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Zoom advances AI Companion with agentic AI
Zoom's AI Companion improvements include automated tasks, better action item detection and real-time note taking. The new features will be launched in stages through mid-2025.
Zoom has built into AI Companion agentic AI capabilities that enable the platform to perform multi-step tasks on behalf of users, a process the company claims will get work done faster.
Zoom introduced the latest AI Companion features in Zoom Workplace at Enterprise Connect Monday. The rollout incorporates AI Companion 2.0, which was introduced at the company's Zoomtopia conference last October.
AI Companion has evolved from a personal assistant to an agentic AI system, according to Smita Hashim, Zoom's chief product officer. AI Companion is embedded within Zoom Workplace and Contact Center.
"We're delivering value for our customers through AI agents and agentic skills that solve real customer problems, helping them connect, collaborate and get more done," Hashim said in a statement.
Zoom and other unified communications-as-a-service vendors are highly focused on embedding AI throughout their products, getting ahead of customers who are still trying to understand the technology's value and how to use it, said William McKeon-White, an analyst at Forrester Research.
"If you want to make people's workdays better with AI, you have to embed it into their [work process]," McKeon-White said. "For a lot of people, that's not the case right now, or there are no obvious use cases."
Employees have to be trained in the use of AI, and Forrester has seen companies address that need over the last few months, McKeon-White said. "Thankfully, organizations are realizing that there is a skillset required with this."
At the end of March, Zoom plans to launch Zoom Tasks with AI Companion across Workplace, a collaboration platform that integrates core communication and office productivity tools.
Zoom Tasks will automatically detect action items in meeting summaries, chats and emails. It will also complete tasks, such as scheduling follow-up meetings or generating documents from meetings. Workplace users can access Tasks through a new tab.
In May, Zoom expects to launch Live notes, real-time summaries of meetings or phone calls to help people stay on track, Zoom said. In late March, a new voice recorder on the Zoom Workplace mobile app will transcribe, summarize and capture action items with the help of AI Companion.
In June, Zoom plans to update Zoom Docs with added AI Companion capabilities that help people write business documents by providing context, searching for internal and external information, and aggregating everything based on user instructions.
Zoom Drive coming in May
In May, Zoom expects to launch Zoom Drive, a central repository for meeting and productivity assets, such as Zoom Docs. Drive will make finding and accessing all types of information easier across Workplace.
Zoom AI Companion is typically included at no additional cost. However, in April, Zoom will offer the Custom AI Companion add-on for AI Studio, costing $12 per user per month. The add-on lets organizations create custom avatars for Zoom Clips, a video messaging tool for creating, sharing and managing short-form video content.
In the spring, Zoom plans to introduce a beta version of customer-facing virtual agents in its Contact Center platform. The agents will offer more natural language skills, handle more complex queries and execute tasks on behalf of customers. They will be available for voice and chat channels.
Zoom plans to make it possible to create and deploy customizable virtual agents using AI Studio. The vendor expects to introduce AI-powered routing at the end of March. The feature detects customer issues and sends them to the best-suited agent.
Antone Gonsalves is an editor at large for Informa TechTarget, reporting on industry trends critical to enterprise tech buyers. He has worked in tech journalism for 25 years and is based in San Francisco. Have a news tip? Please drop him an email.
