Zoom Docs and Workvivo Acquisition: Insights from Sameer Raje

Zoom Video Communications, a company that gained prominence during the pandemic, has since transformed into a comprehensive collaboration platform. Sameer Raje, General Manager and Head of India & SAARC region, Zoom, shares insights with Manisha Sharma on Zoom Docs' AI integration, the acquisition of Workvivo, and how these developments are shaping collaboration and employee experience. Edited excerpts:

Can you provide an overview of the new Zoom Docs feature? What are the core functionalities that differentiate it from other document collaboration tools?

Zoom Docs is an AI-first, collaborative docs solution that enables users to transform meeting content into actionable documents, wikis, and projects. With Zoom Docs, customers can create and collaborate seamlessly with Zoom AI Companion, improve business outcomes, and do even more — it provides flexible, customizable documents that are part of Zoom Workplace. Zoom Docs was built from the ground up with AI Companion at its core to create next-gen, AI-first, collaborative docs.

Zoom Docs is built differently than other docs solutions because it is available natively in Zoom Workplace and is therefore deeply integrated with solutions like Zoom Meetings, making it easier and faster for users to harness their meeting content for further iteration in Zoom Docs to easily take action on projects discussed in meetings. Users can also share docs in Zoom Team Chat, embed a Zoom Whiteboard in a doc, immersively co-edit a doc right in Zoom Meetings, and access docs in the desktop, mobile, or web app. This keeps content, progress, and teamwork within the same collaboration hub, eliminating the need to flip between browser windows and apps.

How does Zoom Docs leverage AI to enhance real-time collaboration among teams? Can you share some examples or use cases?

Zoom Docs was built from the ground up with AI Companion at its core. In the hybrid era, where generative AI is reshaping the future of work, Zoom’s recent survey with ReworkedINSIGHTS highlights the tangible benefits of AI in the workplace. A significant 85% of APAC leaders have observed increased productivity due to generative AI, while 69% of employees in the region agree that AI simplifies their work. 

Zoom Docs can help enhance meeting engagement, and make it easy to work together on business documents, project planning, and information hubs. Teams can collaborate more effectively in and out of meetings with seamless in-meeting creation, sharing, and co-editing. AI Companion can populate docs with meeting information, making it easy to capture and transform discussions into actionable content during or after the meeting.

Zoom Docs also offers a variety of views and layouts, making them more engaging than traditional static documents. Users can create content with AI Companion and pull in information from Zoom Meetings or embed content from third-party sources. This allows teams to keep documents dynamic and relevant to their ongoing projects. 

Zoom Docs helps with project planning by keeping project information organized with wiki capabilities and customizable content blocks for trackers, tables, charts, and more. AI Companion can generate data tables, which improve project visibility and inform stakeholders about the project status, ensuring that everyone stays on the same page.

Finally, Zoom Docs can help create information hubs. Teams can use AI Companion to populate and organize content, making it easier to keep cross-functional teams informed with a single source of information. Users can customize permissions and roles, ensuring that the right people have access to the right information. Collaboration is further enhanced with co-editing, comments, and notifications, keeping the flow of communication and updates seamless.

What prompted Zoom to acquire Workvivo, and how does it align with Zoom’s broader strategy for employee experience (EX)?

Zoom announced the acquisition of Workvivo to extend Zoom’s platform and offer its customers new ways to keep employees informed, engaged, and connected. Today’s workforce is hybrid and distributed — with people working from home, in an office, at a remote location, on the frontlines of a retail floor or warehouse, as a pilot or flight attendant in an airplane, a nurse in a healthcare clinic, or anything in between. They are people who want to feel connected to their colleagues and leaders — no matter where they work. Engaging employees and driving culture through connection is no longer a ‘nice to have’ — it’s imperative for success in today’s business environment.

The power of Workvivo’s employee experience platform, with its robust communications and engagement offering combined with Zoom’s open collaboration platform with AI Companion, allows to fully unlock the potential of their employees and evolve their company culture in a hybrid world.

Workvivo has set the standard for employee communications, helping businesses reach and engage millions of employees worldwide. Workvivo prioritizes ease-of-use and simplicity of design, offering the best user experience, which is a perfect match to Zoom’s DNA. With this acquisition, Zoom continues its evolution to provide the best end-to-end collaboration platform focused on enabling modern work and powering the digital-first workplace. Workvivo, the employee experience platform designed to simplify communication and drive engagement, is now also available for all of Zoom’s channel partners to sell to their customers.

Could you explain how Workvivo helps  build stronger cultures and improve employee engagement? Are there any unique features or functionalities that set it apart from other EX platforms?

