Zoom Enhances AI Capabilities to Boost Productivity and Collaboration | Small Biz Trends

May 31, 2024May 30, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Zoom has announced the general availability of new AI capabilities across Zoom Workplace, including enhanced features for Zoom Meetings and Zoom Team Chat.

The AI Companion, Zoom’s generative AI assistant, now offers more customization, personalization, and quick reply capabilities. Since its launch in September 2023, over 700,000 accounts have enabled AI Companion, with adoption rates steadily increasing.

Here’s a look at some of the new features:

Quick Reply for Mobile: The AI Companion can now suggest short, contextual replies in Team Chat on mobile devices, helping users stay engaged and aligned from anywhere.
Custom AI Companion Notice: When an AI Companion feature is enabled in a meeting, a customizable notice informs attendees. This feature allows enterprises to tailor the notice with their own text, formatting, hyperlinks, and more, enhancing the Zoom experience for their needs.
External Collaboration Settings: New settings and a dashboard in Team Chat give admins better control over external users. Admins can enable or disable approvals for adding external users to group chats and channels and view all external connections in the External Connections dashboard.
Tedious tasks can hinder creativity and productivity. Zoom’s AI Companion helps relieve employees of these tasks, allowing them to focus on more meaningful work.

Zoom Teams Up with Walmart Business to Offer Affordable Collaboration Tools for SMBs

November 6, 2023November 5, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Zoom and Walmart Business have joined hands to deliver robust communication and collaboration tools at discounted rates. This partnership is set to bring high-quality digital solutions within reach of SMBs, playing a vital role in their growth and ability to tackle challenges effectively.

As part of the new collaboration, Walmart Business+ customers can avail a remarkable 40% discount on the Zoom One Pro Annual plan. This positions Zoom as the exclusive Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) provider for Walmart Business+ clientele.

Zoom might use your calls and data to train AI | Mashable

August 8, 2023August 7, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There’s a chance your video calls will be used to train artificial intelligence.

Zoom updated its terms of service this week to allow it to use some of its users’ data for training AI. And the wording reads pretty strong, leading to lots of fears online.

The terms state the you grant Zoom “perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license and all other rights required or necessary” to customer content for a number of purposes, now including “machine learning” and “artificial intelligence.” Another section of the terms state that Zoom can use certain user data for “machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models).”

Zoom bets billions on home working continuing in Five9 deal | BBC News

July 22, 2021July 19, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Video conferencing firm Zoom has struck a multibillion dollar deal to buy a cloud-based call centre operator in a bet on the future of hybrid working.

The firm announced the $14.7bn (£10.7bn) acquisition of Five9 in a blog post on Sunday.

Zoom boss Eric Yuan said the deal would allow its customers to “reimagine the way they do business”.

It marks the firm’s biggest takeover, and comes even though staff are beginning to return to the office.

Investors have been watching for clues as to how the firm would fare as social distancing restrictions lift and more people are vaccinated.

Drop The Zoom Video? | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

April 14, 2021April 13, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A new study led by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University is challenging the common assumption that video conferencing is better than audio-only communication for collaborative group activities. The findings suggest video cues may in fact lower a group’s collective intelligence by disrupting interpersonal synchrony.

Early in 2020, when the pandemic hit and many suddenly shifted to working remotely, the ability to easily communicate with colleagues via video was a godsend. No one really questioned how effective communicating over video was, as for years it had been generally assumed video cues amplify effective group collaboration when compared to audio-only interactions.

How to Generate More Leads from Your Webinars | AllBusiness.com

March 26, 2021March 25, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has not only led to severe implications on people’s health, but it has also forced organizations to rethink and realign their businesses. With people locked in their homes, marketers and salespeople have had to find new ways to connect and engage with clients and customers. This was when webinars became more popular than ever.

Although webinars are not a new concept, they have seen tremendous growth during the pandemic. Statista reports that between February and March 2020, the number of B2B brands offering webinars in the United States grew by 36%, from 245 to 332. As webinar hosting activities have seen a huge rise, Zoom has turned out to be the most preferred webinar hosting platform.

With features like interactivity, flexibility, and wider reach, webinars are revolutionizing the way brands connect with audiences. There is no denying the fact that webinars have become one of the top digital marketing trends these days, helping businesses create brand awareness and close more deals.

Before you plan your next webinar, review these tips on how to maximize the impact of your event:

Study Suggests Most Zoombombing is an Inside Job | Digital Trends

February 9, 2021February 7, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last year wasn’t exactly short of threats facing humanity, but “Zoombombing” was an especially 2020 kind of disruption, one that sought to hijack one of the most prominent means of communication by which people stayed in touch with everyone from co-workers to friends and family during lockdown.

Zoombombing, for those unfamiliar with it, works like this: An unwanted participant or participants access a Zoom call without being invited, against the wishes of the participants, and cause problems. One Massachusetts-based high school’s Zoom session was hijacked by an individual who screamed profanities and then shouted the teacher’s home address. On social media, some users reported that their Zoom session had been taken over and used to show pornographic content.

How to run a better Zoom, Skype or Google hangout meeting | Fast Company

March 24, 2020March 23, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of my colleagues posted a meme the other day calling the coronavirus the “Zoombie apocalypse” after the group videoconference app that has been the basis of a lot of meetings since people started working from home to slow the spread of the disease.

On the one hand, apps such as Zoom, Skype, and Google Hangouts have made it fairly easy for people to engage from a distance with each person in their own space. On the other hand, meetings online can be pretty chaotic, especially if someone forgets to mute themselves. Here are a few things you should do to make them better: