Zoom is pledging to provide artificial intelligence (AI) features at no additional cost to paid customers on its video-conferencing platform. The technology company believes bundling these extra functions as part of its paid platform service will prove a key advantage as businesses begin considering the price tags of other offerings in the market. Noting that customer concerns have surfaced over the potential cost of using generative AI, especially for larger enterprises, Zoom’s Asia-Pacific head Ricky Kapur said: “At $30 per user a month? That’s a significant cost factor.” Zoom also advocates the merits of a federated multi-model architecture, which it says will allow for better efficiencies. Large organizations are not going to want to give access to every employee if it is too costly to do so, Kapur said in an interview with ZDNET.Executives have to decide who should and should not get access to generative AI tools, which can be a complex decision. The video-conferencing platform has introduced several AI-powered tools during the past year, including AI Companion and Zoom Docs, the latter of which is slated for general availability next year. Zoom Docs is described as a next-generation document workspace with “modern collaboration tools”. The tool is integrated into the Zoom interface, and is accessible In Meetings and Team Chat, and via online and mobile apps. AI Companion, formerly called Zoom IQ, is a generative AI assistant for the video-conferencing service and it helps to automate time-consuming tasks. The tool can compose chat responses with a customizable tone and length, which are based on the user’s prompts, and it can summarize unread chat messages. Zoom IQ can also summarize meetings, providing an account of what was said and who said it, highlighting key topics.AI Companion is available at no additional cost for customers signed up to Zoom’s subscription plans. This broad approach means AI Companion can evolve and be optimized for quality and performance, Geddes said, adding that this strategy leads to reduced latency and cost efficiencies for customers. Furthermore, Zoom has also declared that data generated from users of either its free or paid services will not be used to train its AI models.
Zoom: Why AI Features Should Be Included in the Base Package
