Since the Zoom boom four years ago, a lot has changed.
It’s now much more than that video conferencing solution; it’s a robust, unified platform for businesses of all sizes, from SMBs up to the enterprise level.
Indeed, these days, Zoom offers an ecosystem of solutions for UCaaS, CCaaS, marketing, sales, workforce engagement management (WEM), and more.
Yet, its innovation drive shows no sign of slowing. Just consider all the additions announced at Zoomtopia 2024 to the Zoom CX portfolio. These include:
- Multiple intent detection in a single Zoom Virtual Agent session
- AI Virtual Voice Agent soon to be released
- Dynamic Agent Guides for interactive scripts
- Suggested answer from multiple knowledge base articles
- Supervisor flagging to pick up on engagements with low sentiment scores, long contact durations, or multiple transfers
- Auto QM to score 100% of all customer interactions
- Ask QM for a conversational interface to query transcripts and find areas for improvement
- Shift bidding via an online portal in its Workforce Management solution
Elsewhere, Zoom made several other announcements, including a strengthened partnership with ServiceNow, industry-specific Workplace innovations, and the AI Companion 2.0.
The hot takes start with the latter, as six seasoned analysts unpack the significance of these moves.
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The Free AI Companion 2.0 Will Help Democratize AI
Zoom announced the upcoming release of its AI Companion 2.0, an upgraded version of its AI assistant that will come at no extra cost for paid Zoom Workplace subscribers.
The new iteration features improved contextual awareness, enabling more relevant and timely assistance based on external data and previous conversations.
Moreover, the free inclusion of AI Companion 2.0 aligns with Zoom’s strategy to democratize AI and enhance productivity, representing a significant leap forward in the potential of predictive, autonomous assistance.
By providing this advanced AI tool at no additional cost, Zoom aims to remove adoption barriers, accelerate value realization, and advance the development of AI-assisted workplace tools.
- Derek Top, Senior Analyst at Opus Research
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Zoom’s Converged Approach Is a Massive for the AI-First Workplace
Zoom AI Companion 2.0 was undoubtedly the most significant announcement from Zoomtopia. However, the converged approach, with Zoom AI Companion 2.0, Zoom Customer Experience, and the overall Zoom AI strategy, represents a significant step towards creating an AI-first workplace platform that seamlessly integrates employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX).
The AI-driven features, from contextual prompts to document creation and meeting transcription, offer automation and efficiency that can dramatically improve productivity and collaboration.
Additionally, Zoom has showcased its commitment to AI-first customer interaction solutions via the enhanced Virtual Agent and AI Expert Assist solutions.
In doing so, it demonstrates a new focus on delivering exceptional experiences across the board.
Zoom’s challenge is entering, especially on the CX side, an already entrenched industry and market where it will have to work to gain trust and credibility. Their upside is that they have a footprint and reach into many organizations. And they are innovating!
- David Smith, Founder and Principal Analyst at InFlow Analysis
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Zoom Is Just Getting Started on Total Experience
Zoom has made substantial strides in its platform strategy, and I remain impressed by the speed at which it launches new products and adds features, especially across its CX portfolio.
Now, it has an opportunity to take its Total Experience vision to the next level by crafting an even stronger narrative that centers on taking these various customer-facing capabilities beyond Zoom CX. That could be a significant differentiator.
Zoom Workspace offers an excellent base for this, facilitating the seamless sharing of customer communications across departments.
Additionally, Zoom has a real chance to double down on customer stories that showcase cross-departmental CX in action. It can highlight examples and use cases of organizations leveraging its platform to deliver seamless experiences across teams. Such efforts could go a long way.
- Nicolas de Kouchkovsky, Principal Analyst at CaCube Consulting
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Customized AI Experiences Are the Future
Zoom showcased its Custom AI Companion, allowing businesses to tailor the AI Assistant’s skillset to match their operational needs.
Moreover, customers can now integrate the AI Companion with stalwart enterprise systems like Workday, ServiceNow, and JIRA. That will facilitate deeper automation and enable the optimization of unique, potentially cross-functional workflows.
Through these announcements, Zoom highlights how it’s taking AI beyond the basic functions to help create personalized AI experiences.
The theme is also evident in its introduction of personalized avatars, enabling users to create virtual representations of themselves for online meetings.
Zoom promises that these will be realistic, mimicking facial expressions and gestures for a more interactive and engaging meeting experience.
- Craig Durr, Chief Analyst and Founder at The Collab Collective
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Zoom Is Embracing Industry-Specific Innovation
As competition across the enterprise communications space increases, Zoom is leaning into industry-specific innovation to differentiate.
Chiefly, it’s targeting sectors where it already enjoys success, like healthcare and education.
In the former, it has released the Zoom Workplace for Healthcare and Clinicians, which includes access to healthcare dictionaries and third-party data sources for electronic healthcare records.
Meanwhile, the enterprise communications juggernaut launched the Zoom Workplace for Education, which leverages AI Companion 2.0 to offer features to help improve lesson planning, lecture summaries, and live note-taking.
Lastly, Zoom has ramped up its efforts to support frontline workers, which – according to Forbes data – make up 80 percent of the global workforce.
Its new Zoom Workplace for Frontline exemplifies this, offering a mobile-centric experience with time-keeping, consolidated chat, push-to-talk, and many more capabilities.
Such customized offerings, coupled with the breadth of its portfolio, will allow Zoom to offer a unique proposition to any business.
- Patrick Watson, Head of Research at Cavell Group
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Expect Zoom to Gain Further Ground in the CCaaS Space
Zoomtopia 2024 showcased how fast the company has innovated, particularly in the contact center.
At the event, Zoom stated it now had 1,300 contact center customers, which is impressive given that the company has been in the space for little more than two years.
Upon its launch, the capabilities of Zoom Contact Center were very basic, but the company has caught up now and can go toe-to-toe with anyone.
I expect Zoom to continue to gain ground on the traditional CCaaS leaders.
Also, Zoom AI Companion 2.0 had several new capabilities, such as the ability to create tasks. As most vendors support meeting summaries and transcripts, it’s good to see AI evolve past that now.
Finally, I liked the smaller format of Zoomtopia 2024 as the more intimate event gave me a chance to talk to high-quality customers and partners.
- Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research
Catch Up on Zoomtopia 2024
As Kerravala mentioned, Zoomtopia 2024 took on a smaller studio format to optimize the virtual viewing experience for everyone watching worldwide.
Following the keynote, these viewers could choose the right track for them. So, whether they wanted to catch up on Zoom Customer Experience, Workplace, Sales & Marketing, Small Business, or something else, they could easily access the most relevant content.
Fortunately, they can still do so, with a virtual catalog of sessions available online.
To check some of those sessions for yourself, visit Zoomtopia.