Neat’s Manu Sharma reveals how AI-driven meetings, strategic partnerships, and inclusive tech are reshaping hybrid collaboration for enterprises.
India’s hybrid work revolution isn’t following a single script – and in this interview, Neat’s Regional Director Manu Sharma reveals how technology must flex to keep up. In a region celebrated for its workforce scale and diversity, Sharma’s insights reveal why meeting equity and fostering strategic partnerships are the linchpins of tomorrow’s collaborative culture. Whether bridging digital gaps in sprawling metropolises or streamlining video calls for SMEs in rural areas, Neat isn’t just selling devices – it’s reimagining how offices, teams, and platform alliances enable productivity.
This interview isn’t just another pillar content piece – it’s a lens into the paradox of Indian productivity, where confidence in office work collides with persistent tech frustrations. Sharma explains how Neat’s AI-powered features, real-time analytics, and seamless partner networks address everything from infrastructure quirks to language barriers and employee well-being. As Neat Pulse and Symmetry help decode meeting ROI or transliterate multilingual exchanges, the brand turns collaboration from a workplace bottleneck into a competitive edge.
For any business navigating India’s evolving hybrid landscape, Manu Sharma’s roadmap is clear: prioritise strategic investments in tech that transform experiences, empower employees, and drive business outcomes. In a market where every hour counts, smart collaboration isn’t a luxury – it’s the new imperative.
Full interview;
How is Neat adapting its video solutions to the unique market and infrastructure needs of India and the SAARC region?
We have seen that organizations in India have the strongest belief that working from the office boosts productivity. Yet, they face the second-highest productivity loss in the region from outdated technology. The paradox here is fascinating: organizations believe in office productivity but are hampered by the very tools meant to enable it.
Neat addresses this challenge through simplicity first. Our all-in-one intelligent devices are designed for plug-and-play deployment with intuitive interfaces that minimize IT support needs – a crucial factor for markets with diverse infrastructure capabilities.
Beyond simplicity, we take a strategic approach. Our Neat Pulse analytics platform helps enterprises identify which meeting spaces need upgrading first, enabling them to achieve a measured ROI before scaling deployment. This data-driven method means organizations do not need uniform tech investment across all spaces. A core focus for markets like India is navigating infrastructure inconsistencies. Recognizing that network reliability can be a significant challenge, our systems use AI-enhanced audio and video optimization to compensate for limitations. For instance, when common issues like packet loss occur, the technology automatically adjusts to maintain clear and consistent meeting quality, ensuring that external infrastructure problems do not derail collaboration.
Ultimately, this strategy enables scalable and consistent collaboration across the entire organization. By offering solutions that fit diverse spaces – from small huddle rooms to large boardrooms – we ensure a uniform, high-quality experience for everyone. This approach helps organizations of all sizes, from large enterprises to SMBs, to overcome the challenges of long commutes and dispersed teams by enabling seamless video collaboration.
With India now a top market for Neat, what’s driving demand for advanced hybrid work tech – especially among mid-market and SMBs?
Our growth in India is a direct result of the market’s strong demand for practical collaboration tools that can connect geographically dispersed teams. India’s growth story for us is really about the democratization of video collaboration technology. Before the pandemic, video conferencing was primarily used in boardrooms by senior executives. The pandemic forced every employee to become a video collaboration end-user, and there is no going back from the expectation of seamless, high-quality meetings.
What is particularly driving mid-market and SMB adoption is the realization that the quality of collaboration directly impacts business relationships. For SMEs, especially with their smaller customer bases, there is no margin for error in client interactions. A failed video call or poor audio quality during a crucial client presentation can have immediate business consequences. This dynamic creates a significant need for technology that bridges the gap between in-office and remote employees. For SMEs in particular, the focus is on scalable, intelligent technologies that are critical for enhancing productivity and driving competitive differentiation. Hybrid work success demands this kind of reliability.
Another key factor is talent retention. In India’s competitive job market, particularly for tech talent, employee experience is crucial. Constant frustration with meeting setups can negatively impact morale and retention. Businesses are realizing that outdated technology is, in fact, a hidden productivity drain, costing them significantly in both time and money.
How does Neat’s technology ensure inclusive, equitable collaboration across different geographies and workstyles?
Meeting equity is fundamental. Traditional video systems show a wide shot of the meeting room, making it nearly impossible for remote participants to identify who is speaking or feel genuinely included in the conversation. This creates a two-tier meeting experience where in-room participants dominate while remote attendees become passive observers.
