Over the years, Zoom has evolved from a video conferencing tool into an all-in-one multifaceted platform encompassing UC, collaboration, contact centre, work management and employee experience (EX) solutions. Its AI Companion laced throughout every solution enhances workflows, automates tasks, summarises meetings, and supercharges productivity across the enterprise.

Zoom now integrates messaging, whiteboarding, event hosting, and even AI-powered coaching. It has become an extensive and invaluable hub for hybrid and remote workforces, configuring deep integrations with business apps and AI-informed insights to streamline decision-making. Despite its robust feature set, many organisations are still only scratching the surface of what Zoom can do in 2025.

10 Underrated Zoom Features to Boost Productivity

1. AI-Powered Email & Thread Summaries

While many IT leaders are familiar with AI Companion’s meeting summaries, fewer know about its ability to summarise email threads and chat conversations. This feature enables teams to rapidly catch up on lengthy discussions, reducing the time spent sifting through messages and ensuring that key takeaways are always visible and intuitive.

2. Zoom Whiteboard for Real-Time & Asynchronous Collaboration

Zoom Whiteboard tends to be often overshadowed by third-party alternatives, but it’s a built-in powerhouse for brainstorming and collaboration on its own terms. It empowers teams to work on projects in real time or asynchronously, complete with UI-friendly sticky notes, templates, and integrations with popular productivity tools like Jira and Trello.

3. Continuous Meeting Chat to Keep Conversations Going

Many users don’t realise that Zoom’s in-meeting chat persists beyond the call. This means discussions, shared links, and action points remain easily accessible, minimising the need for separate email follow-ups that complicate the information chain. IT leaders and teams can encourage usage to ensure meeting insights are straightforwardly retrievable.

4. Companion Mode for Hybrid Meetings

Hybrid workforces can struggle with that evergreen challenge: in-room and remote collaboration imbalances. Companion Mode allows in-room participants to join Zoom Meetings with their own devices, accessing chat, reactions, and shared content without disrupting the meeting flow. This reinforces engagement for both remote and on-site workers.

5. Zoom Clips for Quick Video Messaging

Instead of scheduling unnecessary meetings to convey information, teams can leverage Zoom Clips to send short, recorded video messages. This feature assists execs and managers in providing updates, explaining complex ideas, or giving feedback without the faff of organising real-time calls, streamlining processes and refining efficiencies.

6. Automated Meeting Templates to Standardise Workflows

Many organisations manually configure settings for recurring meetings. Zoom’s Meeting Templates tackles this admin chore by standardising settings for myriad use cases, such as internal briefings, customer webinars, or sales calls, preserving uniformity across the organisation and, just as importantly, saving valuable time.

7. Advanced Polls & Quizzes for Engagement and Training

Beyond basic polling that most users are familiar with, Zoom’s Advanced Polls & Quizzes feature supports ranked choices, matching questions, and even image-based answers. This is an impressive tool for IT leaders conducting training sessions or town halls, as it helps bolster user engagement and comprehension.

8. Smart Gallery for AI-Optimised Hybrid Meetings

Smart Gallery shrewdly utilises AI to frame individual participants in a meeting room, affording remote attendees a clearer perspective of who’s speaking. This tackles the common hybrid meeting challenge of remote participants feeling disconnected from or confused about in-room conversations.

9. Zoom Rooms Kiosk Mode for Virtual Receptionists

For organisations with hybrid offices, Zoom Rooms Kiosk Mode encompasses a virtual receptionist experience, meaning visitors can organically check in and request assistance via an interactive video interface. This tightens up security and facilitates visitor management while reducing demands on on-site staffing.

10. Zoom Scheduler to Streamline External Meeting Bookings

Instead of turning to third-party scheduling tools, organisations can leverage Zoom Scheduler to coordinate meetings with external parties efficiently. With AI-powered availability suggestions and direct, seamless calendar integration, the scheduling process is simplified and skirts the need for time-intensive back-and-forth emails.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that Zoom is now far more than just a video conferencing tool—it’s a full-fledged collaboration ecosystem with powerful and varied features that are sometimes overlooked. IT leaders and decision-makers who experiment with these underused capabilities might discover boosts to productivity, improvements to hybrid work experiences, and a greater return on their Zoom investment.

Leaders can elevate workflows and foster a more productive and connected workforce in 2025 and beyond by leveraging these features and encouraging their adoption through their organisation.



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