Workvivo is an employee experience platform (EXP) that simplifies internal communication and drives engagement. Built for the digital-first workplace, the purpose is to engage and emotionally connect people by giving everyone a voice. It brings company culture to life digitally, helping everyone feel included, appreciated and engaged no matter where they work. It helps build stronger cultures and improve employee engagement by offering a range of features designed to connect and synchronize staff from desk to frontline. Key functionalities include an activity feed, digital signage, live streaming, podcast capabilities, chat, and newsletter, all within one digital platform.
 
Workvivo fosters a sense of belonging by creating a stronger connection between employees, their culture, and values. This is achieved through a unified employee experience that prioritizes recognition and engagement with features such as the social feed, events, ‘say-hi’ videos, goals & values, shout-outs, and community spaces.
 
Additionally, Workvivo is distinguished by its modern social intranet, which streamlines communication, makes it easy to find resources, and enhances productivity. Unlike traditional intranet platforms, Workvivo’s documents, pages (wiki), app launcher, search, 100+ integrations, and API framework ensure that the platform is actually used and valued by its users. This combination of features sets Workvivo apart as a human-centric platform that not only supports effective communication but also drives engagement and fosters a vibrant company culture. In fact, Meta recently discontinued Workplace from Meta, naming Workvivo by Zoom Meta’s only preferred migration partner in a customer transition that will happen over the next two years.

Global businesses like Virgin Air, Motherson, Lululemon, Ryanair are just a few of the many companies that power their global digital employee experience with Workvivo.

Essar Power, one of India’s first and leading private players in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric energy, has deployed Workvivo by Zoom to improve employee engagement with the help of technology.  

How does the Zoom AI Companion differentiate itself from other AI assistants available in the market? Can you highlight any unique AI models or technologies used?

Zoom AI Companion is available across the Zoom Workplace platform, bringing generative AI capabilities to the Zoom user experience throughout their workday. Today, AI Companion enhances an employee’s capabilities by using generative AI to boost productivity with features like meeting summary, chat compose, image generation, live translation, and enhanced features in Zoom Contact Center. Zoom continues to evolve AI Companion and it has been enabled for over 1.2 million accounts since its launch in September 2023. 

AI Companion is built on Zoom’s federated approach to AI and incorporates not only Zoom’s own models but also leading third-party models, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta LLaMA. Unlike other similar offerings that cost $30 or more per user per month, AI Companion is included at no additional cost for paid users with the services in their account. This commitment to democratizing AI accessibility ensures that all customers, regardless of business size, have access to this advanced technology without extra charges. Zoom AI Companion supports more than 30 languages for in-meeting capabilities and Team Chat including  Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu,  and adds automatic detection of supported languages for meeting summaries.

Our progress in broadening Zoom Workplace, building out enhanced AI tools for Contact Center, and expanding the enablement of AI Companion sets us up well to transition into the next phase of AI-enabled work. In this phase, Zoom AI Companion will move beyond enhancing skills to simplifying the workday, providing contextual insights, and performing tasks on the user’s behalf. It will operate across our collaboration platform to ensure workdays are interconnected and productive.  

What specific use cases or industries have seen significant improvements in EX and CX with the adoption of Zoom Workplace?

Zoom continues to transform organisations across industries and geographies by empowering employees, teams, and customers to work better together and get more done. Our all-in-one open collaboration platform with AI Companion has already proven transformative for leading in the India market, including Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Lenskart, Essar Group, Motherson and Razorpay. 
Lenskart, India's leading optical prescription eyewear retail chain, faced a significant challenge in managing the uneven distribution of optometrists across different regions in India. To address this, Lenskart turned to Zoom Contact Center which enabled optometrists to carry out remote eye tests for customers via video. 
Excelsoft leverages Zoom Video SDK to elevate exam integrity with their AI-powered remote proctoring system, easyProctor. The integration with Zoom ensures high-quality video streaming and reliable performance, allowing proctors to have clear visibility of candidates. This partnership supports easyProctor's expansion into new markets, aiming to transform online proctoring and academic integrity globally.

AccioJobs, another ed-tech startup, is revolutionizing the way engineering students learn and upskill by integrating Zoom’s Meeting SDK and Video SDK into its product.

Implemented by the UGC for the MoE, the Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) introduced Zoom as a potential game-changer for its virtual classrooms, leveraging Zoom to overcome geographical constraints and usher in a new era of accessible and quality education for its students. 
Olive Living, a next-gen living community in India, found the perfect solution with Zoom Rooms virtual receptionist, which is being leveraged at some of their properties to greet guests upon arrival, provide seamless check-in, and receive feedback on their virtual receptionist experience.

How does Zoom Workplace address the challenges of remote and hybrid work environments in terms of collaboration and engagement?

