Zoom Enhances AI Companion with Agentic Capabilities and Third-Party App Integration

Zoom's AI gets a huge productivity upgrade - here's what it can do now

Zoom's AI assistant just got another agentic upgrade. The company announced Wednesday that its AI Companion, unveiled close to two years ago, can now connect with 16 third-party apps -- all without forcing the user to leave Zoom. Also: How ChatGPT actually works (and why it's been so game-changing) The AI Companion can now more seamlessly assist sales and customer service professionals, for example, by connecting directly with apps like Salesforce and Zendesk. It can also help to streamline the process of drafting and editing documents by quickly retrieving materials across workplace collaboration platforms like Google Drive, Coda, and Confluence. While Zoom's AI Companion was previously able to automatically record and summarize meeting notes from Zoom calls, the new agentic upgrade now gives it the same ability across Microsoft Teams and Google Meet (capabilities for Cisco Webex will be added soon, according to Zoom). Like many other AI agents -- an often more capable and autonomous assistant, compared to a chatbot -- Zoom's newly upgraded AI Companion is being promoted to businesses and working professionals as a tool that can help streamline day-to-day work routines. The agent received a similar upgrade in March. Also: The AI complexity paradox: More productivity, more responsibilities "With Zoom AI Companion's agentic skills, users will see a significant productivity boost to help them get more done -- not just in Zoom, but across business-essential apps like ServiceNow, Jira, Salesforce, Asana, Box, and more," Zoom chief product officer Smita Hashim said in a statement. Zoom is just one of a legion of tech companies trying to sell AI agents to enterprise customers, insisting that this new wave of tools will help to bolster workplace productivity by taking over the more mundane aspects of human workers' jobs. Box and Workday, for example, have both recently unveiled their own proprietary agents for customers. Many business leaders and individual workers have been embracing agents and other AI tools, but this has come with some mental health costs. New research from freelance hiring platform Upwork, for example, has shown that the full-time employees who use agents and other AI tools the most also report feeling higher levels of loneliness and alienation from their fellow workers. Also: Gemini's command line tool is a hidden productivity game changer - and it's free Elsewhere, AI agent adoption remains patchy. Developers are faced with a bit of an ethical dilemma: How do they ensure that this new wave of automation delivers on the promise of enhanced productivity without harming employees' sense of meaning and engagement with their work? More broadly, how will increased adoption of these agents impact the economy at large? At the same time, facing increased pressure to adopt AI across an ever-growing number of their operations, employers will have to figure out how to strike a healthy balance in achieving human-AI collaboration.

Zoom delivers new agentic AI capabilities to help users save time - SiliconANGLE

Zoom delivers new agentic AI capabilities to help users save time Zoom Video Communications Inc. introduced new agent-based artificial intelligence capabilities to its platform today, aimed at helping users orchestrate tasks to save time during their workday. The platform's new Custom AI Companion add-on can now connect to more than 16 third-party apps without leaving Zoom. Additionally, the AI Companion add-on is available for online purchase and integration into third-party conferencing apps such as Microsoft Corp.'s Teams and Google LLC's Meet. These new tools upgrade the company's AI Companion, a generative AI assistant available across the entire Zoom platform. The AI Companion received agentic AI upgrades in March to provide capabilities such as calendar scheduling management, generating clips from lengthy video meetings and providing writing assistance for advanced document creation, among other features. "With Zoom AI Companion's agentic skills, users will see a significant productivity boost to help them get more done -- not just in Zoom," said Chief Product Officer Smita Hashim. Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can operate independently with minimal or no human supervision. It's capable of performing tasks, gathering data and achieving objectives automatically. Zoom stated that this technology will help users save time and increase productivity without having to leave the Zoom Workplace. With the Custom Zoom Companion add-on feature, users can already connect apps such as Amazon Q, Glean and Jira to receive powerful enterprise search and ticketing capabilities. New app connectors for Salesforce, ServiceNow and Zendesk can help reduce manual effort and ensure customer interactions. By connecting to OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Confluence, Notion and Coda, it can provide meaningful conversations by accessing documents during meetings, or updating those documents with simple prompts. Integrations with team communication apps like Slack enable users to search, summarize, and post messages through the AI Companion. Additionally, a connection to Workday Inc.'s service simplifies the onboarding process for new employees, as well as recruiting and interviewing. Now that the Custom AI Companion is available to online customers, they can tailor it to their needs outside of the Zoom app and use it within third-party conferencing software. This includes platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, with Cisco Systems Inc. Webex coming soon. Zoom has designed this version of its companion so that professional service providers, sales professionals and educators can customize it for their unique needs. It is an open platform that can attend meetings on behalf of users to automatically transcribe discussions, summarize key points, and deliver follow-up actions. Users can also have the companion provide them with AI-generated Zoom Clips that will help them quickly generate content from Zoom or other meetings. The companion is now available for purchase at $12 per user per month with paid Zoom Workspace plans.

Zoom Introduces New Agentic AI Features to Boost Productivity

AI Companion uses agentic AI capabilities to maximize efficiency, helping users save time and get more done without leaving Zoom Workplace. With the Custom AI Companion add-on, users can already connect to apps like Amazon Q, Glean, and Jira to deliver powerful indexing, enterprise search, and ticketing capabilities. New third-party apps also deliver context-rich answers and help complete tasks across workstreams with intelligent app orchestration. Improve sales and service outcomes: Accelerate decisions and improve customer satisfaction by empowering teams to resolve service tickets, track opportunities, and update records in real-time, directly from Zoom. When connected to ServiceNow, Zendesk, and other applications, AI Companion helps organizations streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and ensure customer interactions drive meaningful business results. Reimagine document collaboration: When connected to Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Box*, Confluence, Notion, or Coda, AI Companion helps drive meaningful conversations with secure access to existing documents during meetings, and the ability to generate new documents based on current meetings, update existing documents with simple prompts, or get a quick summary of a document. Simplify project management: Keeping teams updated on projects and activities can be challenging, but when connected to Asana and Jira, users can query and command project tools, using AI Companion to update project statuses, assign tasks, and set deadlines without app-juggling or manual workflows. Reduce communication silos: Keep chats and ideas organized in third-parting messaging apps with the ability to search, summarize, and post messages from AI Companion. Recruit and onboard new talent: When connected to Workday, AI Companion can help expedite recruiting, interviews, and onboarding workflows with search and summary capabilities about open jobs and candidate profiles.