Throughout the years in the workplace technology industry, I’ve heard one common question among organization leaders: How can we have fewer meetings and how can we make the ones we do have more effective? When AI came along, many thought that it would be the solvent to this long-standing challenge. But it turns out, as individuals utilize AI to help them automate routine work, the need to collaborate with team members on the outputs has become more prominent. Rather than focusing on reducing the number of meetings, organizations should ask themselves: Are we designing the workplace with intentionality for meetings that are actually worth having?
AI will not eliminate the need for meetings. It will expose which meetings were never worth having and raise expectations for the ones that remain. It’s no secret that employees are using AI to enhance everyday workflows. While this helps streamline how they produce information, content, and ideas individually, it’s important to consider how this impacts the purpose of collaboration. Recent research by The Meetings Show reports that over 60% of business leaders find that AI is increasing the need for face-to-face alignment on analyzing results, making decisions, and taking action. AI may reduce the need for meetings built around status updates, first drafts, and routine information sharing, but it raises the value of meetings that remain prevalent. In-person interactions should be reserved for activities that rely on human judgment like challenging assumptions, solving problems, and any other work that individuals can’t do as effectively on their own.
Ensuring that employees are getting the most out of time spent together is essential to achieving high-value meetings, and this stems from the meeting spaces themselves. Individuals have integrated AI-enabled tools to optimize productivity in a way that reflects their own work style and preferences, but many don’t have the same level of technology in meeting rooms where they come together for those crucial in-person discussions. This disconnect between the individual workflow and the collaborative workflow stagnates the team’s productivity in the limited meetings that they do have. Organizations need to reimagine meeting spaces to support employees’ current systems so collaboration time can be spent efficiently.
Added challenges of the hybrid workplace
Hybrid work has already changed the dynamics of collaboration, and now AI adds another layer of complexity. Remote participants may be using a different set of tools than in-person participants which creates another workflow gap.
A remote employee might have individually prepared unique discussion points and used AI to capture meeting notes, while in-office employees may have collaborated on their ideas prior to the meeting and had a participant manually take notes. These differences are going to happen naturally in a hybrid workplace, but they create friction that can be avoided with the right technology. The in-room experience should be able to replicate the same AI resources available at individual workstations and build on the effectiveness of those tools with the benefits that come from a group of in-person contributors. At the same time, remote participants should be able to effectively interact with content and all attendees during the meeting, with the same access to pre-meeting materials and any post-meeting follow-up.
The goal is to make the meeting experience feel frictionless by bridging the gap between in-office and remote workflows, ultimately supporting team collaboration.
Closing the workflow gap
For organization leaders, reframing your mindset from “how many meetings do we have” to “how much value are employees getting out of the meetings we have” requires you to look at how your meeting spaces are currently set up and redesign them based on the outcomes that you want to achieve.
Ask yourself:
- What should employees be able to accomplish in this space that they can’t as effectively on their own?
- What does high-value collaboration look like in this context and what technology is needed to support it?
- How can we create a space that will adapt to the different room layouts and technical capabilities our employees will need?
- How can we make remote participants feel like active members of the conversation and team workflow?
Meeting room technology should adapt to the purpose of the space and employees’ needs, helping mitigate disruptions and bring some of the advantages employees are experiencing individually into the group environment. Creating spaces that eliminate barriers to collaborate and encourage employees to gather in is essential to closing the workflow gap and empowering teams to have high-value meetings.
By upgrading meeting spaces with AI-enabled workplace technology, organizations can allow employees to focus their energy on the conversation at hand and optimize collaboration productivity.
AI won’t replace every meeting, but it does offer a strong opportunity to refine the collaboration experience. The organizations that benefit most will be the ones that become more intentional about when people come together, what work deserves that time, and how the environment supports the human judgment, trust, and alignment AI cannot replicate.
