Zoom's AI Companion gets agentic capabilities
Zoom's AI Companion becomes an agent. This means it can take over and complete tasks within the platform.
(Image: Zoom)
Zoom has long been more than just video conferencing software. With Zoom Workplace and the AI Companion, people have access to all the common applications they need for communication and everyday office life. Now agent-like capabilities are being added. This means that there is an AI application that can take over tasks and perform them almost independently.
To become an AI agent, the AI companion uses reasoning and memory. Reasoning means that the AI is particularly good at drawing logical conclusions or thinking. Memory is necessary to proceed step by step. As a rule, AI agents should not just take on a single task, but complete an entire sequence of tasks or as many tasks as they need to achieve a given result – preferably without a person having to intervene in the process. However, the AI companion with agentic capabilities is limited to the various Zoom applications. These include Zoom Meetings, Team Chats, Docs, the Whiteboard, a Zoom Phone, the Contact Center and other special services.
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The practical tasks that the AI Companion can now also perform include, for example, keeping track of several people's calendars and finding an appointment for a meeting that suits everyone involved.
AI agents from third-party providers and more functions for Workplace
In the near future, corporate customers will also be able to create their own AI agents. Zoom also wants to open up to third-party providers so that third-party agents can also be accessed. Zoom uses an orchestration of various AI models from several providers, as well as its small language models (SMLs). The latter are specialized in certain areas.
In the coming weeks, further new functions will also be introduced, Zoom writes in a detailed blog post. These include a new voice recorder that can record, transcribe and summarize conversations in the mobile workplace app. Zoom Docs will allow users to create graphics, and all attachments and summaries will be saved in Zoom Drive in the future, making them easier to find.
(emw)
