Zoom announced the next generation of Zoom AI Companion (AI Companion 2.0), the company’s AI personal assistant that helps users get more done and is available at no additional cost. The company also announced a custom add-on for AI Companion that layers on a more customized and personalized experience designed to meet an organization’s unique needs. The announcement was made at Zoomtopia 2024.

“At Zoom, we’re not just reimagining communication—we’re revolutionizing the entire work experience. Our vision is to create an AI-first work platform for human connection that empowers teams to achieve more than ever,” said Eric S. Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom. “With AI Companion already enhancing productivity, we are helping our customers transform how they work. This is more than an evolution; it’s a complete overhaul of how we get things done in the digital age.”

Key features

This AI-first approach to Zoom Workplace and Zoom Business Services allows individuals and teams to free up time and focus on what they do best: engaging, connecting, and delivering creative and insightful work. New capabilities of AI Companion 2.0 will include:

Persistent: Users can now engage with AI Companion via a convenient, persistent side panel, with seamless availability throughout Zoom Workplace, delivering an AI-first user interface (UI) that seamlessly integrates graphical and conversation UIs to allow for better information flow across Zoom Workplace.

Expanded context: AI Companion gains advanced contextual understanding based on what the user is looking at in the Zoom Workplace app and previous conversations to provide intelligent suggestions and responses that come with citations to help users stay on top of their workday.

Advanced synthesis: AI Companion can pull in interactions from across Zoom Workplace and, when connected, information from Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Google Calendar, and uploaded files from Microsoft Office and Google Docs to help users summarize content and interactions and get caught up fast. 

Connected to the web: AI Companion can answer user questions and retrieve information from the web in real-time.

Takes action: AI Companion can detect, track, and complete actions across workloads in Zoom Workplace to help users get more done.

Custom add-on for AI Companion

A new optional add-on will provide expanded data access to apps beyond Microsoft and Google email and calendar services. It will allow customization with company glossaries, offer enhanced search capabilities, and take action on the user’s behalf. The personalization capabilities will help improve AI Companion’s performance on the customer’s account.

Key components of the new add-on include a customized experience with AI Studio, connected third-party apps, and personal coaching capabilities. The Custom AI Companion add-on will be available for $12 per user per month and is planned to launch in the first half of 2025.

Zoom