The recent Zoom and ReworkedINSIGHTS survey also stated that the majority of organisations in APAC are embracing flexible working arrangements, with 84% of organisations adopting either a hybrid (58%) or remote (26%) working model. Zoom Workplace addresses the challenges of remote and hybrid work environments by reimagining how teams communicate and collaborate. It is designed to streamline communications, increase employee engagement, optimize in-person time, and improve productivity across flexible work arrangements. Zoom Workplace combines everything users trust and love about Zoom’s core communications products with our employee engagement, spaces, and productivity solutions, all within a unified Zoom experience, with AI woven throughout. 

The platform includes Zoom AI Companion at no additional cost for paid users, which enhances productivity, collaboration, and skill development, while also providing time savings. This integration allows employees to work more efficiently and effectively without the need for additional investment in generative AI or managing who has access to advanced AI features.

As an open platform, Zoom Workplace empowers customers to create seamless experiences through our APIs, SDKs, and over 2,500 integrations available in the Zoom App Marketplace, including those with Microsoft, Google, and other applications. This flexibility helps address the complexity and fragmentation of collaboration tools by providing a cohesive and integrated solution for remote and hybrid teams.

What are some of the challenges faced by customers in different geographies when adopting Zoom’s solutions, and how have these been addressed?

In diverse regions, remote and hybrid work environments bring challenges such as maintaining effective communication, ensuring seamless collaboration, and managing employee engagement. Zoom Workplace addresses these issues by streamlining communications, increasing engagement, and improving productivity through a unified open platform that integrates core Zoom products with employee engagement and productivity solutions. Zoom AI Companion enhances productivity and collaboration without requiring extra investment in AI, as it is included at no additional cost for paid users, making it accessible to all users regardless of their location.

In areas with varying levels of infrastructure and connectivity, ensuring reliable performance and accessibility can be a challenge. Zoom's robust platform, including products like Zoom Docs and Zoom Contact Center, is designed to perform well even in less-than-ideal conditions. By providing high-quality video streaming and reliable performance, Zoom helps bridge connectivity gaps and ensures that users can collaborate effectively, regardless of their geographic location.

Adapting to various local systems and tools can be challenging. Zoom Workplace addresses this by offering over 2,500 integrations through the Zoom App Marketplace, including with Microsoft and Google. This flexibility allows to seamlessly integrate Zoom with their existing systems and workflows, ensuring a smooth transition and continued productivity. By addressing these challenges through its comprehensive and adaptable solutions, Zoom continues to support customers globally in navigating the complexities of modern work and enhancing their collaboration and engagement strategies.

What are the key focus areas for Zoom in India in the coming year, particularly concerning AI and digital transformation?

India remains a key market for Zoom. We are on a constant mission to solve our customers' challenges, and continuously evolving to bring the next wave of innovation that transforms how they work, communicate, and collaborate.  We are focused on supporting our teams and operations in India to better serve our growing customers here.   We will continue to expand our reach in India supported by a growing partner ecosystem. We have been working with partners like Rahi Systems, Tata Teleservices, Savex Technologies, TechUnited Solutions and Inflow Technologies and look forward to welcoming more partners to our ecosystem.

In the coming year, we see opportunities to help more businesses digitally transform by reimagining customer and employee experiences with our platform and will continue to support the growing enterprise and SMB segments across multiple industries, including banking, healthcare, and education, as well as government and citizen services.

in India today need to manage a workforce that comprises up to five different generations working side-by-side, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z. With a multi-generation workforce, the need for employee engagement and collaboration has never been greater. We observed that many companies are still facing challenges in providing communications and collaboration platforms that appeal across generations.  

In the coming year, we will continue to work with our customers to bring the right platforms to this multi-generation workforce and help their employees be happy and more productive. We aim to address their needs through our platform including solutions like Workvivo to improve employee engagement and foster a strong company culture. AI will remain key in transforming workplaces and helping increase operational efficiencies and productivity. Customers have adopted our AI Companion which enhances an employee’s capabilities using generative AI to boost productivity through features including meeting summary and chat compose. We will continue to develop AI Companion capabilities to support better our customers’ work on Zoom Workplace and the entire Zoom platform. 

AI also plays an important role in reshaping Customer Experience (CX), empowering to meet and exceed customer expectations. Many companies are prioritizing CX for growth and are taking steps to modernize their contact centers. We are seeing this trend continue next year, and are focused on helping our customers redefine their customer experience with our Zoom Contact Center.  Our omnichannel Zoom Contact Center can help these businesses deliver prompt, accurate, highly personalized customer experiences that drive loyalty. AI-driven features like sentiment analysis and conversation summaries provide seamless support across multiple channels while improving the agent experience.

Another area we see continued interest in is Zoom’s developer tools, such as its suite of SDKs and APIs. We aim to continue to empower developers and startups in India to create customized applications and scalable integrations to innovate and grow their businesses. 

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