The nature of the workplace is changing, with enterprises needing to ensure high levels of productive interaction for a geographically dispersed workforce. Our devices are designed with this in mind, featuring automatic speaker tracking and intelligent framing that enable more natural and engaging remote and in-room collaboration. Our Neat Symmetry feature, for example, frames each attendee individually on screen, even if they are in the same physical room, ensuring everyone is seen and heard equally. Our Neat Boundary technology uses AI to focus on active speakers, ensuring remote participants can clearly see and engage with whoever is contributing. This creates a more inclusive experience, helping to foster a strong corporate identity and productive interaction, regardless of an employee’s location.
For India’s multilingual workforce, our AI-driven real-time transcription and translation capabilities are game-changing. Teams can collaborate effectively across language barriers, with conversations automatically transcribed and, when necessary, translated in real-time. We have also addressed the infrastructure realities of modern hybrid work in India by ensuring our devices work seamlessly across varying network conditions and integrate natively with the platforms teams already use: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and soon Google Meet.
How critical are partnerships with Inflow and Ingram Micro in scaling Neat’s presence and driving customer success?
India and SAARC represent incredibly diverse markets – what works in Mumbai may not work in Dhaka or Colombo. Strategic partnerships are fundamental to our success in the region. Local partners bring essential market knowledge, established relationships, and, most critically, the service infrastructure needed for ongoing customer success. Adoption of new technologies is essential for businesses to stay competitive and redefine their work. Our partners, such as Inflow Technologies and Ingram Micro, play a vital role in this by leveraging their extensive channel networks and deep market knowledge to distribute our technology.
They not only help us reach a broader customer base, but they also provide the on-ground support necessary to ensure customer success. Rather than simply selling devices, our partners help customers analyze their collaboration needs, design phased deployment strategies, and measure ROI throughout the process. This consultative model is essential in a cost-conscious market where customers need to see clear value before scaling investments. This network enables us to deliver scalable solutions that businesses can adopt quickly and efficiently, allowing them to continue focusing on their business objectives. The service component is equally critical. When a device requires support in a secondary city, having established local partners with trained technicians makes the difference between a minor inconvenience and a significant business disruption.
How do Neat’s AI features and sensors boost productivity and well-being in Indian and SAARC enterprises?
Smart technology and AI can transform collaboration from a simple video call into an immersive, interactive experience. AI is transforming collaboration from reactive problem-solving to proactive experience enhancement. AI-driven features, such as real-time transcriptions and meeting summarization, are believed to have a significant impact on redefining workplace communication.
Our AI-driven features, such as improved speaker tracking and noise suppression AI (which is particularly valuable in Indian office environments that often contend with external noise from traffic or construction), and real-time document collaboration, directly contribute to meeting productivity by making interactions more seamless and practical. In addition, our intelligent devices’ environmental sensors, which monitor elements like room occupancy and air quality, provide businesses with valuable data to optimize their office spaces and create healthier, more comfortable environments.
In cities like Mumbai or Delhi, where office space costs are substantial, understanding actual room usage patterns enables more informed facility planning and cost management. This expanded approach contributes to better overall employee experience, which is essential for boosting engagement and well-being. The wellness aspect is equally important – our devices reduce the cognitive load on employees by eliminating setup friction and technical troubleshooting, allowing teams to focus entirely on productive collaboration rather than fighting with technology.
What key opportunities and challenges does Neat see in India and SAARC’s hybrid work landscape, and how is your strategy evolving?
There is a clear and quantifiable need for better collaboration technology. India faces the highest productivity loss in the region due to outdated technology. A staggering 4.8 hours are lost per employee per week, costing a 1,000-employee company an estimated $9 million annually. This data shows a clear business case for investment. The biggest opportunity is the convergence of AI adoption with infrastructure modernization.
As organizations across the region upgrade their collaboration platforms to leverage AI features like meeting summarization and real-time transcription, they are discovering something crucial: the quality of these AI outputs depends entirely on the quality of input from their hardware. Poor microphones result in poor transcriptions; inadequate cameras lead to ineffective AI-driven speaker tracking. This concept applies to many Artificial Intelligence systems across the enterprise.
Our primary challenge is to help organizations recognize this hidden cost. They need to understand that investing in smart, end-user-friendly collaboration tools is not just an IT expense but a strategic business decision with a direct impact on their bottom line. The challenge is education and change management. Our strategy is to continue providing innovative, AI-infused solutions that are easy to deploy and manage. We work closely with our partners to educate the market on how smart collaboration can turn a source of frustration into a catalyst for growth, innovation, and stronger employee engagement.
Strategically, we are doubling down on our partner ecosystem while building deeper relationships with key platform providers, such as Microsoft and Zoom. As these platforms continue to add AI capabilities, we want to ensure that Neat devices are optimized to deliver maximum value from these enhancements. The future belongs to organizations that view collaboration technology as competitive infrastructure rather than a basic utility.
