Zoom launches new AI companion features for workplace platform

Zoom has announced ‘AI Companion 2.0’ along with a raft of customization features as the video conferencing firm looks to expand its workplace offering.

The updated AI tool comes with a few changes to the base product as well as some additional features that work in conjunction with Zoom’s AI companion to give it the functionality of a copilot.

For example, Companion 2.0 will now gain contextual understanding based on what a user is looking at in Zoom Workplace and based on the content of previous conversations. It will also be able to integrate with other applications like Microsoft Outlook or Gmail. 

Similarly typical of a copilot tool, the updated companion can answer questions based on information from the internet, as well as detect, track, and complete different actions in Zoom Workplace. 

All of these new features will come at no additional cost to those with paid Workplace subscriptions, though Zoom also announced ‘Custom add-on for AI Companion’ which comes at an extra $12 per user per month. 

The custom add-on allows customers to expand access to applications outside of Microsoft and Google email clients and calendar services such as Atlassian or Asana, as well as to other company data sources. 

This means the companion can be customized to work with company glossaries or to offer more specific search capabilities and undertake actions on a user’s behalf. 

With AI Studio, organizations can also tailor the AI companion to work with custom dictionaries, meeting summaries, or knowledge bases, allowing for a more personalized staff experience. 

One new feature, ‘custom avatars for Zoom clips,’ seems particularly unique in the workspace market. This will allow users to create an AI-generated avatar of themselves to communicate with other people. 

This appears to be a realisation of Zoom CEO Eric Yuan’s mission which came to the fore in an interview with The Verge a few months ago. Yuan described the concept of letting a “digital twin” attend meetings in place of staff. 

Zoom’s struggle to keep pace 

Earlier this year, Zoom rolled out Zoom Docs in a bid to push its platform beyond just video-conferencing. The Docs platform works by providing users with a collaborative text creation system, much like Google Docs. 

After posting huge growth during the pandemic owing to the surge in demand for video conferencing, Zoom’s market capitalization has fallen from $139 billion at its peak to $17 billion this year. 

Zoom is building on the added Docs feature in this latest set of announcements, with the firm clearly setting its sights on an increasing expansion of productivity services.