"Connect the real and the virtua!" | Thomas Willemann, GoBe Robots @ The Communication Technology Expo 2023

The Communication Technology Expo has just kicked off in ExCel London, and EM360 was there to interview Market leaders and industry experts about everything unified communications – from the rise of hybrid work to the emergence of AI-wired CRMs and communication tools. 

Yesterday we spoke to Thomas Willemann, VP of Sales (EMEA) at GoBe Robots about the emergence of new telepresence communication technologies and the impact of AI tools on the unified communications market as a whole. 

“We need tools that connect the real and the virtual”

When asked about some of the current trends emerging in the world of unified communications, Mr Willeman explained that with the rise of hybrid work, organisations require tools to improve remote collaboration. 

“Hybrid work is on the rise so to speak, so post-COVID a lot of people are now not returning to the office or not returning to the office to the same degree as they were before, so they need solutions to connect the real and the virtual world that that we now live in. 

“Gobe is a device that allows you to do that because you can be present without actually being there, and you have the advantage of people interacting with you as if you were there because there is a physical entity in the room.”

“Questions will have already been answered by AI”

When asked about the impact of emerging AI technologies such as generative AI on digital communication, Mr Willeman explained that AI innovation is already solving many of the challenges the space previously encountered.

“Devices and connecting people in ways that are relevant for people in their everyday lives and making it more fun to go to work, making it safe to go to work. I think that's definitely going to be something happening more in the future using technology.”

[AI] will help us to do what we’re doing with Gobe, and take care of all the things that we don’t want to waste our time doing. We can get [AI] to answer some of the simple questions for us and then have specialists deal with the real, difficult questions. 

“One of the things we can do with our Gobe Robot is connected specialists for solving technical issues, for teaching situations. All the non-complicated questions will already have been answered by AI.”