Zoom feels it has outgrown its reputation of being a video conferencing service and wants to be known as an ‘AI-first collaboration platform’.
While Zoom continues to provide its famous video telephony and online chat services, it has expanded over the years into a comprehensive unified communications and collaboration solution.
The revelation came out of a Fortune interview with Graeme Geddes, Zoom’s Chief Growth Officer who told the US business magazine: “[Zoom is] so much more than just video meetings.
“Video is our heritage, so we are going to continue to lean in there, push the market, there’s a lot of innovation that we’re doing, but we’re so much more than that.
“We want to be known as an AI-first collaboration platform.”
Geddes gave an example: “[Workvivo, which was acquired by Zoom] has nothing to do with video.”
“We are helping our customer in the way that their customers show up to their website having a chatbot automation service that can escalate into a phone call.
“[There are] a lot of workflows that have no video involved.”
Redefining Zoom
The word “Zoom” has become synonymous with video conferencing, but its has for some time been adding features that allow users to perform more and more work-related tasks within its platform.
Take Zoom Workplace, which was launched In March this year, to bring its communication, collaboration, and workplace management solutions into a single unified hub.
It has also been riding the AI wave alongside Microsoft and Google for some time now. In September, 2023, it introduced generative AI-powered digital assistant ‘Zoom AI Companion’ and, the following month, its AI assistant hit one million meeting summaries as it simultaneously launched AI-powered Zoom docs.
Long before the AI mania sparked by ChatGPT, Zoom has had a finger firmly in the AI pie, realising early on its potential to improve user experiences.
Zoom’s CEO shared his vision last month of AI-powered avatars that can represent and make decisions for their human counterparts, such as attending meetings we’re unable to make ourselves.
Evidently Zoom has earned the right to be viewed as more than just a video meeting tool and, with shares below what they were at the end of 2019, their current image is clearly in dire need of a refresh.
Jacqueline Barret, Economist and Founder of The Bright Arc, a data and analytics consulting firm, explained to Fortune why this PR shift could help to keep Zoom relevant: “At the start of the pandemic, I think there were tons of people who flocked to Zoom.
“There was probably a little bit of overexcitement in terms of the stock, with people anticipating that the growth was going to be like that indefinitely, and then with the increased competition, I think that growth or maintaining all those users was difficult for them to do.
“There are so many other players in the market that are offering these new features that have already bundled things together or that are constantly unveiling new features with generative AI.
“If it is not the legacy players like Google or Microsoft or Cisco, there are so many startups that are focused on pretty much every little niche imaginable with generative AI so you have to stay up to date, otherwise your product just isn’t going to be as useful.”
Zoom successfully made itself a household name as a video meeting provider. Can it do the same as an AI collaboration solution? The race is on!
