With nearly half of the US workforce expected to be working remotely by 2020, meetings of the future can’t depend on the same wonky teleconferencing systems in place today.

Anyone who’s been stuck on an inaudible conference line or frozen video call can attest to the often unpredictable nature of remote meetings. And there’s something to be said about the value of face-to-face communication, full of non-verbal cues­ and eye contact. So how can we be expected to efficiently interact with colleagues who aren’t physically in the same room?

Tech companies are responding to the call for better communication tools by introducing mobile robots with iPad “faces” and even two-way hologram technology that places individuals from different locations in the same virtual conference room.

As part of the Future of Work series, Yogita Limaye shows us the types of technology we could soon see replacing conference calls.

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