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5 minute read
Summary
On this episode of Catching Up with, The Collab Collective's Craig Durr chats with Rob Whatley, Worldwide Lead for the UC Practice at AVI Systems, at Zoomtopia 2024. They explore Zoom’s innovative AI strategy, its applications for industry verticals, and how features like AI Companion and Task AI are transforming workflows.
Their Discussion Covers:
- AI Companion for All: Rob shares insights on Zoom’s decision to provide AI features for free, differentiating it from competitors.
- Vertical AI Applications: Craig and Rob explore Zoom’s tailored AI tools for education, healthcare, and frontline workers.
- Contact Center Innovations: Rob highlights AI’s integration into Zoom’s contact center, enhancing functionality and user experience.
- Task AI and Productivity: Craig delves into Zoom’s new Task AI feature, designed to streamline workflows and prioritize tasks.
Transcript
Craig Durr: Hey, everyone. Craig Durr here, Chief Analyst and Founder of The Collab Collective. We just finished up at Zoomtopia's keynote for the 2024 Zoomtopia, and it was fantastic–a lot of information. To help me process through it, I brought a friend here–Rob Watley, who is the worldwide lead for the UC practice for the AVI systems. An important reseller within the UC ecosystem.
Rob Whatley: Yeah, thank you.
Craig Durr: How are you doing?
Rob Whatley: Glad to be here, my friend.
Craig Durr: It's good. Man, my mind is blown because there was stuff coming out left and right, right?
Rob Whatley: So much information. It's hard to just capture all of it. And you know, the few minutes that we were there… It didn’t even last that long, right?
Craig Durr: I had my cheat sheet there, and I was trying to think of some highlights. So if you don't mind, let's just go back and forth–say what we liked, what we thought. You know, what was interesting, some of the things we might be cautious about.
So I'll start off with the first one that really caught my eye. AI Companion for in person meetings wound up being a really cool idea. And the idea is–you take your phone, you launch the AI Companion, you set it down on the table, and it's gonna be taking notes for you.
Rob Whatley: Yeah, so one of the things I like, though, is all about the 3,000 different features, right? I mean, how do you intimate 3,000 different features? And AI companion to your point, especially 2.0, has so many good things coming out. My customers tend to ask me, “What's the best AI that's out there?” It's hard to describe. I mean, if I did some type of matrix to explain the different AIs out there, I will tell you that, personally, Zoom is one of the best ones out there because all of the innovation that is going on with Zoom and all the things they're doing with Contact Center and Workplace, for instance–things that we use every day…
Craig Durr: They're bringing it across the whole suite. Actually, you mentioned that because they actually pulled up some third party research. They're very proud about talking about their accuracy of the AI Companion being something like 30% more accurate than leading competitors, and they named Microsoft Copilot.
Rob Whatley: Yes, how do you do that? How do you compare what's better, what's more accurate than the other one?
Craig Durr: Well, I think they're doing it side by side. You know, what do the notes look like? What is the actual meeting transcript? What is it like? I'm gonna dive into that data. That's one that's really important to me.
Rob Whatley: Oh, absolutely. I use Copilot. I know you use Copilot as a UC director, right? I have to use all the different platforms that are out there to see what the AI is actually doing. Now, I use Copilot more than anything else, but I gotta tell you, I'm extremely impressed with what Zoom is doing today.
Craig Durr: That's good. Tell me what else might have caught your eye within this event that you saw coming up.
Rob Whatley: Contact Center, right? There’s a lot of things going on with Contact Center there. So I really enjoyed how they explained how AI for Contact Center works, and then also AI for education.
Craig Durr: Yes, the verticals
Rob Whatley: The verticals–you probably heard a little bit more about that than I did. I was kind of focused on other things, but wow, I was pretty impressed.
Craig Durr: I mean, so they started off with the AI Sales Companion, something they launched last year. And their strategy is really unique. AI is free for everyone, but we're gonna monetize it for some verticals. And as an analyst, I was waiting to see how that came around. I have to say, I was really impressed with what they're revealing here. So to accompany AI Sales Companion, they now have AI for educators, AI for healthcare–they're calling it AI for clinicians–and AI for frontline workers.
Rob Whatley: Exactly.
Craig Durr: Now, each one of these is trying to take in those unique use cases and applying the information there. If they can succeed in all those, that's fantastic. I love seeing practical applications of AI being for the market.
Rob Whatley: And I've not heard a lot from the other platforms about the verticals, right? But here, you hit the day will actually pretty much get home from one of the other big things I've heard too, right? This is pretty simplistic–it's about how it's free.
Craig Durr: I know, I know.
Rob Whatley: AI for Zoom, if you buy the software, the AI is free. There's others out there that are charging 31-32 hours for each unique person that's out there. But not Zoom. You don't have to choose a classification of a person to give the AI to because everyone gets it.
Craig Durr: That's half the problem. That's half the challenge. Who gets it? Who's special or not to do it? I think they're doing a great job.
Now there is one item I'm out there, I'm gonna have to wait and see. I'm gonna have to play with it and understand. And for me, they announced a new feature within Workplace called Task–AI Task. And the idea is this: not only will it assign action items for meetings, but it's gonna look through your chats, it's gonna look through your emails, it's gonna look through everything and try to bring them back to you at the end of the day. Here's your task list, and it prioritizes it. That's a big uplift.
Rob Whatley: Yeah, I'm not sure… I'm with you there, right? You know, I'm still old school there. I still actually do it manually. I'm still playing around a Notebook as well. So I'm interested to see how it works–interested to see and actually play with it.
Craig Durr: That's gonna be one that I'm gonna do side by side with my current workflow and see what it looks like at the end of the day.
Rob Whatley: Yeah, absolutely. But I'm very excited about the innovations going on. Eric is pretty darn funny. I can't wait to see him practice those three point shots.
Craig Durr: Yeah, it’s Stephen Curry doing a little cameo there.
Rob Whatley: That was so awesome. I love the picture of him trying to dunk the basketball. It was so cool. But it's just a fun place. I'm looking forward to all the different sessions we want to experience later on today as well.
Craig Durr: Well, I love it. Hey, Rob. Thank you so much for these insights.
Everyone, I hope this gives you some behind-the-scenes idea–what took place today at Zoomtopia 2024.
Rob, thank you so much.
Rob Whatley: Thank you for having me.
Craig Durr: Alright, everyone, take care. Stay here for some more updates from Zoomtopia.
