Off the back of Zoom's investment in Anthropic and the launch of several new Zoom IQ updates, it was unsurprising that generative AI, and its incredible but daunting potential, was the central theme of the latest Zoom Work Transformation Summit.
Smita Hashim, Zoom Product Officer, delivered the keynote speech. Hashim, who described herself as a "technology optimist", was enthusiastic about how AI can revolutionize the world of work.
"AI is the hot topic now across all industries," Hashim said. "There's so much potential for generative AI to help reduce stress, increase productivity, and ultimately deliver better business outcomes."
Hashim cited the AI-powered capabilities already implemented across Zoom's portfolio, from the AI-driven invention of virtual backgrounds in meetings to Zoom IQ's ability to closed captions and auto-generated meeting summaries in Zoom IQ for sales.
Hashim underlined Zoom's federated approach to AI and how customers can incorporate Zoom's proprietary AI into their platforms, those of high-profile AI businesses like OpenAI, or leverage their own models. This individuality allows customers to train their AI to model their brand attributes and vocabulary.
However, Hashim also cautioned about how AI might change our world, especially with its revolution occurring so quickly. "This is a profound moment in history," Hashim commented. "We are deeply aware that this incredible surge in AI innovation and the tremendous potential it offers across industries, while exciting, is also cause for apprehension — and rightly so."
To illustrate Zoom's apprehensions and how the vendor has adapted to AI being an imperfect tool, Hashim pointed out the management features that Zoom users have access to overrule AI errors. She highlighted that users could edit Zoom IQ's meeting recaps if they believed there were mistakes.
Hashim then introduced Pascal Bornet, an AI and automation expert and author who has worked with consultancy firms EY and McKinsey.
Bornet spoke about AI's potential and limits and suggested that we rethink how we approach AI: "I think we should consider our relationship with technology as a dual, like a colleague or partner(...) we need to create synergies with technology. How do we do that? By identifying what technology will never be good at. It's identifying where we, as humans, will always have an edge."
Bornet cited three distinguishing advantages humans have over technology that AI cannot replicate. The first is creativity, "real creativity", to imagine something that has not been created before. The second is our capacity to build relationships with others; the last is critical thinking. Humans' emotional intelligence is especially important, as "emotions are something that technology will never master," Bornet said.
Bornet then suggested three key components for successfully leveraging generative AI, including using AI's power to evolve our capability of creating relationships. The second component cited was supporting decision-making, especially group decision-making. Bornet's third use case was utilizing AI to foster communication and information.
