Despite rapid technological advances, the human element remains central to meeting room design. “Audio is very much an experiential thing,” Erica Whittle of Sennheiser reminds us. While AI can accelerate and simplify setup and calibration, it’s the integrator or consultant who ensures the space feels right for users. “AI can’t feel, AI can’t experience. That’s our job,” she says. She advocates for a balanced approach: let AI handle the heavy lifting but rely on human expertise to deliver the final 20% that makes a room truly work for people.

Chris Neto of Midwich reframes AI as a productivity enhancer. “AI is a tool like everything else… it’s going to cut back on a lot of repetitive, meaningless fillers,” Neto says. He envisions AI automating routine tasks – like scheduling, note-taking, and data analysis – freeing professionals to focus on higher-value work. He also points to AI’s potential in transforming data into actionable insights, such as optimising room usage and integrating with CRM systems to improve customer engagement.

The next leap in meeting room experience is personalisation. Neto sees AI enabling spaces to adapt to individual preferences – for lighting, audio, even automatic note-taking and translation – and then intuitively creating environments that feel uniquely tailored to each user. “Why can’t you walk into a space and it knows that it’s only you and one other person, so it only needs two of those microphones turned on?” he asks.

Taking a more strategic viewpoint, Jane Hammersley of Blue Touch Paper notes that customers are increasingly focused on total cost of ownership (TCO) and efficiency gains. She urges manufacturers to “help our industry to deliver a TCO evaluation calculation, help our integrators to really enable the customer to see where they’re going to make efficiency gains.”

She also encourages organisations to “just start” to experiment, measure, and share results to drive continuous improvement.

Trends in meeting room technology

Looking forward, several trends are set to shape the meeting room of tomorrow. The integration of AI and analytics will move beyond automation to deliver real-time, actionable insights helping organisations optimise space usage, energy consumption, and user comfort. As Chris Neto highlights, platforms are evolving to aggregate data from multiple sources such as lighting, occupancy levels, and AV usage, and present it in ways that inform both IT and facilities management decisions.

Personalisation will become standard, with AI-driven systems recognising individual users and adjusting room settings accordingly. Expect seamless integration with collaboration platforms, automatic transcription and translation, and adaptive environments that respond to user preferences and schedules. Manufacturers are also responding to customer demand for transparency and efficiency, offering tools that help calculate TCO and demonstrate ROI.

Finally, as the boundaries between AV, IT, and facilities management blur, successful integrators will be those who can bridge these domains – delivering holistic solutions that address technical, operational, and human factors alike.

While AI is poised to handle complexity and routine, the ultimate value comes from human insight, empathy, and creativity. By embracing AI as a tool, fostering inclusive networks, and focusing on measurable outcomes, the AV industry can deliver meeting spaces that are not only efficient but truly engaging for every user.

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