The first of its two launches is Zoom Workplace, its new AI-powered collaboration platform. This is one of the biggest news announcements that Zoom will be making this year, and it reflects Zoom’s broader shift into becoming an AI-powered workplace platform for the modern working style.

Zoom Workplace has introduced significant enhancements, focusing on merging essential solutions into a single platform. Key updates include:

• Enhanced communications: A newly introduced Meetings tab facilitates the integration of workflows before, during, and after meetings.
• Increased engagement: The introduction of new shared spaces aims to bolster focused collaboration within grouped channels. Additionally, Zoom plans to unveil a new user interface, options for background customisation, and shortcuts for modifying appearance.
• Refined office experiences: Innovations in Zoom Rooms feature the integration of Smart Name Tags and Smart Speaker Tags, which automatically assign name tags to individuals and is able to distinguish between different speakers in a meeting room. The new Workspaces tab will offer direct access to Workspace Reservation, Wayfinding, and Visitor Management features from within the Zoom Workplace application.
• Boosted productivity: Enhancements in document collaboration allow for co-editing and sharing within the meeting experience. The AI companion for phone calls has also been introduced, empowering users to utilise generative AI for more efficient calls. The Team Chat feature will incorporate AI-driven sentence completion, suggested quick responses, and intelligent scheduling. Additionally, new generative AI virtual backgrounds will enable the creation of custom meeting backgrounds to set the tone of the meeting.

This update arrives at a moment when AI is increasingly central to technology solutions. Zoom Workplace positions itself as an open ecosystem that encourages top-tier collaboration through third-party integrations, without necessitating users to overhaul their existing technology infrastructures to access AI-driven collaboration tools and features offered by Zoom Workplace.

Zoom is also announcing Ask AI Companion, a new way to interact with Zoom AI Companion across the entire Zoom platform, integrating with supported third-party apps.

The Ask AI Companion feature will enable users to optimise their workday preparation, instantly access crucial information, automate mundane tasks, and remain updated by aggregating data from Zoom Meetings, Mail and Calendar, Team Chat, Notes, and Docs, among others.

Furthermore, AI Companion will extend to Zoom Phone, allowing users to leverage generative AI to enhance the productivity of their calls. This integration will introduce functionalities such as summarising post-call actions and next steps, prioritising voicemails, extracting tasks from voicemails, and providing summaries of Team SMS threads.