Systems and methods are disclosed for anticipating a video switch to accommodate a new speaker in a video conference comprising a real time video stream captured by a camera local to a first videoconference endpoint is analyzed according to at least one speaker anticipation model. The speaker anticipation model predicts that a new speaker is about to speak. Video of the anticipated new speaker is sent to the conferencing server in response to a request for the video on the anticipated new speaker from the conferencing server. Video of the anticipated new speaker is distributed to at least a second videoconference endpoint.