The Most User-Friendly Stream Deck Is Frustratingly Limited
If you've ever fumed about a meeting that could have absolutely been an email, you can finally feel validated, thanks to Zoom's newest AI feature. The ubiquitous video conferencing company just launched its AI Companion 2.0, which can synthesize meeting information into digestible words.
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Positioned as a virtual assistant, Zoom AI Companion 2.0 launched today, promising more efficiency throughout the platform. According to Zoom's news site, the AI assistant will be located on a side panel and have the ability to distill details from all of Zoom Workplace, which includes Zoom Meetings, Zoom Team Chat, Zoom Docs, and Zoom Mail.
That's right, Zoom is not just for video calls anymore. Earlier this year, as announced on Zoom's news site , the company launched its "AI-powered collaboration platform" for businesses and teams to integrate many productivity tools into one.
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Zoom AI Companion 2.0 can also take connected applications into account, if applicable. For example, if you have integrated calendars or mailboxes from Microsoft Outlook or Google, the AI assistant can also synthesize information from these sources.
How Does 2.0 Compare to 1.0?
While Zoom included an AI Companion with its introduction of Zoom Workplace earlier this year, AI Companion 2.0 appears to be far more advanced. Previously, the platform's AI Companion could perform tasks such as summarizing a Team Chat and generating sentence completion. It could also assist with scheduling, like prompting you to set up meetings based off of your chats.
The new-and-improved AI is even more observant. Some of the most notable features include:
You can interact with AI Companion 2.0 live during meetings. Feeling lost? You can ask the assistant to explain what the meeting is about. Because the assistant can access the internet, you ask for quick research, such as defining an acronym your coworker just used. If you have to leave a meeting early or jump in late, you can ask AI Companion 2.0 to summarize what you missed. Reading summaries is a huge time saver, compared to recording your Zoom meetings and catching up that way. Even when you were present for a meeting, you can still ask for recaps, like when you need to recall the outcome of a disagreement. You can ask AI Companion 2.0 to identify your or your team's action items based on a Zoom Meeting or Zoom Team Chat. You can use AI Companion 2.0 to generate longer documents like outlines or itineraries, or to synthesize complex documents in Zoom Docs. ✕ Remove Ads More Connection or More Isolation?
The company is clearly advertising the feature as something that will not detract from human interaction but actually encourage more meaningful connections. The theme of Zoom's announcement is this:
"AI Companion 2.0 is enhanced with additional capabilities to help expand context, synthesize information, and take action to give users time back in their day, so they can focus on meaningful work and building connections with team members."
It seems counterintuitive on the surface. How can a feature that dissuades meeting engagement foster more connectivity? It seems like AI Companion 2.0 makes it easier to duck out on meetings and avoid those points of connection at the workplace.
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However, I do understand what the company means. Using AI-powered digital assistants to cut out menial tasks gives us more time and brain capacity to think, listen, and communicate more thoughtfully. The question is: will we actually use that time accordingly, or will we simply increase our workload? I'm inclined to believe the latter, but I sincerely hope AI tools like Zoom's newest feature will prove me wrong, and actually create space for human connection and creativity.
