On Tuesday, Zoom revealed enhancements to its generative artificial intelligence tool, rebranded as Zoom AI Companion, set to broaden its functionalities starting this fall.
The AI Companion will come as a complimentary addition for existing subscribers of the video-meeting service, with no extra charges.
According to the company's statement, customers can anticipate AI tools across various Zoom applications, such as Team Chat, Meetings, Phone, Email, Whiteboard, and various additional features that are currently in development. While certain features will be accessible right away, others are scheduled to be rolled out gradually over the upcoming months.
One of Zoom's most known functionalities is its video conferencing for business meetings. Among the new capabilities introduced by Zoom AI Companion is:
- The ability to quickly catch up if you happen to be running late for a Zoom meeting. You can achieve this by posing questions via a side panel.
- Additionally, following the meeting, you'll have access to Zoom recordings complete with highlights and intelligent chapter breakdowns, along with automatically generated meeting summaries (provided the host has activated these features).
- Zoom's AI tool is also expected to offer real-time feedback on your meeting performance and provide coaching on your conversational and presentation skills by this spring.
The company also revealed how it relies on its own advanced language technology, as well as tools from companies like Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic, to power its AI features. These technologies are what make AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and Microsoft's Bing work.
In upcoming updates, Zoom is set to introduce generative AI summarisation for Team Chat, scheduled to be launched in the coming weeks. This feature aims to assist users in efficiently navigating lengthy chat threads.
Furthermore, by early 2024, Zoom plans to enable users to auto-complete sentences and schedule meetings directly from chat interfaces. The company also has plans to introduce additional features designed to enhance meeting preparations, debriefing, and more.
Zoom has clarified that the AI Companion feature will be disabled by default. The responsibility for activating these features lies with the account administrator.
The company has additionally assured users that it does not utilise customer audio, video, or any other materials for the purpose of training its AI. This clarification comes in response to previous concerns raised about Zoom potentially collecting data for its AI tools.