Tuning into the future of collaboration 

When work went remote, the sound of business changed. What began as a scramble to make home offices functional has evolved into a revolution in how people hear and are heard. From education to enterprises, companies across industries have reimagined what clear, reliable communication can mean in a hybrid world. For major audio and communications enterprises like Shure and Zoom, that transformation has been powered by artificial intelligence, new acoustic technologies, and a shared mission: making connection effortless. 

Necessity during the pandemic accelerated years of innovation in months.  

“Audio and video just working is a baseline for collaboration,” says chief ecosystem officer at Zoom, Brendan Ittelson. “That expectation has shifted from connecting people to enhancing productivity and creativity across the entire ecosystem.”  

Audio is a foundation for trust, understanding, and collaboration. Poor sound quality can distort meaning and fatigue listeners, while crisp audio and intelligent processing can make digital interactions feel nearly as natural as in-person exchanges. 

“If you think about the fundamental need here,” adds chief technology officer at Shure, Sam Sabet, “It’s the ability to amplify the audio and the information that’s really needed, and diminish the unwanted sounds and audio so that we can enhance that experience and make it seamless for people to communicate.”  

For both Ittelson and Sabet, AI now sits at the center of this progress. For Shure, machine learning powers real-time noise suppression, adaptive beamforming, and spatial audio that tunes itself to a room’s acoustics. For Zoom, AI underpins every layer of its platform, from dynamic noise reduction to automated meeting summaries and intelligent assistants that anticipate user needs. These tools are transforming communication from reactive to proactive, enabling systems that understand intent, context, and emotion. 

“Even if you’re not working from home and coming into the office, the types of spaces and environments you try to collaborate in today are constantly changing because our needs are constantly changing,” says Sabet. “Having software and algorithms that adapt seamlessly and self-optimize based on the acoustics of the room, based on the different layouts of the spaces where people collaborate in is instrumental.” 

The future, they suggest, is one where technology fades into the background. As audio devices and AI companions learn to self-optimize, users won’t think about microphones or meeting links. Instead, they’ll simply connect. Both companies are now exploring agentic AI systems and advanced wireless solutions that promise to make collaboration seamless across spaces, whether in classrooms, conference rooms, or virtual environments yet to come. 

“It’s about helping people focus on strategy and creativity instead of administrative busy work,” says Ittelson. 

This episode of Business Lab is produced in partnership with Shure. 

Full Transcript 

Megan Tatum: From MIT Technology Review, I’m Megan Tatum and this is Business Lab, the show that helps business leaders make sense of new technologies coming out of the lab and into the marketplace.  

This episode is produced in partnership with Shure.  

Now as the pandemic ushered in the cultural shift that led to our increasingly virtual world, it also sparked a flurry of innovation in the audio and video industries to keep employees and customers connected and businesses running. Today we’re going to talk about the AI technologies behind those innovations, the impact on audio innovation, and the continuing emerging opportunities for further advances in audio capabilities.  

Two words for you: elevated audio.  

My guests today are Sam Sabet, chief technology officer at Shure, and Brendan Ittelson, chief ecosystem officer at Zoom.  

Welcome Sam, welcome Brendan. 

Sam Sabet: Thank you, Megan. It’s a pleasure to be here and I’m looking forward to this conversation with both you and Brendan. It should be a very exciting conversation. 

Brendan Ittelson: Thank you so much for having me today. I’m looking forward to the conversation and all the topics we have to dive into on this area. 

Megan: Fantastic. Lovely to have you both here. And Sam, just to set some context, I wonder if we could start with the pandemic and the innovation that really was born out of necessity. I mean, when it became clear that we were all going to be virtual for the foreseeable future, I wonder what was the first technological mission for Shure? 

