Quick LinksUsing Zoom Workplace's AI Companion Live Meeting Support Action Item Generation Synthesizing Documents Attaching Meeting Resources Connect Third-Party Applications Key Takeaways Zoom Workplace's AI Companion provides live meeting support, generates action items, and synthesizes documents to enhance productivity. Attaching meeting resources like files or collaborative documents in Zoom Workplace saves time and enhances preparation. Integration with third-party applications like Microsoft and Google allows users to maximize Zoom Workplace's features and functionality. ✕ Remove Ads
A common theme in the modern workplace is that meetings are not always necessary, and other tools can be just as important. Popular video conferencing app Zoom has capitalized on this idea, expanding into a collaboration platform. Between its AI companion, shared documents, and third-party app integration, the platform can take productivity to the next level.
Using Zoom Workplace's AI Companion
One of the most notable productivity tools released with the launch of Zoom Workplace in April 2024 was its AI companion, a virtual assistant with the ability to summarize chats and help schedule meetings. Months later, the company upgraded to Zoom AI Companion 2.0.
The companion, located conveniently in a side panel, can now synthesize information across the entire collaboration platform, which includes Zoom Meetings, Zoom Team Chat, Zoom Docs, Zoom Mail, and connected third-party applications (Google, Microsoft).
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Zoom's AI feature has vast functionality, but there are a few key highlights that have been essential to my workflow.
Live Meeting Support
Zoom's AI Companion (or should I say side-panel-kick?) offers live support during meetings. For example, when your colleague brings up a term you don't recognize, you can ask the AI Companion to define it for you instead of interrupting the flow of the meeting. The virtual assistant leverages Perplexity's impressive AI-powered search engine to access the web, and it can include citations to instill more confidence in its responses.
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Additionally, the AI tool can recap what's been discussed in the meeting. This can be useful when you're jumping into a meeting late and the team doesn't have time to catch you up, or if you have to take off early and later need to understand what you missed.
Action Item Generation
Zoom's AI Companion also comes in handy after a meeting, particularly with its ability to generate action items for you or your team. You can ask the virtual assistant for clarity during a call, or receive an email after a meeting that recaps the discussion and produces a bullet list of Next steps for each participant.
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In addition to Zoom Meetings, the AI Companion can also cull action items from any Zoom Team Chat.
Synthesizing Documents
Zoom's AI Companion is also a solid reader, with the ability to review documents uploaded through Zoom Docs, Google Docs, or Microsoft Word. Not only can the virtual assistant summarize a complex document for you, but you can also ask it specific questions, like "what are the three main design elements this text discusses?".
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Along the same lines, you can use the AI Companion to help you kick off a document. You might have had to rely on your own genius so far to come up with a productive meeting agenda on Google Calendar, but now, Zoom's AI Companion will do it for you. Of course, AI writing isn't perfect, but it can be a useful way to get a solid template and the creative juices flowing.
You can create a shortcut in the Docs panel of Zoom by selecting the three-dot menu and toggling Shortcut to AI Companion on.
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Zoom Workplace offers tools beyond artificial intelligence to make a day at the office run smoothly. Similar to other calendar programs, you have the option with Zoom Workplace to attach relevant files to a meeting. You can do this by selecting Schedule > More Options, where you'll see an option to + Add attachments. This dialogue will let you add documents from multiple sources, including your local files, Zoom Docs, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
Assets
Attaching a file, such as a presentation or a deck, to a meeting event means you don't waste time looking for it on your desktop at the top of the call. Plus, it allows your participants to review the material in advance and prepare questions, follow along during the meeting, or easily find the resource later on.
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Sometimes it makes sense to attach a collaborative document that meeting participants can work on together during a meeting. This is also possible with Zoom Workplace, via Zoom Docs or Google Docs. You can attach a collaborative document in the same way as you would attach any asset.
To screen share a collaborative document during a meeting, you can also select Docs on the bottom panel, select the document, and click Share , but this feature is only available for Zoom Docs.
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The ability to integrate third-party programs like those from Microsoft and Google is the final key feature of Zoom Workplace. Zoom doesn't demand that you change all of your practices to conform to its universe. If you or the company you work for already has roots in an external platform, you can easily integrate it with Zoom Workplace.
Longstanding application collections from the likes of Microsoft and Google might have time on their side, but Zoom Workplace is still a powerful tool in its infancy. And, it will continue to grow, with the Asana-like Zoom Tasks expected in late 2024. With its AI Companion listening in to our meetings, we are certainly putting a lot of trust in the technology. All we can hope is that the expansion actually leads to a more productive workday and not AI-fueled misinterpretations.
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