Zoom Ups Competition With Microsoft, Throws In AI and Google Doc Like Features In Bundled Offering

Zoom Video Communications, Inc ZM unveiled a series of AI-powered innovations at Zoomtopia 2023, significantly enhancing collaborative and communication tools for the modern workspace. 

The centerpiece of the unveiling is Zoom Docs, a next-generation collaborative platform. Integrated with Zoom and third-party apps, it offers a flexible, AI-driven workspace with traditional document capabilities and intuitive features like drag-and-drop content blocks.

Zoom added word processing to its suite of tools and experimenting with novel features for meetings as it faces steep competition from Microsoft Corp's MSFT Teams.

The company announced that collaborative document editing, similar to Alphabet Inc's GOOGL Google Docs, will be available in Zoom in 2024. 

Chief Product Officer Smita Hashim said in an interview that sets the tool apart is the ability to include information and artificial intelligence-generated summaries from Zoom meetings, Bloomberg reports.

The Zoom AI Companion, a generative AI digital assistant, has been enhanced with a new Whiteboard capability and is now available to higher education and healthcare customers. 

It aids in summarizing ongoing meetings and long chat threads and is instrumental in idea generation on digital whiteboards. Furthermore, Zoom's acquisition of Workvivo underscores its commitment to supporting diverse work styles in the hybrid work era, ensuring employees remain informed, engaged, and connected.

Zoom also introduces enhanced features in Zoom Scheduler and My Office View in Huddles to support employees in hybrid and remote work settings. 

Integrating Zoom Virtual Agent and Zoom Contact Center with popular digital messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger will likely transform customer support and engagement, significantly enhancing Zoom's AI-powered customer experience solutions.

Zoom's fiscal-year revenue jumped more than fivefold to $4.1 billion from 2020 - 2022 as Zoom's use boosted during the pandemic. However, analysts expect sales to increase by less than 2% in the coming quarters due to the recovery from the pandemic. 

Zoom's strategy to revive growth by providing a broader suite of business tools beyond video meetings, including features from Workvivo.

Morgan Stanley analyst Meta Marshall called Zoom's early success with its office phone service, making about $500 million per year, and its customer-service center offering, which passed 500 clients, as "encouraging stats."

Zoom is proactively seeking ways to enhance its virtual meeting experience, as evidenced by recent patent filings. 

The company has secured a patent this year that indicates its development of integrating interactive virtual objects into meetings, a feature anticipated to be instrumental in areas like product advertisement and education. Another innovative feature Zoom is exploring involves scanning the nonverbal cues of participants during meetings. 

Price Action: ZM shares traded lower by 0.18% at $67.92 premarket on the last check Wednesday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.