Sam: Yeah, very good question. The pandemic really accelerated a lot of innovation around virtual communications and fundamentally how we perform our everyday jobs remotely. One of our first technological mission when the pandemic happened and everybody ended up going home and performing their functions remotely was to make sure that people could continue to communicate effectively, whether that’s for business meetings, virtual events, or educational purposes. We focused on collaboration and enhancing collaboration tools. And ideally what we were aiming to do, or we focused on, was to basically improve the ease of use and configuration of audio tool sets. 

Because unlike the office environment where it might be a lot more controlled, people are working from non-traditional areas like home offices or other makeshift solutions, we needed to make sure that people could still get pristine audio and that studio level audio even in uncontrolled environments that are not really made for that. We expedited development in our software solutions. We created tool sets that allowed for ease of deployment and remote configuration and management so we could enable people to continue doing the things they needed to do without having to worry about the underlying technology. 

Megan: And Brendan, during that time, it seemed everyone became a Zoom user of some sort. I mean, what was the first mission at Zoom when virtual connection became this necessity for everyone? 

Brendan: Well, our mission fundamentally didn’t change. It’s always been about delivering frictionless communications. What shifted was the urgency and the magnitude of what we were doing. Our focus shifted on how we do this reliably, securely, and to scale to ensure these millions of new users could connect instantly without friction. We really shifted our thinking of being just a business continuity tool to becoming a lifeline for so many individuals and industries. The stories that we heard across education, healthcare, and just general human connection, the number of those moments that matter to people that we were able to help facilitate just became so important. We really focused on how can we be there and make it frictionless so folks can focus on that human connection. And that accelerated our thinking in terms of innovation and reinforced the thought that we need to focus on the simplicity, accessibility, and trust in communication technology so that people could focus on that connection and not the technology that makes it possible. 

Megan: That’s so true. It did really just become an absolute lifeline for people, didn’t it? And before we dive into the technologies beyond these emerging capabilities, I wonder if we could first talk about just the importance of clear audio. I mean, Sam, as much as we all worry over how we look on Zoom, is how we sound perhaps as or even more impactful? 

Sam: Yeah, you’re absolutely correct. I mean, clear audio is absolutely critical for effective communications. Video quality is very important absolutely, but poor audio can really hinder understanding and engagement. As a matter of fact, there’s studies and research from areas such as Yale University that say that poor audio can make understanding somewhat more challenged and even affect retention of information. Especially in an educational type environment where there’s a lot of background noise and very differing types of spaces like auditoriums and lecture halls, it really becomes a high priority that you have great audio quality. And during the pandemic, as you said, and as Brendan rightly said, it became one of our highest priorities to focus on technologies like beamforming mics and ways to focus on the speaker’s voice and minimize that unwanted background noise so that we could ensure that the communication was efficient, was well understood, and that it removed the distraction so people could be able to actually communicate and retain the information that was being shared. 

Megan: It is incredible just how impactful audio can be, can’t it? Brendan, I mean as you said, remote and hybrid collaboration is part of Zoom’s DNA. What observations can you share about how users have grown along with the technological advancements and maybe how their expectations have grown as well? 

Brendan: Definitely. I mean, users now expect seamless and intelligent experiences. Audio and video just working is a baseline for collaboration. That expectation has shifted from connecting people to enhancing productivity and creativity across the entire ecosystem. When we look at it, we’re really looking at these trends in terms of how people want to be better when they’re at home. For example, AI-powered tools like Smart Summaries, translation and noise suppression to help people stay productive and connected no matter where they’re working. But then this also comes into play at the office. We’re starting to see folks that dive into our technology like Intelligent Director and Smart Name Tags that create that meeting equity even when they’re in a conference room. 

So, the remote experience and the room experience all are similar and create that same ability to be seen, heard, and contribute. And we’re now diving further into this that it’s beyond just meetings. Zoom is really transforming into an AI-first work platform that’s focused on human connection. And so that goes beyond the meetings into things like Chat, Zoom Docs, Zoom Events and Webinars, the Zoom Contact Center and more. And all of this being brought together using our AI Companion at its core to help connect all of those different points of connection for individuals. 

