For a long time, the collaboration industry has focused on improving device capabilities – better cameras, clearer audio, and smarter software, says Barco in a new blog. But as we move into 2026, the real transformation is not about features. It’s about how organisations fundamentally think about meeting rooms, AI, and the role of IT in shaping collaboration itself.

The meeting room is no longer a passive space where work happens. It is becoming a strategic, data-driven IT endpoint – one that sits at the intersection of productivity, workplace culture, sustainability, and employee experience. This shift will require new mental models, new measurements of success, and new skills inside IT organisations.

Here are the defining trends that will shape the collaboration industry in 2026 – and why they matter.

Key takeaways:

• Meeting rooms are no longer passive spaces – they are strategic, data-driven IT assets.
• AI is moving from “nice to have” to operational necessity, optimising meetings and reducing friction.
• Physical collaboration spaces need room data insights just like digital systems to improve usage and performance.
• True collaboration is measured by real employee outcomes, not just AI adoption or feature usage.
• Sustainability becomes a practical IT mandate, linking device lifecycles, cost efficiency, and ROI.

1. Meeting rooms become first-class IT endpoints

The most important paradigm shift for 2026 is deceptively simple: meeting rooms are infrastructure, not furniture.

Historically, meeting spaces have been managed reactively. Something breaks, someone complains, IT responds. Visibility into room usage, performance, or reliability has been limited at best. The result? Downtime, underutilised investments, and frustrated employees who lose trust in the technology meant to help them collaborate.

That model is no longer sustainable.

Meeting rooms are increasingly modular, software-defined, and data-enabled. They can – and must –be monitored, secured, patched, and optimised like any other endpoint on the network. For IT leaders, this means treating rooms as measurable, maintainable assets with clear performance indicators.

This shift is especially visible in medium and large rooms, where organisations are investing more heavily in professional AV – microphones, speakers, cameras – integrated directly into IT management frameworks. AV over IP adoption is accelerating as IT teams push for consistency, security, and centralised control across corporate networks.

By treating meeting rooms as fully managed IT assets, IT leaders gain a seat at the table where decisions about culture, teamwork, and productivity are made.

Discover how ClickShare fully supports IT managers to ensure seamless collaboration, here

What’s holding IT back: meeting rooms remain data-poor

While the trend toward treating meeting rooms as IT endpoints is clear, a critical challenge remains: physical spaces remain data-poor compared to digital systems.

IT leaders have rich telemetry for laptops, servers, and applications – but far less insight into how meeting rooms are actually used, how often they fail, or where friction occurs. This blind spot leads to over-engineering some spaces, under-investing in others, and reacting instead of planning.

With hybrid work now the norm, physical collaboration spaces remain a critical extension of the workplace. IT teams must manage these environments with new skills that blend:

• Networking and endpoint management
• AV and acoustic understanding
• Data analysis and experience design

As IT teams deploy AI and measure outcomes, they influence collaboration strategy rather than just supporting it, shaping how teams work day-to-day. Success in 2026 will favor technologists who understand systems, spaces, and people – not just devices.

2. AI moves from “nice to have” to operational necessity

AI in the workplace has passed its novelty phase. The question no longer is “does this solution have AI?” but “does it solve a real problem?” The collaboration industry is where this shift becomes tangible.

AI-driven meeting environments will increasingly:

• Personalise room experiences based on context and participants
• Self-diagnose issues before users notice them
• Self-optimise audio, video, and performance in real time
• Surface actionable insights to IT teams instead of raw data

This is where AI delivers its real value: reducing friction. Hardware with built-in diagnostics and automated issue resolution reduces the need for routine manual intervention from IT teams. Intelligent diagnostics increase device uptime. End users experience fewer interruptions, fewer workarounds, and fewer reasons to disengage.

The most successful deployments will treat AI as an enabler of better collaboration – not a replacement for human judgment, creativity, or engagement.

2026 will also be the year organisations push back against the AI hype. Buying technology “because it has AI” will no longer be defensible. Return on technology (ROT) must be proven – not promised.

AI that does not meaningfully improve meetings, adoption, or outcomes will be ignored.

3. Measuring AI success shifts from output to outcome

Once AI becomes operationally embedded, the real challenge for IT leaders is no longer adoption – it must now demonstrate tangible value.

Success will not be measured by how many summaries were generated, how many insights were logged, or how many licenses were deployed. Those are outputs. They don’t prove value.

Instead, organisations will look at employee-level outcomes:

• Are meetings shorter, clearer, or more decisive?
• Are employees actually using AI features – or bypassing them?
• Does feedback indicate reduced friction and higher confidence in meetings?
• Are hybrid participants more equally engaged?

Large platform providers such as Microsoft and Google are already grappling with how to demonstrate ROI, and the conclusion is inevitable: AI adoption and perceived value will matter more than feature utilisation.

The feedback loop between employees and IT becomes critical. If users don’t trust or value AI-powered experiences, adoption will stall, regardless of how advanced the technology is.

4. Sustainability re-emerges as a strategic IT mandate

Sustainability becomes less about aspiration and more about hard data. AI will enable IT teams to:

• Track device lifecycles and longevity
• Calculate Scope 3 emissions (the indirect emissions tied to hardware manufacturing, usage, and end-of-life) more accurately
• Tie sustainability decisions directly to cost efficiency and ROI

In markets like the US, sustainability will increasingly be framed as doing more with less: extending device lifespans, reducing waste, and future-proofing investments. Secure-by-design, modular systems that can evolve over time will be seen as financially – and environmentally – responsible choices.

This shift positions CIOs and CTOs as unexpected but critical owners of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) intelligence. With the right data, IT leaders can provide executives with the evidence needed for reporting, compliance, and smarter long-term decisions. By leveraging data for sustainability and ROI, IT becomes a strategic partner, guiding long-term investments and organisational priorities.

Looking ahead: the collaboration stack grows up

Beyond AI, 2026 will mark the maturation of the collaboration stack as a whole. We can expect:

• Deeper convergence of AV and IT
• Greater emphasis on reliability over novelty
• More intentional design of meeting experiences, not just tools

The collaboration industry is moving away from fragmented solutions toward cohesive, intelligent ecosystems that are secure, manageable, and measurable.

The organisations that thrive in 2026 and beyond will be the ones that stop treating meeting rooms as cost centres – and start treating them as engines of productivity, culture, and insight.

Because the future of work does not just happen on screens.

It happens in the room.

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