On this episode of Catching Up with, The Collab Collective's Craig Durr connects with Patrick Watson, Head of Research at Cavell Group, at Zoomtopia 2024. They explore Zoom’s AI strategy, advancements in communication platforms like Zoom Phone and Contact Center, and what’s next for Zoom as it seeks growth and differentiation in a competitive market.
Craig Durr: Alright. Hey everyone, this is Craig Durr from The Collab Collective. I brought my friend Patrick Watson from Cavell Group. How are you doing?
Patrick Watson: Very well. Thanks Craig. Great to see you!
Craig Durr: And you're probably wondering why there's such a crazy reflection. Well, we're in the middle of a Zoomtopia event right now, and we're trying to find ourselves one of those Zoom balls that you see down there. Patrick, would you go ahead and try and try and do it right now, while we're talking here?
Patrick Watson: Well, yeah. I mean that the viewer, the listener, is inside the machine. So there's a high chance of some sort of accent to your camera equipment.
Craig Durr: So we are here at Zoomtopia, where we're seeing a lot of new stuff. Tell me, are you finding things that are pretty exciting?
Patrick Watson: Yeah–AI Companion 2.0. I think Zoom’s AI strategy is really differentiated because if you look at the other leading collaboration vendors, look at Microsoft and Teams’ Copilot, a big add-on. But AI Companion–they are persevering that it's not going to be a chargeable add-on, which I think is really differentiated often for the rest of the industry. So AI Companion, Contact Center's been really big as well.
Craig Durr: See, I think that's going to be a big win for them as well, too. Frankly, their contact center from when they first introduced it to what we're seeing now has really exploded in terms of functionality. And they kind of started to be a video-enabled contact center. Now they're back to being true with that aspect of video, aspect of voice functionality.
Patrick Watson: I completely agree. So they were talking today–we didn't get hard numbers, but they've got 1,300 logos on–that must translate to hundreds of thousands of agents on the platform. So I think it's big for them. It's going to be really big–the AI throughout it.
Craig Durr: You know, one of the things that you cover a lot of, that we didn't talk about much on stage, is phones.
Patrick Watson: Zoom Phone, yeah.
Craig Durr: So what are your thoughts on what you're seeing there right now?
Patrick Watson: So they were showing some really interesting demos today of AI Companion within Phone. So the capability of call summarization on a PSTN or on a PSTN call. But with Zoom Companion 2.0, it'll do it real time. So you'll be on the phone, you'll be able to ask questions about a call you have been on, if you're on a conference call. I think there's a lot of capability in that. No wonder they're getting so much traction with Zoom.
Craig Durr: And then later on, we're gonna have a chance to maybe just to Eric and ask some tough questions. If you had a chance to ask him a tough question right now, in this space, what would you be asking?
Patrick Watson: Oh, good one. What's next? So I think it's so funny, the last time I was here, we're at Zoom San Jose HQ. The last time I was here was 2018.
Craig Durr: Oh, it’s been a while.
Patrick Watson: I spoke to Eric at the time. So that was before Zoom Phone. That was when they were pure play video conferencing. So since then, they've added Zoom Phone Conferencing, the Productivity Suite, Zoom Docs. Where do they go next? They talk for a while about calendaring, email. There's been lots to talk about CRM. I'm really interested to see–do they make an acquisition? They've got a lot of cash in the bank. So where they might go in terms of adjacency, supplementary, supporting products, that's what I'd ask him. Where are you going to go?
Craig Durr: That’s interesting. So for me, what I would be doing is this–there's still the accountability to Wall Street for growth right now. They’ve been getting that 3-4% quarter over quarter growth, but it's still been constant over the last 18 quarters, I think. Zoom Phone was an important part of that, and the Contact Center was a part of that as well, too. I assume that's still going to be those growth drivers for them. I'm curious how much they're thinking about these industry specific AI verticals, which is also being part of the driver, too.
Patrick Watson: The verticals stuff. Great point.
Craig Durr: Is that going to be a big win, driving growth? What does that market look like? Because when it’s opening itself up to those special verticals, it’s no longer competing against Microsoft and Google. It’s now competing against the likes of Oracle with AI agents, right? Salesforce with AI agents, and other people that are doing frontline and things like that. So it's an interesting space.
Patrick Watson: Really good point on virtualizations. And we're seeing that as how do you differentiate–now that we're seeing so much convergence, everyone's got a combined UCC proposition–how do you differentiate to your point specializing in verticals?
Craig Durr: Yeah, okay I'm gonna air tag here. Alright, we're gonna wrap it up here. Well, everyone, this is Craig Durr from The Collab Collective. Patrick Watson from Cavell Group. Thank you so much.
Patrick Watson: Pleasure
Craig Durr: Coming to you live from inside the Jukebox of Zoomtopia. Take care.