Megan: I mean, so Brendan, we know it wasn’t only workplaces that were affected by the pandemic, it was also the education sector that had to undergo a huge change. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about how Zoom has operated in that higher education sphere as well. 

Brendan: Definitely. Education has always been a focus for Zoom and an area that we’ve believed in. Because education and learning is something as a company we value and so we have invested in that sector. And personally being the son of academics, it is always an area that I find fascinating. We continue to invest in terms of how do we make the classroom a stronger space? And especially now that the classroom has changed, where it can be in person, it can be virtual, it can be a mix. And using Zoom and its tools, we’re able to help bridge all those different scenarios to make learning accessible to students no matter their means. 

That’s what truly excites us, is being able to have that technology that allows people to pursue their desires, their interests, and really up-level their pursuits and inspire more. We’re constantly investing in how to allow those messages to get out and to integrate in the flow of communication and collaboration that higher education uses, whether that’s being integrated into the classroom, into learning management systems, to make that a seamless flow so that students and their educators can just collaborate seamlessly. And also that we can support all the infrastructure and administration that helps make that possible. 

Megan: Absolutely. Such an important thing. And Sam, Shure as well, could you talk to us a bit about how you worked in that kind of education space as well from an audio point of view? 

Sam: Absolutely. Actually, this is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart because I’m actually an adjunct professor in my free time. 

Megan: Oh, wow. Very impressive. 

Sam: And the challenges of trying to do this sort of a hybrid lecture, if you will. And Shure has been particularly well suited for this environment and we’ve been focused on it and investing in technologies there for decades. If you think about how a lecture hall is structured, it’s a little different than just having a meeting around the conference table. And Shure has focused on creating products that allow this combination of a presenter scenario along with a meeting space plus the far end where users or students are remote, they can hear intelligibly what’s happening in the lecture hall, but they can also participate. 

Between our products like the Ceiling Mic Arrays and our wireless microphones that are purpose built for presenters and educators like our MXW neXt product line, we’ve created technologies that allow those two previously separate worlds to integrate together. And then add that onto integrating with Zoom and other products that allow for that collaboration has been very instrumental. And again, being a user and providing those lectures, I can see a night and day difference and just how much more effective my lectures are today from where they were five to six years ago. And that’s all just made possible by all the technologies that are purpose built for these scenarios and integrating more with these powerful tools that just make the job so much more seamless. 

Megan: Absolutely fascinating that you got to put the technology to use yourself as well to check that it was all working well. And you mentioned AI there, of course. I mean, Sam, what AI technologies have had the most significant impact on recent audio advancements too? 

Sam: Yeah. Absolutely. If you think about the fundamental need here, it’s the ability to amplify the audio and the information that’s really needed and diminish the unwanted sounds and audio so that we can enhance that experience and make it seamless for people to communicate. With our innovations at Shure, we’ve leveraged the cutting-edge technologies to both enhance communication effectiveness and to align seamlessly with evolving features in unified communications like the ones that Brandon just mentioned in the Zoom platforms.  

We partner with industry leaders like Zoom to ensure that we’re providing the ability to be able to focus on that needed audio and eliminate all the background distractions. AI has transformed that audio technology with things like machine learning algorithms that enable us to do more real-time audio processing and significantly enhancing things like noise reduction and speech isolation. Just to give you a simple example, our IntelliMix Room audio processing software that we’ve released as well as part of a complete room solution uses AI to optimize sound in different environments. 

And really that’s one of the fundamental changes in this period, whether that’s pandemic or post-pandemic, is that the key is really flexibility and being able to adapt to changing work environments. Even if you’re not working from home and coming into the office, the types of spaces and environments you try to collaborate in today are constantly changing because our needs are constantly changing. And so having software and algorithms that adapt seamlessly and are able to self-optimize based on the acoustics of the room, based on the different layouts of the spaces where people collaborate in is instrumental.  

