Skin in the game: Video chat apps tout 'inclusive' AI features

A photo illustration dated June 2, 2021 shows how Google's new light adjustments feature for its Meet video conferencing tool brightens the face of a user who is underexposed because of a window in the background. Google/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Video conferencing services have for years boasted that their technology is "intuitive" to use or "integrated" to function with other tools, but now vendors such as Google and Cisco can hardly go a blog post without trumpeting a different attribute: "inclusive."

The latest buzzword, and the product development that accompanies it, shows how tech companies are newly focused on assuring Black users and other persons of color that online chat products will not leave them out in the cold. The changes stem in part from the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement - which has prompted vendors and customers alike to think beyond the needs of a white, English-speaking audience - and the pandemic, which created a large "remote" workforce heavily dependent on technology.