Brad Hintze is the Executive Vice President of Global Marketing at Crestron where he is responsible for overseeing and accelerating all aspects of the company’s global marketing efforts, including strategy, corporate communications, media relations, digital marketing, product marketing, and advertising. Brad is focused on driving Crestron’s company vision forward by establishing marketing programs and campaigns that promote the company’s outstanding product innovation, workplace technology solutions, digital transformation strategies, thought leadership, and purpose-driven initiatives.
Main image: Sedus
October 12, 2026
AI isn’t replacing meetings, it’s changing their purpose
by Brad Hintze • AI, Comment, Technology, Workplace design
AI will not eliminate the need for meetings. It will expose which meetings were never worth having and raise expectations for the ones that remain. It’s no secret that employees are using AI to enhance everyday workflows. While this helps streamline how they produce information, content, and ideas individually, it’s important to consider how this impacts the purpose of collaboration. Recent research by The Meetings Show reports that over 60% of business leaders find that AI is increasing the need for face-to-face alignment on analyzing results, making decisions, and taking action. AI may reduce the need for meetings built around status updates, first drafts, and routine information sharing, but it raises the value of meetings that remain prevalent. In-person interactions should be reserved for activities that rely on human judgment like challenging assumptions, solving problems, and any other work that individuals can’t do as effectively on their own.
Ensuring that employees are getting the most out of time spent together is essential to achieving high-value meetings, and this stems from the meeting spaces themselves. Individuals have integrated AI-enabled tools to optimize productivity in a way that reflects their own work style and preferences, but many don’t have the same level of technology in meeting rooms where they come together for those crucial in-person discussions. This disconnect between the individual workflow and the collaborative workflow stagnates the team’s productivity in the limited meetings that they do have. Organizations need to reimagine meeting spaces to support employees’ current systems so collaboration time can be spent efficiently.
Added challenges of the hybrid workplace
Hybrid work has already changed the dynamics of collaboration, and now AI adds another layer of complexity. Remote participants may be using a different set of tools than in-person participants which creates another workflow gap.
A remote employee might have individually prepared unique discussion points and used AI to capture meeting notes, while in-office employees may have collaborated on their ideas prior to the meeting and had a participant manually take notes. These differences are going to happen naturally in a hybrid workplace, but they create friction that can be avoided with the right technology. The in-room experience should be able to replicate the same AI resources available at individual workstations and build on the effectiveness of those tools with the benefits that come from a group of in-person contributors. At the same time, remote participants should be able to effectively interact with content and all attendees during the meeting, with the same access to pre-meeting materials and any post-meeting follow-up.
The goal is to make the meeting experience feel frictionless by bridging the gap between in-office and remote workflows, ultimately supporting team collaboration.
Closing the workflow gap
For organization leaders, reframing your mindset from “how many meetings do we have” to “how much value are employees getting out of the meetings we have” requires you to look at how your meeting spaces are currently set up and redesign them based on the outcomes that you want to achieve.
Ask yourself:
Meeting room technology should adapt to the purpose of the space and employees’ needs, helping mitigate disruptions and bring some of the advantages employees are experiencing individually into the group environment. Creating spaces that eliminate barriers to collaborate and encourage employees to gather in is essential to closing the workflow gap and empowering teams to have high-value meetings.
By upgrading meeting spaces with AI-enabled workplace technology, organizations can allow employees to focus their energy on the conversation at hand and optimize collaboration productivity.
AI won’t replace every meeting, but it does offer a strong opportunity to refine the collaboration experience. The organizations that benefit most will be the ones that become more intentional about when people come together, what work deserves that time, and how the environment supports the human judgment, trust, and alignment AI cannot replicate.
Brad Hintze is the Executive Vice President of Global Marketing at Crestron where he is responsible for overseeing and accelerating all aspects of the company’s global marketing efforts, including strategy, corporate communications, media relations, digital marketing, product marketing, and advertising. Brad is focused on driving Crestron’s company vision forward by establishing marketing programs and campaigns that promote the company’s outstanding product innovation, workplace technology solutions, digital transformation strategies, thought leadership, and purpose-driven initiatives.
Main image: Sedus