And then last but not least, AI has transformed the way audio and video integrate. For example, we utilize voice recognition systems that integrate with intelligent cameras so that we enable voice tracking technology so that cameras can not only identify who’s speaking, but you have the ability to hear and see people clearly. And that in general just enhances the overall communication experience. 

Megan: Wow. It’s just so much innovation in quite a short space of time really. I mean, Brendan, you mentioned AI a little bit there beforehand, but I wonder what other AI technologies have had the biggest impact as Zoom builds out its own emerging capabilities? 

Brendan: Definitely. And I couldn’t agree more with Sam that, I mean, AI has made such a big shift and it’s really across the spectrum. And when I think about it, there’s almost three tiers when you look at the stack. You start off at the raw audio where AI is doing those things like noise suppression, echo cancellation, voice enhancements. All of that just makes this amazing audio signal that can then go into the next layer, which is the speech AI and natural language processing. Which starts to open up those items such as the real-time transcription, translation, searchable content to make the communication not just what’s heard, but making it more accessible to more individuals and inclusive by providing that content in a format that is best for them. 

And then you take those two layers and put the generative and agentic AI on top of that, that can start surfacing insights, summarize the conversation, and even take actions on someone’s behalf. It really starts to change the way that people work and how they have access and allows them to connect. I think it is a huge shift and I’m very excited by how those three levels start to interact to really enable people to do more and to connect thanks to AI. 

Megan: Yeah. Absolutely. So much rich information that can come out from a single call now because of those sorts of tools. And following on from that, Brendan, I mean, you mentioned before the Zoom AI Companion. I wondered if you could talk a bit about what were your top priorities when building that product to ensure it was truly useful for your customers? 

Brendan: Definitely. When we developed AI Companion, we had two priority focus areas from day one, trust and security, and then accuracy and relevance. On the trust side, it was a non-negotiable that customer data wouldn’t be used to train our models. People need to know that their conversations and content are private and secure. 

Megan: Of course. 

Brendan: And then with accuracy, we needed to ensure AI outputs weren’t generic but grounded in the actual context of a meeting, a chat or a product. But the real story here when I think about AI Companion is the customer value that it delivers. AI Companion helps people save time with meeting recaps, task generation, and proactive prep for the next session. It reduces that friction in hybrid work, whether you’re in a meeting room, a Zoom room, or collaborating across different collaboration tools like Microsoft or Google. And it enables more equitable participation by surfacing the right context for everyone no matter where and how they’re working.  

All this leads to a result where it’s practical, trustworthy, and embedded where work happens. And it’s just not another tool to manage, it’s there in someone’s flow of work to help them along the way. 

Megan: Yeah. That trust piece is just so important, isn’t it, today? And Sam, as much as AI has impacted audio innovation, audio has also had an impact on AI capabilities. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about audio as a data input and the advancements technologies like large language models, LLMs, are enabling. 

Sam: Absolutely. Audio is really a rich data source that’s added a new dimension to AI capabilities. If you think about speech recognition or natural language processing, they’ve had significant advances due to audio data that’s provided for them. And to Brendan’s point about trust and accuracy, I like to think of the products that Shure enables customers with as essentially the eyes and ears in the room for leading AI companions just like the Zoom AI Companion. You really need that pristine audio input to be able to trust the accuracy of what the AI generates. These AI Companions have been very instrumental in the way we do business every day. I mean, between transcription, speaker attributions, the ability to add action items within a meeting and be able to track what’s happening in our interactions, all of that really has to rely on that accurate and pristine input from audio into the AI. I feel that further improves the trust that our end users have to the results of AI and be able to leverage it more.  

If you think about it, if you look at how AI audio inputs enhance that interactive AI system, it enables more natural and intuitive interactions with AI. And it really allows for that seamless integration and the ability for users to use it without having to worry about, is the room set up correctly? Is the audio level proper? And when we talk even about agentic AI, we’re working on future developments where systems can self-heal or detect that there are issues in the environment so that they can autocorrect and adapt in all these different environments and further enable the AI to be able to do a much more effective job, if you will. 

