Dive Brief:
- Zoom is launching an AI-powered collaboration platform, called Zoom Workplace, and expanding access to its AI Companion, the provider said Monday.
- Zoom Workplace will act as a hub for internal and external apps, improving collaboration and productivity, Zoom said. The company will embed an AI-powered assistant via Ask AI Companion across the Zoom platform. The tool will gather, synthesize and share information from meetings, mail, documents and team chats to help users prepare for meetings.
- Zoom One bundles, the company’s all-in-one product, will rebrand as Zoom Workplace bundles, which will roll out in April and May.
Dive Insight:
Zoom is ushering in what it sees as a new era of collaboration powered by AI.
“Zoom Workplace as a platform, with its enhancements, represents a transformation for Zoom,” Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom, said during a press call last week. “Our goal is to help businesses reimagine teamwork.”
As AI permeated enterprise conversations in the first quarter of 2023, Zoom’s AI efforts resulted in a growing enterprise customer base. But the company's strategy hit a snag in August.
Zoom updated its terms and conditions to allow broad control over user data for its AI projects, an under-the-radar change that spurred customer concerns. The policy language change led the Center for AI and Digital Policy to send a 45-page complaint to the Federal Trade Commission in August.
The controversial language, since reversed, highlighted the tension between vendor plans and enterprises’ security concerns. By 2026, enterprise spending to curb intellectual property leaks, as well as copyright infringement, is expected to hurt ROI and impede generative AI adoption, according to Gartner.
Zoom has continued to add AI capabilities to its stack, such as the revamped Zoom IQ, which created 7.2 million meeting summaries from its launch in September to the end of 2023.
The company unveiled around 40 capabilities or updates Monday, including tweaks to its user interface, custom generative AI-powered virtual backgrounds and more ways to manage hybrid workforces.
