Zoom has pledged to provide artificial intelligence (AI) functions on its video-conferencing platform at no additional cost to paid clients.
The tech firm believes that including these extra features as part of its paid platform service will provide a significant advantage as businesses analyse the price tags of other market alternatives. Zoom additionally touts the benefits of a federated multi-model architecture, which it claims will improve efficiencies.
Noting that customers have expressed concerns regarding the potential cost of using generative AI, particularly for larger organisations, Zoom's Asia-Pacific CEO Ricky Kapur stated, "At $30 per user each month? That is a substantial cost.”
Large organisations will not want to provide access to every employee if it is too costly, Kapur stated. Executives must decide who should and should not have access to generative AI technologies, which can be a difficult decision.
Because these functionalities are provided at no additional cost, Kapur claims that projects involving generative AI have "accelerated" among Zoom's paying customers.
Several AI-powered features have been introduced by the video-conferencing platform in the last year, including AI Companion and Zoom Docs, the latter of which is set to become general next year. Zoom Docs is billed as a next-generation document workspace that includes "modern collaboration tools." The technology is built into the Zoom interface and is available in Meetings and Team Chat, as well as through internet and mobile apps.
AI Companion, previously known as Zoom IQ, is a generative AI assistant for the video-conferencing service that aids in the automation of time-consuming tasks. The tool can design chat responses with a customisable tone and duration based on user suggestions, as well as summarise unread chat messages. Zoom IQ can also summarise meetings, providing a record of what was said and who said it, as well as underlining crucial points.
Customers who have signed up for one of Zoom's subscription plans can use AI Companion at no extra cost. The Pro plan costs $149.9 per user per year, while the Business plan costs $219.9 per user per year. Other options, Business Plus and Enterprise, are charged based on the customer's needs.
According to Zoom's chief growth officer Graeme Geddes, the integration of Zoom Docs and AI Companion means customers will be able to receive a summary of their previous five meetings as well as a list of action items. Since its debut in September, AI Companion has been used by over 220,000 users. The artificial intelligence tool now supports 33 languages, including Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Geddes emphasised Zoom's decision to integrate AI Companion at no additional cost for paying customers, noting the company believes these data-driven tools are essential features that everyone in the organisation should have access to.
Zoom's federated approach to AI architecture, according to Geddes, is critical. Rather than relying on a single AI provider, as other IT companies have done, Zoom has chosen to combine multiple large language models (LLMs). These models include its own LLM as well as models from other parties such as Meta Llama 2, OpenAI GPT 3.5 and GPT 4, and Anthropic Claude 2.