Zoom Opens AI Assistant Web Access to Free Users

Zoom launches its web access to its AI assistant earlier today. Zoom’s AI Companion 3.0 release brings its AI assistant to the web, with free users now able to use features like meeting summaries, action lists, and insights within set limits.

With the launch of Zoom’s AI Companion, customers of the free Basic plan can now access essential services with usage restrictions for the first time. A special web interface at ai.zoom.us allows users to access the AI helper.

The AI companion, which includes a meeting summary, in-meeting enquiries, and AI note-taking capabilities, is available to basic plan users for three meetings each month, according to the business. Additionally, they can use the side panel and the new web interface to ask 20 questions apiece. To gain access to AI companion capabilities, they can also buy a $10 add-on plan.

The company is also including conversation starter prompts on the new website to let people know what the assistant can accomplish.

With this update, Zoom’s assistant can access content from external services such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, as well as Zoom data, and will soon add connectors for Gmail and Microsoft Outlook.

A daily reflection report summarising the day’s meetings, assignments, and updates is also produced by the AI Companion. Additionally, the assistant has the ability to draft emails and establish follow-up assignments.

Zoom is also expanding its document management and creation features. The new companion update allows users to create and modify papers based on meeting information. According to the firm, users can begin creating documents on the companion surface, move the project to Zoom Docs, and work with colleagues. Documents that can be exported as Zoom Docs, Microsoft Word, MD, and PDF.

Zoom’s head of AI product, Lijuan Qin, stated that the company has an advantage over rivals in the productivity market since it is an independent operator and has contextual meeting data. The company claimed to use a combination of models from Anthropic and OpenAI in addition to its own models.

During the pandemic, Zoom which was founded by CEO Eric Yuan (shown above) became synonymous with virtual meetings. However, its other productivity products also face competition from companies like Google, Microsoft, ClickUp, and Notion, all of which aim to gather more context for user data, including meetings.

In an effort to compete with other productivity applications, Zoom released a cross-app notetaker earlier this year that can be used in offline meetings and with various meeting apps.

Features are not activated by default, even though free users can now view some content. If an administrator hasn’t locked them, individual users can activate the features in their own settings.

Open the Zoom online site and log in, then Click Settings from the navigation menu, then select the AI Companion option and finally turn on the desired features like “AI Companion Panel in Zoom Workplace” or “Meeting Summary.”