Almo Pro AV Sees AI Meeting Rooms Pulling Technology Budgets Back Toward AV

After several years in which enterprise spending heavily favored traditional IT infrastructure, Almo Pro AV sees 2026 shaping up differently. In a recent interview, executive vice president Dan Smith argued that as notebook and server refresh cycles mature, organizations are shifting more attention back toward physical collaboration spaces—and AI is a big reason why.

Smith’s point is straightforward: AI-enabled meeting rooms are making AV upgrades easier to justify because the room is no longer just a place to display content. In his description, a modern conference space is expected to support real-time speaker identification, transcription, action-item generation, meeting summaries, and integration with tools like Microsoft Copilot. That requires more than a screen and a commodity webcam. It depends on better microphones, better camera coverage, and infrastructure that can capture speech and context accurately enough for AI tools to be useful.

That is an important shift in buying logic. For years, AV upgrades were often sold as quality-of-experience improvements. AI changes the pitch by linking room technology to time savings, better documentation, clearer follow-up, and measurable productivity. When organizations believe the room can improve workflow outcomes, budget conversations start to move.

Smith also suggested that the ratio of IT spend to AV spend is beginning to rebalance in 2026, supported by what Almo is seeing across its partner network. If that holds, it could be one of the more meaningful market signals of the year for integrators focused on corporate collaboration.

There is a second lesson here, too: experience still matters. Smith emphasized that seeing AI-infused rooms in action is critical for customers to understand their value. That makes demos, pilot spaces, and proof-of-concept rooms more important than ever in the sales process.

What This Means for AV Integrators

Integrators should be framing room upgrades around business outcomes, not just hardware specs. If you can show how better audio, camera coverage, and collaboration design improve transcripts, summaries, and follow-up, you create a stronger path to larger projects, recurring service revenue, and faster approval cycles.