The new Zoom AI Companion is now officially available to all Zoom users. For companies searching for a gen-AI alternative to Microsoft Copilot, the Zoom AI Companion could be just the solution.

Built on years of AI innovation by the Zoom team, this intelligent assistant promises to improve productivity, enhance the quality of your meetings, and make the workplace more efficient. Zoom says it will help reduce the repetitive tasks that take up 62% of the average workday.

The generative AI tool allows users to summarize meetings, craft content (such as email responses), and even intelligently process recordings.

But what exactly is Zoom AI companion, and what can it do for your business?

Will it be a major Copilot challenger, or is it just another example of a UCaaS company jumping on the AI bandwagon? Let’s find out.

What is Zoom AI Companion? The Basics

Zoom officially announced the arrival of “Zoom AI Companion,” its generative AI assistant, on the 5th of September 2023. According to the company, the solution empowers individuals to be more productive, collaborative, and intuitive in the workplace.

If the idea of a Zoom AI assistant seems familiar, it’s not Deja vu. AI Companion isn’t exactly a brand-new service from Zoom. It’s an upgraded and rebranded version of the company’s previous solution, “Zoom IQ.”

Fortunately, Zoom isn’t just changing the name of its AI app. It’s also working on making it more intuitive and feature-rich than ever before. According to the company, “AI Companion” is a component of its broader vision to deliver “limitless human connection” via a single platform.

Zoom AI Companion incorporates Zoom’s large language models and third-party models from leaders like Meta (Llama 2), Anthropic, and OpenAI.

With the companion app, Zoom plans on significantly expanding its generative AI solution across its platform, with features for Meetings, Phone, chat, email, and even the Zoom whiteboard service. Plus, additional features are already on the roadmap.

Best of all, unlike Microsoft and Google, who charge hefty fees for their AI assistants, Zoom is adding the companion to its platform for free. If you already have a Zoom account, you can start leveraging the services immediately for no extra cost.

Zoom AI Companion: The Features

Zoom AI Companion is designed to integrate seamlessly into your average workday, working alongside the tools you already access in Zoom. All users need to do is look for a little diamond-shaped icon on their screen, and they can access the companion instantly.

Though the solution is still in its early stages, it already offers many valuable features to Zoom customers. For instance:

In Zoom Meetings

In Zoom Meetings, the Zoom AI companion can instantly summarize conversations, covering essential action items and important topics, similar to Copilot for Teams. The assistant can help latecomers catch up on missed meeting moments with a discreet side panel where users can ask questions.

After a meeting, hosts can also use the AI companion to send a summary straight to their inbox, which can then be shared with all attendees. These features should help to contribute to more efficient, productive conversations, with fewer interruptions from late arrivals.

In Zoom Chat and Email

For many employees, Zoom Chat is critical for real-time and asynchronous work. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the messages you receive every day. Fortunately, Zoom AI Companion can help. It can quickly summarize entire chat threads so that you can see all the key points instantly.

Plus, Zoom users can use the companion app to draft quick responses to messages based on conversational context. You can even produce multiple different responses, make them longer or shorter with a click of a button, or change the tone.

A similar text generation feature is also available through Zoom AI Companion for email. You use the same tools and buttons to create emails with personalized suggestions in a couple of clicks.

In Zoom Whiteboards and Recordings

This fall, Zoom will be bringing a new Zoom AI Companion feature to the “whiteboard” capabilities of its collaboration app. According to the company, the app will help users generate and categorize ideas for whiteboard sessions. Plus, they’ll be able to instantly create whiteboard templates and images with natural language prompts.

Companies using Zoom to record conversations will also benefit from the AI assistant. Zoom says the app will help users to consume recordings faster with highlights, summaries, and smart chapters. The companion will also suggest next-step actions from recordings. Plus, it will feature conversation analytics, topic-tracking indicators, and playlists.

Planned Features for Zoom AI Companion

As mentioned above, Zoom is looking for new ways to innovate with its Copilot competitor. By Spring 2024, users can interact with the AI companion consistently through a newly optimized conversational interface.

The interface will fully understand the context of various questions and support users with content across the Zoom platform. This means Zoom fans can get help planning meeting agendas, selecting third-party apps, and even automating tasks.

Before meetings, the AI companion can find the status of critical projects to prepare for effective conversations. It will be able to surface knowledge from chats, emails, documents, whiteboards, and prior meetings (with the user’s permission). It can also pull information from third-party applications to add context to conversation agendas.

During meetings and conversations, users can ask the Zoom AI companion questions about critical points in the discussion. You can create and file support tickets based on issues raised on a call, add summaries to Zoom notes, and summarize SMS threads and Zoom phone calls.

After meetings, users will be able to receive real-time feedback from the AI companion about their presence and performance. They’ll also be able to access AI-driven coaching on their conversational and presentation skills.

How is Zoom Handling Security and Privacy Concerns?

While Zoom has reassured customers that Zoom AI Companion will be as easy to use as the rest of the Zoom portfolio, many users have other concerns. The release of the updated AI assistant comes just after Zoom faced some backlash for its AI privacy policies.

Initially, Zoom’s privacy terms seemed to give the company the option to leverage data generated by its users to train new systems. However, Zoom quickly responded to the uproar with a blog post.

According to the company, they will not use audio, video, chat, or other content to train AI models. This approach to user privacy was reiterated in the blog announcing Zoom’s new companion AI app. Additionally, the company noted that Zoom AI Companion will initially be turned off by default, ensuring admins and account owners have complete control over the service.

Users can choose when and how they want to enable AI features for their accounts and team members. Zoom also provides admins complete visibility into when AI features are being activated and used for comprehensive peace of mind.

During meetings, for instance, hosts and participants can see the status of in-use AI tools at all times. With a bit of luck, these measures will help to reassure Zoom customers.

What’s Next for Zoom AI Companion?

In the blog announcing the updated AI assistant, Zoom’s Chief Product Officer said the company wanted to “transcend the hype of generative AI.” In other words, they’re committed to delivering tangible, intuitive products that don’t cost a fortune.

Zoom said they’re focused on doing what’s right for their customers, which is one of the reasons they chose to introduce the new tool for no extra fees.

At the same time, Zoom is committed to consistently expanding its position in the generative AI market. Alongside announcing new features still to come in 2024, Zoom said they’re already working on additional capabilities.

They envision a future where Zoom AI Companion will be a consistent source of support throughout the entire Zoom ecosystem, whether you’re communicating via video, SMS, or phone.

Zoom says the features still to come for the companion app will help companies save time, improve the quality of their work, and boost connections with team members. Plus, with planned coaching tools on the horizon, Zoom’s solution could help business leaders better empower and support their remote employees wherever they are.

How to Access Zoom AI Companion

The good news for anyone interested in testing Zoom’s new AI features is that they’re already available for us. If you have a paid Zoom plan, the AI companion will already be included for meetings and chat.

Free users on Zoom can get access to basic AI companion features for products like Zoom chat, but you won’t be able to use any of the meeting features.

Since the AI companion features are disabled by default, you will need to turn them on to get started. Admins can visit their Zoom account settings to enable smart recordings, meeting summaries, and “AI companion in meeting.” Individual users can also turn on “Chat compose” for their accounts.

Zoom says it will announce more updates in the weeks ahead and during Zoomtopia 2023 in October.



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