Whiteboard collaboration app Miro to get generative AI tools
The online workspace vendor's generative AI tool will bring instant summarization, code translation, template building, idea clustering and image creation to virtual coworking.
Online collaborative workspace vendor Miro on Wednesday unveiled its own generative AI tool, Miro AI.
Available in beta to all enterprise customers and users, Miro AI provides users with the ability to categorize notes, create images, edit graphics, instantly summarize sticky notes, translate developer code into everyday terms, create templates and build idea maps.
Many virtual whiteboard vendors, including Stormboard with Storm AI and Microsoft Whiteboard with Copilot, are planning to incorporate generative AI capabilities in their platforms.
Mural, another whiteboard vendor, revealed on Tuesday similar generative AI capabilities supported by Microsoft Azure OpenAI. The tools include idea suggestion, idea sorting by theme, recommendations for next steps during a brainstorming session and instant visualizations showing how ideas are related to each other.
Juxtaposing large and small vendors
Both big vendors with online whiteboard capabilities and niche vendors specializing in virtual whiteboard platforms bring advantages and disadvantages for enterprises, according to Metrigy analyst Irwin Lazar.
Vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Zoom offer whiteboarding tools within their suite of products so companies don't have to pay extra to access the tools. On the other hand, niche vendors including Miro, Mural, Figma and Stormboard provide more integration flexibility because they can cooperate with other vendors' apps and don't require brand ubiquity in a user's work set.
The independent vendors have an advantage as their apps aren't tied to specific meeting or suite platforms so they can function in any environment.
Irwin LazarAnalyst, Metrigy
"The independent vendors have an advantage as their apps aren't tied to specific meeting or suite platforms so they can function in any environment," Lazar said. "But it will be difficult for companies to justify paying a separate license fee."
Indeed, it is difficult for niche vendors to compete with the giants, according to Lazar.
"The market will be challenging for the standalone independent vendors as the meeting app vendors like Cisco, Microsoft, Google and Zoom continue to beef up their own whiteboards and integrate AI across their applications," Lazar said.
The golden age of virtual whiteboards
Miro, founded in 2011 as RealTimeBoard, is one of many independent virtual whiteboard vendors whose platforms spiked in popularity in 2020 when the pandemic forced organizations out of the office.
The remote work era heralded a flowering for such platforms, and the technology continues to flourish as many enterprises switch to cloud-based networks that further enable mobility. Vendors like Miro also continue to enhance online coworking tools, especially with advancements in generative AI.
Miro AI's tools aim to simplify otherwise elaborate workflows for teams working together in Miro on tasks such as customer research analysis, strategy workshops and product design.
Miro AI features an admin control toggle that lets users keep content protected. Customer data will never be used for training purposes, according to Miro, and all prompts are disposed after use.
Mary Reines is a news writer covering customer experience and unified communications for TechTarget Editorial. Before TechTarget, Reines was arts editor at the Marblehead Reporter.
