AV integrators are buying scale because meeting rooms now run like software

Forté’s acquisition of Vega Global, announced in late August, added more than 750 employees and operations across 17 Asia-Pacific countries. That is not just another integrator deal, it is a procurement signal: global enterprises are increasingly buying AV as an operating model with service ownership, not as a set of local projects stitched together after the fact.

AV Magazine framed the acquisition as a move from partner-based coverage toward direct execution, noting that Forté reports staff in 22 countries and serves customers in more than 70 major markets. AV Magazine also tied the timing to Forté and the Global Presence Alliance (GPA) ending their partnership on December 31, 2026, shifting from a federation model to owned responsibility.

At InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas, the product story followed a similar pattern. AI capabilities and cloud management were recurring themes across the show floor, and AVIXA’s June roundup said the event brought in more than 28,000 attendees from nearly 100 countries, along with over 800 exhibitors across a nearly 400,000-square-foot exhibit hall. Alongside smarter room features, vendors repeatedly emphasized the need for ongoing, centralized management of room systems.

The meeting room is becoming an edge device, not a display and a codec

Cisco’s RoomOS 26 illustrates the direction of the architecture. AVIXA reported that Cisco and NVIDIA co-developed RoomOS 26 and presented it as bringing AI out of cloud services and into the room, where autonomous agents run on-device. In Cisco’s InfoComm messaging, hardware capability was a central point: weaker endpoints mean weaker AI results.

Across the coverage, the capabilities read less like traditional “meeting features” and more like controls for how a room operates day to day. rAVe [PUBS] reported that RoomOS 26 includes real-time transcription, Audio Zones that let teams set microphone boundaries quickly, and Workspace Advisor, which uses cameras and sensors to build a digital twin of a meeting space inside Cisco Control Hub to help optimize layouts and deployments.

For operations and workplace IT, the practical implication is governance. Once notetaking, transcription, and sensor-driven optimization are defaults, the argument shifts to where those workloads run, how they are updated, what data they retain, and what happens when the network is degraded. “Edge AI” reduces dependence on always-on cloud connectivity, but it raises the stakes on device lifecycle management, patching discipline, and specifying hardware that can keep up across a multi-year refresh.

Management platforms are moving to the center of the buying decision

HP made a similar operational point at InfoComm by focusing on management visibility. In its InfoComm 2026 announcement, HP said it is integrating Poly Lens into its Workforce Experience Platform, presenting the combination as a way for IT teams to manage and optimize meeting spaces with improved visibility into room performance and device management.

At InfoComm, Crestron framed the show as evidence that what enterprises want is starting to look more like venue-class operations. In AVIXA’s roundup, the association highlighted Crestron’s Espai Barça partnership at Spotify Camp Nou and the company’s new commercial workplace offerings, including compute for Microsoft Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms, an AI-assisted tool for placing cameras and microphones, a new line of touch screens, and an intelligent audio platform.

The connective tissue across Cisco, HP and Crestron is that the “product” being sold is no longer just the in-room experience. It is the fleet: standardized configurations, remote observability, and predictable service outcomes. That puts IT ops and procurement at the center of AV decisions that used to be made project-by-project by facilities and local stakeholders.

Agent governance is coming for collaboration and the contact center

Cisco’s wider Webex AI roadmap suggests “agentic” features are moving beyond the meeting room fast. No Jitter reported that Cisco, at Cisco Live in June, introduced new Webex AI Agents, an AI Concierge for Webex Contact Center, and AI Agent 360, which Cisco described as a framework for tracking what AI agents are doing, measuring how they are performing, and identifying where they need correction.

No Jitter also reported expected rollout windows. Prep Agent and Translator Agent are expected to be generally available in Q3 2026, and Notetaker Agent, aimed at capturing in-person conversations, is slated for beta in Q3 2026. AI Concierge for Webex Contact Center is expected to reach general availability in Q4 2026. No Jitter added that Webex AI Workforce Engagement Management (AI WEM) includes features available now, with additional workforce management functions planned for controlled availability in Q3 2027.

That roadmap matters to enterprise operators because it ties collaboration telemetry to customer-facing operations. If a company standardizes on one collaboration platform and one integrator for managed rooms, the same governance questions now show up in the contact center: how AI agents are monitored, how outcomes are audited, and how human and AI work is scheduled and measured in a single system.

Why consolidation is accelerating, and what to measure instead of office count

AV Magazine spelled out the consolidation case: multinationals increasingly prefer a single provider that sets and enforces standards while handling security, deployment, monitoring, lifecycle management, and service results for every location. Seen that way, Forté’s acquisition of Vega Global moves the work toward direct ownership and accountability that a partner network cannot fully match.

AV Magazine tied the shift to how channel revenue is evolving. Citing AVIXA’s 2026 channel research, AV Magazine reported that 76% of providers expected growth in 2026, and that services made up 38% of channel revenue in 2025, slightly ahead of hardware at 36%. AV Magazine also said corporate customers saw managed services as the largest opportunity, signaling growing interest in ongoing performance rather than one-time installs.

AV Magazine added a practical caution for operators: consolidation may create value, but it can also slow execution through added process. The more useful lesson is to track outcomes. The article said an acquisition-driven, services-led strategy should be evaluated with measures such as customer retention, service attachment, response times, and incremental or recurring revenue, rather than headlines or footprint.

Where this lands in enterprise specs and contracts now

• In global AV and workplace RFPs, separate the room bill of materials from the service model, then evaluate providers on their monitoring stack, patch cadence and the reporting you will receive on response times and device compliance. AV Magazine’s focus on response times and service attachment offers a workable way to weight bids.
• For Cisco Rooms standards, confirm where AI features run (on-device vs cloud), what behavior to expect during WAN impairment and what endpoint compute requirements follow from RoomOS 26’s on-device agents, according to AVIXA and rAVe [PUBS].
• If Webex Contact Center or WEM is on the roadmap, add AI agent governance to the architecture review agenda now. No Jitter’s timing notes (Q3 2026 and Q4 2026 availability windows, plus Q3 2027 controlled releases) are close enough to influence FY2027 platform rationalization and staffing plans.
• For organizations with mixed Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms estates, ask Crestron and HP integrators how they will standardize telemetry and configuration across vendors, since the operational objective is consistent performance reporting rather than brand uniformity, according to AVIXA and HP.