COVID-19 has, in some ways, transformed Zoom from a business-only tool to a household name. Now the $19 billion video calling giant is looking to redefine itself, which means shedding much of what's helped make it what it is throughout its decade-plus history.
Zoom's Chief Growth Officer Graham Geddes recently said: luck“Zoom is more than just video conferencing. Video is our heritage. We will continue to focus on video and develop the market. We are innovating a lot, but that's not all.”
The company's new goal? “We want to be known as the AI-first collaboration platform,” Geddes declared. The rush to adopt AI is now a fixture of the tech industry, with big companies like Alphabet and Microsoft regularly talking about it on earnings calls, but Zoom's shift dovetails nicely with the company's efforts to broaden its reach beyond simple video conferencing to improve overall productivity.
To better meet the needs of a hybrid world, Zoom introduced a suite of tools called Zoom Workplace earlier this year for both remote and in-person workers. The platform includes everything from virtual whiteboards and guest check-in to workspace bookings, tech solutions, and feedback forms. Zoom also recently acquired employee engagement platform Workvivo for about €250 million ($272 million); as Geddes points out, the acquisition “has nothing to do with video.”
Zoom's evolution also extends to its customer-facing solutions. “We offer chatbot automation services that support how customers access the website and can escalate to a phone call,” Geddes explains. “There are a lot of workflows that don't involve video.”
The strategic shift comes at a pivotal time for Zoom. Demand for remote video conferencing is declining as companies move away from pandemic-era work patterns and mandate a return to the office. As a result, Zoom's stock has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, falling from a high of $559 in October 2020 to around $60 today.
Jacqueline Barrett, economist and founder of BrightArc, reflects on the early response to the pandemic: “I think at the beginning of the pandemic, there were a lot of people flocking to Zoom. In terms of stock prices, there was probably a bit of over-excitement as people assumed the growth was going to continue indefinitely.”
The market environment is also becoming more competitive: “There are a lot of companies in the market that are either already bundling new features with different things or are constantly announcing new features using generative AI,” Barrett added.
“You don't have to be an established company like Google, Microsoft or Cisco to have a whole bunch of startups using generative AI to focus on every niche you can think of.”
The challenges Zoom faces in responding to this are not one-dimensional, as the company's diverse capabilities show. The company is expanding its products and leveraging AI to strengthen its technical capabilities. For example, as Geddes said, Zoom's AI companion can automate note-taking and summarizing next steps and action items during meetings, whether or not everyone is in the room.
But what's most interesting is that this is just the beginning of Zoom's AI applications: the company is also looking into creating digital twins and deepfake avatars. Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan said that AI-powered avatars would replicate the voice and appearance of their real owners, act independently during meetings, and make business decisions on their behalf.
“Today, we all spend a lot of time making calls, attending meetings, sending emails, deleting spam, replying to text messages, and it's still very busy,” Yuan explained. “But in the future, you'll be able to send digital versions of yourself to join you and go to the beach.”
Though the technology is still in development, it's already proven to be a useful AI feature for Zoom. Geddes shared how he used Zoom's Smart Summary feature to stay up to date on meetings while traveling internationally, helping him make important decisions and keep projects on schedule.
As Zoom makes this transition, it's clear that the company is not just adapting to a post-pandemic world, but actively charting the course for the future of work and collaboration. By adopting AI-driven solutions and moving beyond traditional video conferencing, Zoom is committed to maintaining its leadership position in business communication and productivity tools as the workplace evolves.
(Photo courtesy of LinkedIn Sales Solutions)
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