Zoom expands AI agentic features across Zoom Workplace

FILE PHOTO: Zoom has expanded AI agentic features across Zoom Workplace with a Custom AI Companion add-on.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Zoom has expanded AI agentic features across Zoom Workplace with a Custom AI Companion add-on, Voice Recorder, Tasks and Custom Avatars as well as new features for Zoom Meetings, Zoom Team Chat, Zoom Revenue Accelerator and others. 

“Last month, we announced that AI Companion now includes a set of agentic skills so it can understand, plan, and get things done with minimal input from the user. We’re further delivering on that promise by launching Custom AI Companion, agentic AI, and many other features. We continue to push the boundaries of innovation to bring our customers the very best AI-first solutions that drive productivity and collaboration,” said Jeff Smith, head of Product for Workplace AI, Meetings and Spaces at the company.

The AI Companion helps users organise tasks and perform various tasks like taking notes during Zoom Meetings etc. It can automatically generate recommended tasks and assign them to the correct person based on the meeting summaries or be prompted to surface tasks from Zoom Team Chat, Zoom Mail, Zoom Docs converting action items into actionable tasks. It also recommends the next steps to be taken and gives insights for the actions. It also tracks tasks via the task management tab. 

The platform has also launched the Custom AI Companion as a paid add-on so organisations can tailor AI agents and skills as per their needs. Users will now also be able to connect beyond just Zoom via third-party AI agents with Custom AI Companion. The platform will be supporting both Model Context Protocol from Anthropic and Agent to Agent Protocol from Google in Zoom AI Studio so users can integrate external AI agents with AI Companion.

The AI Companion Voice Recorder is able to transcribe, summarise and record action items even when users aren’t in a Zoom Meeting and Zoom Phone call. This feature will be available later this month on mobile and on Rooms eventually. 

Zoom is also using small language models optimised for specific AI skills to translate languages including German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazilian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, in the Zoom Team Chat. Users can also mention people who are not in the chat and share their contact info over Zoom Team Chat without adding them. 

Organisations can connect AI Companion chats with a variety of enterprise data sources like project management tools, cloud storage, email accounts and customer databases through Amazon Q Business and Glean. This can help users quickly get some context during a Zoom meeting. 

The AI Companion helps users create an avatar for Zoom Clips so they can just record a clip and share it with their team member to help them catch up in case they missed something. The feature will be available with the Custom AI Companion add-on as well as a separate SKU in May. 

There’s also a new app developed with Salesforce to provide users with AI summaries of Zoom Phone calls directly in the app. Another tool available now called Workvivo AI helps users write better updates, search for answers easier and make more engaging surveys. 

The Zoom Revenue Accelerator has also been improved by using AI insights and automation to analyse sales conversations and bring in customer insights. The new feature has an AI agent that can run on admin-configured sales methodologies like BANT, SPICED and MEDDICC on behalf of sales reps to reduce time spent on manual data entry and ensure CRM entries are accurate.

Zoom has also introduced Zoom Workplace for Frontline, a mobile solution for frontline workers in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality and others. Meanwhile Zoom Workplace for Clinicians which provides AI notes to healthcare clients.