Graeme Geddes, Zoom’s chief growth officer, recently told Fortune, “Zoom is so much more than just video meetings. Video is our heritage—so we’re going to continue to lean in there, push the market, there’s a lot of innovation that we’re doing—but we’re so much more than that.”

The company’s new aspiration? “We want to be known as an AI-first collaboration platform,” Geddes declared. Though the rush to adopt AI is now a staple in the tech industry—with giants like Alphabet and Microsoft regularly discussing the technology on earnings calls—Zoom’s shift neatly dovetails with its efforts to extend its reach beyond simple video conferencing, aiming to enhance overall productivity.

In an effort to better cater to the needs of a hybrid world, Zoom introduced its suite of tools earlier this year for both remote and in-person employees, named Zoom Workplace. This platform includes everything from virtual whiteboards and guest check-ins to workspace booking and tech solutions, as well as feedback forms. Zoom also recently acquired the employee engagement platform Workvivo for approximately €250 million ($272 million). This acquisition, as Geddes points out, “has nothing to do with video.”

Zoom’s evolution extends to customer-facing solutions as well. “We’re helping our customers in the way that their customers show up to their website, having a chatbot automation service that can escalate into a phone call,” Geddes explained. “A lot of workflows that have no video involved.”

This strategic shift comes at a crucial time for Zoom. As businesses increasingly distance themselves from pandemic-era work styles and implement return-to-office mandates, the demand for remote video conferencing has decreased. Consequently, Zoom’s stock has returned to pre-pandemic levels, dropping from a peak of $559 in October 2020 to around $60 currently.

Jacqueline Barrett, an economist and founder of the Bright Arc, reflects on the initial pandemic response: “At the start of the pandemic, I think there were tons of people who flocked to Zoom. There was probably a little bit of overexcitement in terms of the stock, with people anticipating that the growth was going to be like that indefinitely.”

The market landscape has also become more competitive. “There’s so many other players in the market that are offering these new features that have already bundled things together or that are constantly unveiling new features with generative AI,” Barrett added.

“If it’s not the legacy players like Google or Microsoft or Cisco, there’s so many startups that are focused on pretty much every little niche imaginable with generative AI.”

The challenge Zoom faces with this response is not one-dimensional, as evidenced by its varied features. The company is expanding its products and utilising AI to amplify its technical capabilities. For example, as Geddes recounted, Zoom’s AI companion can automate note-taking and brief the next steps or action items during a meeting, whether all attendees are present in the conference room.

However, what’s most intriguing is that this is only the beginning of Zoom’s AI applications; it is also exploring the creation of digital twins or deepfake avatars. Eric Yuan, the founder and CEO of Zoom, stated that the AI-powered avatars would replicate the real owner’s voice and appearance, and also act independently during meetings, making business decisions for the owner.

“Today we all spend a lot of time either making phone calls, joining meetings, sending emails, deleting some spam emails, and replying to some text messages, still very busy,” Yuan explained. “But in the future, I can send a digital version of myself to join so I can go to the beach.”

While this technology is still in development, it has already proven to be a useful AI feature for Zoom. Geddes shared how he used the Zoom smart summary feature to stay informed about meetings during his international travels, enabling him to make important decisions and keep projects on schedule.

As it transitions, Zoom clearly aims to do more than just adjust to the post-pandemic world; it is actively setting the course for the future of work and collaboration. By adopting AI-driven solutions and moving beyond its traditional video conferencing base, Zoom is dedicated to keeping its leading position in business communication and productivity tools as the workplace evolves.

(Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions)

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The chatbot solution aims to improve how businesses assist their customers and employees by delivering fast and highly-personalised responses.

“Every leader I speak to is seeking dual outcomes from their CX technology: superior omnichannel resolutions for their customers and an improved bottom line,” said Mahesh Ram, Head of Digital Customer Experience at Zoom.

“Imagine being able to deliver fast, accurate resolutions in 50 percent or more of your self-service interactions just weeks after launching.”

Zoom Virtual Agent works across both the web and mobile and relies on proprietary AI and machine learning technology to accurately interpret what customers or employees are asking.

“The tools and approaches for delivering conversational intelligence applications continue to improve, making it even easier for brands to deliver cost-effective self-service solutions that provide real value to their customers, while significantly reducing the cost of service,” commented Max Ball, Principal Industry Analyst at Forrester.

Zoom’s chatbot solution does not require extensive coding and claims to integrate seamlessly with various CRM, chat, and contact centre platforms. Of course, Zoom says it “shines” when used as part of its Zoom Contact Center solution.

The chatbot crawls and learns from an enterprise’s knowledge bases and FAQs to promptly deliver responses.

Built-in analytics highlight where knowledge bases are lacking so they can be updated to improve the experience going forward.

“We’ve always enjoyed working with Mahesh and team, who helped us level up our support with self-service rates that exceeded our expectations,” said Marissa Morley, CX Tools Specialist at SeatGeek.

“We’re excited to see what that same team has done with the new Zoom Virtual Agent.”

(Image Credit: Zoom)

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The system, first reported by Protocol, claims to scan users’ faces and their speech to determine their emotions.

Zoom detailed the system more in a blog post last month. The company says ‘Zoom IQ’ will be particularly useful for helping salespeople improve their pitches based on the emotions of call participants.

Naturally, the system is seen as rather dystopian and has received its fair share of criticism.

On Wednesday, over 25 rights groups sent a joint letter to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan. The letter urges Zoom to cease research on emotion-based AI.

The letter’s signatories include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Muslim Justice League, and Access Now.

One of the key concerns is that emotion-detecting AI could be used for things like hiring or financial decisions; such as whether to grant loans. That has the possibility to increase existing inequalities.

“Results are not intended to be used for employment decisions or other comparable decisions. All recommended ranges for metrics are based on publicly available research,” Zoom explained.

Zoom IQ tracks metrics including:

• Talk-listen ratio
• Talking speed
• Filler words
• Longest spiel (monologue)
• Patience
• Engaging questions
• Next steps set up
• Sentiment/Engagement analysis

Esha Bhandari, Deputy Director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, called emotion-detecting AI “creepy” and “a junk science”.

(Photo by iyus sugiharto on Unsplash)

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