Megan: Sam, you touched on future developments there. I wonder if we could close our conversation today with a bit of a future forward look, if we could. Brendan, can you share innovations that Zoom is working on now and what are you most excited to see come to fruition? 

Brendan: Well, your timing for this question is absolutely perfect because we’ve just wrapped up Zoomtopia 2025. 

Megan: Oh, wow. 

Brendan: And this is where we discussed a lot of the new AI innovations that we have coming to Zoom. Starting off, there’s AI Companion 3.0. And we’ve launched this next generation of agentic AI capabilities in Zoom Workplace. And with 3.0 when it releases, it isn’t just about transcribing, it’s turned into really a platform that helps you with follow-up task, prep for your next conversation, and even proactively suggest how to free up your time. For example, AI Companion can help you schedule meetings intelligently across time zones, suggest which meetings you can skip, and still stay informed and even prepare you with context and insights before you walk into the conversation. It’s about helping people focus on strategy and creativity instead of administrative busy work. And for hybrid work specifically, we introduced Zoomie Group Assistant, which will be a big leap for hybrid collaboration. 

Acting as an assistant for a group chat and meetings, you can simply ask, “@Zoomie, what’s the latest update on the project?” Or “@Zoomie, what are the team’s action items?” And then get instant answers. Or because we’re talking about audio here, you can go into a conference room and say, “Hey, Zoomie,” and get help with things like checking into a room, adjusting lights, temperature, or even sharing your screen. And while all these are built-in features, we’re also expanding the platform to allow custom AI agents through our AI Studio, so organizations can bring their own agents or integrate with third-party ones.  

Zoom has always believed in an open platform and philosophy and that is continuing. Folks using AI Companion 3.0 will be able to use agents across platforms to work with the workflows that they have across all the different SaaS vendors that they might have in their environment, whether that’s Google, Microsoft, ServiceNow, Cisco, and so many other tools. 

Megan: Fantastic. It certainly sounds like a tool I could use in my work, so I look forward to hearing more about that. And Sam, we’ve touched on there are so many exciting things happening in audio too. What are you working on at Shure? And what are you most excited to see come to fruition? 

Sam: At Shure, our engineering teams are really working on a range of exciting projects, but particularly we’re working on developing new collaboration solutions that are integral for IT end users. And these integrate obviously with the leading UC platforms.  

We’re integrating audio and video technologies that are scalable, reliable solutions. And we want to be able to seamlessly connect these to cloud services so that we can leverage both AI technologies and the tool sets available to optimize every type of workspace essentially. Not just meeting rooms, but lecture halls, work from home scenarios, et cetera.  

The other area that we really focus on in terms of our reliability and quality really comes from our DNA in the pro audio world. And that’s really all-around wireless audio technologies. We’re developing our next-generation wireless systems and these are going to offer even greater reliability and range. And they really become ideal for everything from a large-scale event to personal home use and the gamut across that whole spectrum. And I think all of that in partnership with our partners like Zoom will help just facilitate the modern workspace. 

Megan: Absolutely. So much exciting innovation clearly going on behind the scenes. Thank you both so much.  

That was Sam Sabet, chief technology officer at Shure, and Brendan Ittelson, chief ecosystem officer at Zoom, whom I spoke with from Brighton in England.  

That’s it for this episode of Business Lab. I’m your host, Megan Tatum. I’m a contributing editor at Insights, the custom publishing division of MIT Technology Review. We were founded in 1899 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and you can find us in print on the web and at events each year around the world. For more information about us and the show, please check out our website at technologyreview.com.  

This show is available wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoyed this episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to rate and review us. Business Lab is a production of MIT Technology Review and this episode was produced by Giro Studios. Thanks for listening.