant-room standardisation will speed up as distributors develop into advanced areas the place adoption choices get made. And AI governance will transfer from principle to implementation, with distributors constructing governance capabilities into platforms moderately than treating it as separate.
ISE 2026 had its share of promoting language, however past the bulletins, the conversations had been about operational capability, safety posture, and whether or not options will nonetheless make sense in 5 years. For distributors, which means proving repeatability, not simply innovation. For consumers, the questions that matter aren’t about specs. They’re about what occurs after the set up staff leaves.
Learn extra from ISE 2026:
These FAQs clarify the largest ISE 2026 tendencies—interoperability, “invisible” AI, large-room evolution,safety, and platform considering—in plain phrases for IT, AV, and UC determination makers.
What had been the largest themes at ISE 2026?
The largest themes at ISE 2026 had been interoperability, “invisible” AI that reduces friction, the pushinto giant and extra-large rooms, safety and longevity, platform/ecosystem considering, and educationworkflows (seize + accessibility + collaboration).
Is AI nonetheless the headline story—or is the hype cooling?
AI continues to be a headline matter, however the dialog has matured. Consumers care much less about AI as a labeland extra about what drawback it solves, whether or not it’s safe, and whether or not it reduces consumer friction andsupport burden at scale.
What does “agentic AI” imply, and why ought to AV/UC groups care?
Agentic AI means AI techniques that may take actions, not simply generate content material. AV/UC groups care becauseaction introduces governance necessities: permissions, guardrails, auditability, and danger administration.
Why is “single pane of glass” being talked about a lot?
“Single pane of glass” issues as a result of organisations now handle tons of or 1000’s of rooms andendpoints. Groups need one method to monitor, handle, replace, and troubleshoot environments with out havingto scale headcount on the identical tempo as deployments.
What’s driving the push towards “platforms” and “ecosystems”?
Complexity is pricey. Clients need fewer integration complications, clearer accountability, repeatabledeployments, and extra predictable operations—so platform approaches and broader ecosystems are gainingmomentum over one-off room builds.
Why are giant and extra-large rooms out of the blue the “subsequent battleground”?
Small and medium rooms are comparatively mature. The toughest challenges—multi-camera, acoustics, roomcomplexity, and constant expertise—present up in giant areas, which additionally host govt conferences andhigh-stakes occasions that affect wider standardisation choices.
What’s modified in meeting-room expectations for the reason that pandemic?
Customers now have a clearer sense of what “good” appears to be like and feels like. Tolerance for poor audio, clunkyjoining, complicated controls, or inconsistent room behaviour is way decrease than it was pre-pandemic.
What does “invisible AI expertise” imply in observe?
“Invisible AI” means the expertise simply works: becoming a member of is constant, audio is clear, digicam framingbehaves predictably, supply switching is painless, and assist tickets go down. AI turns into a backgroundenhancer moderately than a gimmick.
Is interoperability really bettering, or is it nonetheless largely speak?
Interoperability is bettering. A key sign at ISE 2026 was Google Meet saying interoperabilitywith Microsoft Groups, reflecting actual demand for cross-platform becoming a member of in blended environments.
Why did cybersecurity come up so typically at ISE 2026?
Cybersecurity got here up incessantly as a result of related AV endpoints and cloud providers develop the attacksurface. Organisations are more and more upgrading techniques for safety necessities—even when installsare just a few years outdated.
