FORTÉ Publishes New Research: The State of Modern Collaboration Spaces
Talent Management / Workplace Collaboration | 4 min read
FORTÉ, a global leader in communication and collaboration solutions for the modern workplace, has released The State of Modern Collaboration Spaces — a new study based on responses from 512 US IT decision-makers that gives IT leaders a detailed look at where the AV industry stands on AI adoption, what is driving reliability failures, and where enterprise collaboration solution investment is headed. The findings reveal that while AI-enabled collaboration is now embedded across modern workplaces, meetings continue to break down for reasons that have little to do with features.
The Core Finding: Foundation Before Features
The study's central finding is that day-to-day reliability and predictable performance carry a true operational cost that is easy to underestimate. IT leaders estimate their teams would reclaim an average of 52 hours per month if their top meeting-related technology issues were eliminated — a figure that puts reliability at the heart of productivity strategy, not just IT operations.
"There's a lot of excitement about what AI can do in the meeting room, and rightfully so. But what this research tells us is that the foundation has to come first. You can stack the most sophisticated AI tools on top of a collaboration environment, and if the basics aren't working, none of it lands. Before you can know where to go next, you need an honest picture of where you are right now. And this is what the research findings give you."
— Keith Yandell, Executive Vice President of Innovation, FORTÉ
Six Patterns Shaping Meeting Room Technology in 2026
Across organisations, the study reveals six interconnected patterns that are redefining how IT leaders think about collaboration investment:
- • Technology failures and join friction remain the leading cause of lost meeting productivity — despite widespread AI adoption across organisations
- • Touch-to-join and AI-supported transcription have shifted from differentiators to the expected norm — features that were once selling points are now table stakes
- • The next wave of AI investment is not about adding more meeting features — IT leaders signalled a clear shift toward AI that operates in the background, quietly improving reliability and operations
- • Meeting room reliability issues are quietly consuming IT resources at scale — often invisible in feature comparisons but highly visible in support tickets and productivity loss
- • IT leaders are prioritising strategic outcomes over feature lists — investment decisions are increasingly anchored to measurable business results rather than capability checklists
- • Collaboration budgets are rising — but so is the pressure to demonstrate measurable outcomes from every dollar spent, raising the bar for ROI accountability
From Investment to Competitive Advantage
The research argues that organisations which close the gap between what their technology promises and what it delivers every day are the ones turning collaboration investment into a genuine competitive advantage. The report includes an executive summary, survey-backed findings, and FORTÉ's own framework for helping IT leaders decide where to place their focus in the months ahead. It is available for download now at ourforte.com.
Key Takeaways
- • FORTÉ's new study — based on 512 US IT decision-makers — finds that AI adoption is widespread in collaboration environments but technology failures and join friction remain the top productivity killers.
- • IT leaders estimate their teams would reclaim 52 hours per month if their top meeting technology issues were eliminated — putting reliability at the centre of productivity strategy.
- • AI-supported transcription and touch-to-join are no longer differentiators — they are now baseline expectations across enterprise collaboration environments.
- • The next wave of AI investment is moving away from meeting features toward background AI that improves reliability, operational efficiency, and measurable strategic outcomes.
- • The full report — including executive summary, survey findings, and FORTÉ's prioritisation framework — is available at ourforte.com.