New Zoom Updates: AI Companion and Competitive Features

Zoom recently launched a suite of new products and enhancements during its Zoomtopia conference, aiming to strengthen its competitive position in the market for meeting applications and productivity tools. These updates come as the company seeks to challenge startups specializing in various meeting tools and productivity suites.

Smart Companion and Cross-Platform Productivity Features

Among the most prominent additions is an updated AI companion capable of working across various meeting applications, including Meet and Microsoft Teams. Zoom didn't stop there; it added new features such as the ability to add personal notes, AI-powered meeting scheduling, in addition to AI-powered sports glasses that resemble users.

Zoom has long offered an AI bot to record and summarize Zoom meetings. However, with the significant development in AI and the job market, there became a need to compete with note-taking tools that work across different applications. Therefore, Zoom's new AI companion will now support other platforms and will also include a feature for taking notes during actual face-to-face meetings.

The company was inspired by the idea of allowing users to take their own notes during meetings, then having generative AI expand and structure them later. Zoom also added a cross-platform search feature, allowing users to retrieve information from Google Search and Microsoft platforms.

Calendar Enhancements and AI-Powered Communication Facilities

New improvements also include calendar-related features. Through the Gemini companion, the company will allow users to find suitable times for all meeting attendees, and it can also suggest meetings that can be skipped through a new request called "Save My Time."

Zoom will also introduce a realistic virtual iPhone 17 for its platforms, which mimics user movements on video and is useful when a user is not "camera-ready." However, attention must be paid to the potential risks of AI deepfakes, which may cause corporate IT departments to shut them down. These realistic avatars are expected to be available to consumers by the end of this year.

The update will include the ability to use Zoom Clips, an asynchronous video tool, and virtual smart glasses images to greet people in waiting rooms and explain the purpose of the meeting. AI will also assist with new instant translation features.

Custom AI Agents and Technical Enhancements

In addition, Zoom is launching an updated web interface to display the AI companion more prominently. Other AI-powered features are being added, such as a writing assistant for drafting emails and documents, and a deep search feature.

Zoom will also allow the creation of custom AI agents with support for Model Context Protocol (MCP), higher bit rate support, and 60 frames per second for Zoom meetings, in addition to a new video management tool. These updates represent a qualitative leap in user experience and underscore Zoom's commitment to integrating the latest AI technologies into its services.