Zoom doubles down on AI, unveils cross-platform AI companion and photorealistic avatars
New calendar-related features are also on the horizon. The AI companion will now assist with scheduling by finding optimal time slots for all attendees and will even suggest meetings that can be skipped via a "free up my time" request. These additions put Zoom in direct competition with specialized tools like Clockwise.
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Zoom has unveiled a suite of new AI-powered products at its Zoomtopia conference. The company's updated offerings, which include an enhanced AI companion, personalized note-taking, and lifelike AI avatars, signal a direct challenge to a growing field of verticalized meeting startups and established productivity suites.
The centerpiece of the announcement is an upgraded AI companion, designed to transcend the confines of Zoom and function across competing platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. This cross-platform functionality, which also extends to in-person meeting notes, directly addresses the rise of popular meeting notetakers like Otter and Fireflies.
Further expanding its AI capabilities, Zoom is introducing a feature that allows users to jot down personal notes during a meeting and have the AI structure and expand upon them later. The platform will also gain a cross-platform search function to retrieve information from across Google and Microsoft's ecosystems.
New calendar-related features are also on the horizon. The AI companion will now assist with scheduling by finding optimal time slots for all attendees and will even suggest meetings that can be skipped via a "free up my time" request. These additions put Zoom in direct competition with specialized tools like Clockwise.
In a visually striking development, Zoom is rolling out photorealistic AI avatars. These digital likenesses, which mimic a user's actions, are intended for situations where users are not "camera-ready." While a compelling feature, the company acknowledges the potential for misuse, including deepfake risks, which could prompt corporate IT departments to disable the feature.
Beyond these core updates, Zoom is also introducing new features like a writing assistant for drafting emails and documents, a deep research tool, and the ability to create custom AI agents. The company's new web interface will also feature the AI companion more prominently, further underscoring its commitment to an AI-first strategy.
