Cisco has announced its intent to acquire BabbleLabs whose noise supression solution leverages artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to distinguish human speech from unwanted noise.

The result is enhanced quality of communications and conferencing applications, which dovetails nicely with Cisco’s widely-used Webex Meetings videoconferencing platform.

According to a Cisco global survey focused on the future of work, 98 percent of workers say they experience frustration from distractions during video meetings when working from home. Two of the top five frustrations called out are about background noise — either from other participants or their own side of the call.

The addition of BabbleLabs will let Ciso bring native noise removal capability to its entire Collaboration portfolio.

Cisco will initially integrate BabbleLabs with Webex Meetings to deliver a better and more secure user experience.

Great meeting experience starts with great audio

“A great meeting experience starts with great audio. We’re thrilled to welcome BabbleLabs’ team of highly skilled engineers. Their technology is going to provide our customers with yet another important innovation – automatically removing unwanted noise – to continue enabling exceptional Webex meeting experiences,” said Jeetu Patel, senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security and Applications Business Unit.

“The Cisco team shares our passion about speech as the core of collaboration and communication. Cisco’s Collaboration platform will enable us to quickly scale our exceptional speech enhancement technology for the hundreds of millions of Webex users,” said said Chris Rowen, CEO and Co-founder of BabbleLabs.

Cisco’s acquisition of the private-held BabbleLabs expected to close in the first quarter of its FY21, subject to customary closing conditions and required regulatory approvals.