As Zoom Struggles To Regain Pandemic Highs, Founder Eric Yuan Bets On AI

Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan is launching new software tools to expand the company’s offerings beyond video meetings and into the realm of communication and collaboration. The goal is for customers to be able to stay within the Zoom platform for all their work needs, eliminating the need to switch between multiple applications. The new features include Zoom Docs, an AI-powered tool that allows users to create, tag, and assign documents within Zoom; a generative whiteboard for visualizing projects; and various AI capabilities such as meeting summaries and contextual information retrieval. Additionally, Zoom is recognizing the shift towards hybrid work and is introducing office management tools for booking desks and offices. While Zoom Docs may overlap with existing work software tools, analysts suggest that it could help increase stickiness with existing customers who prefer having all their productivity tools in one place. Yuan believes that Zoom’s federated approach, which allows it to work with third-party models interchangeably, will differentiate it from competitors and provide customers with flexibility. Furthermore, Zoom is not charging extra for its AI features, unlike Microsoft and Salesforce. However, the company will need to avoid privacy scandals in order to maintain quality and customer trust. Despite a decline in its stock price over the past year, Yuan remains optimistic about Zoom’s future and is motivated to make the platform better. He likens this new season to the Golden State Warriors starting over to improve and achieve success in the future.