The News: Zoom announced on June 5 that it is launching key generative AI-powered Zoom IQ features for meeting summarization and text generation in the Zoom IQ assistant, which are now available as free trials to select Zoom customers.
Zoom meeting summary enables Zoom meeting hosts to create sharable meeting summaries without recording the conversation. Zoom chat compose will help users draft messages based on the context of a Team Chat thread. The feature can change message tone and length as well as rephrase responses.
In the near future, Zoom will add other generative AI-powered Zoom IQ features, including email compose, Zoom Team Chat thread summaries, meeting queries, and synthesized whiteboard sessions.
Zoom is not a newcomer to AI. The company has used AI technology to enhance video features for over a year. The new generative AI-powered Zoom IQ features are sourced from Zoom’s own LLM models, as well as from Open AI and Anthropic. Zoom says select customers’ own models will be utilized as well. Read the full Press Release here.
Zoom Adds Generative AI-Powered Zoom IQ Features. Will They Resonate?
Analyst Take: Zoom’s generative AI initiatives, along with competitors’ initiatives, point to early generative AI use case potential in the collaboration space. Several players have tinkered with text summarization and generation use cases. Will these use cases be successful? Here are the key challenges and takeaways:
Are summarizations and email assistants meeting a market need?
Text generation and summarization have been the primary generative AI use cases that have been proposed to date, but there really is not a lot of market validation to the value of either use case. Do businesses think they will gain productivity from such features? What is the ROI on email writing, meeting, or chat summarizations?
Will summarizations and email assistants be accurate?
One of the most difficult AI tasks is natural language understanding (NLU). Any kind of AI, including generative AI, has no emotional intelligence – it has difficulty understanding speech or text tone, sarcasm, empathy, and conversational context. If AI is trying to summarize a chat or meeting, will it capture the spirit or tone if it is not a recording? A summarization means it is taking a leap to understand what went on, not record it. The same principles apply to email writing – what context does AI use to frame a composition? Does it have personal history? What if empathy is required? AI cannot string together disparate thoughts, so what if the email requires multiple trains of thought? In either case, the generative AI outputs will likely be lacking, and canned.
Will customers pay?
Do these generative AI-powered collaboration use cases have a paying market? How much will customers be willing to pay, or does this type of potential enhancement become table stakes?
Previous attempts at text summarization and email assistants have failed. Will this be different?
Whether it was for lack of market interest, cost, or poor output, collaboration vendors have tried these use cases before. Generative AI brings some scalability to the equation, but it is unclear if generative AI will be more accurate. It is unclear if there will be sufficient market interest.
Zoom’s position on generative AI-powered features
Zoom has been a nimble and disruptive player in the collaboration space. The company has shown the aptitude to integrate AI into its platform and systems. Zoom is approaching Generative AI pragmatically, working with multiple vendors. It has also been a pioneering investor in AI startups, a strategy that may pay off for them in these innovative and disruptive AI times. Zoom certainly has the chance to test these use cases thoroughly and make clear-headed decisions about their future, with the ability to adjust accordingly.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Zoom Takes Another Big Step Forward in AI-based Value with Integration and Investment in Anthropic
Zoom Revenue for Q1 Hits $1.1B, up 3% YoY, Beating Estimates
Zoom Huddles: A Modern Communication Experience for the Hybrid Workplace
Author Information
Mark comes to The Futurum Group from Omdia’s Artificial Intelligence practice, where his focus was on natural language and AI use cases.
Previously, Mark worked as a consultant and analyst providing custom and syndicated qualitative market analysis with an emphasis on mobile technology and identifying trends and opportunities for companies like Syniverse and ABI Research. He has been cited by international media outlets including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and CNET. Based in Tampa, Florida, Mark is a veteran market research analyst with 25 years of experience interpreting technology business and holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida.
