Zoom CEO's Utopia is Where AI Clones Attend Your Meetings

In the near future, you may no longer need to attend Zoom meetings yourself—your digital clone could do it for you.

This is the vision, or rather, an utopia, set forth by Zoom's CEO, Eric Yuan, who imagines a world where artificial intelligence (AI) clones handle meetings while you focus on more meaningful tasks.

@Zoom just announced that you will be able to attend a meeting as an AI-avatar. Now, I wouldn't be thrilled to talk to AI-proxies of others. But, we have shown that an embodied AI-zoom companion can be impactful, link in🧵. I am convinced there is a practical application to this. pic.twitter.com/7QxfyW68Xn<br/>— Olga Sutskova, PhD (@OlgaSutskova) October 10, 2024<br/> a

He iterated during his presentation at Zoom's annual Zoomtopia conference on 10 October:

“Think about it: What if AI could free up a whole day every week? (Zoom AI) could attend meetings or even assist in contract negotiations. All of us would customize our digital assistant, which again, over time, could evolve into this concept of a digital tool.”

#Zoomtopia - @ericsyuan says @Zoom has evolved to an AI first work platform for human connections. Zoom AI Companion frees up time to let people work happy. More time to be creative, spend family, etc. pic.twitter.com/wurEworLu2
— Blair Pleasant (@blairplez) October 9, 2024
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Yuan stated:

“This is more than an evolution; it’s a complete overhaul of how we get things done in the digital age.”

Introducing AI Companion 2.0

Zoom is advancing its AI capabilities with the introduction of AI Companion 2.0, set to evolve into customisable avatars by next year.

These fully animated digital personas, modelled from a user's photo, will be able to nod, gesture, and lip-sync based on pre-scripted content.

Designed to save time and boost productivity, especially in remote work, these AI clones will use Zoom Clips to deliver lifelike video messages or presentations, allowing users to focus on other tasks.

Custom avatars for Clips helps scale Clip generation, according to Zoom

Rather than replacing live meetings with AI interactions, the goal is to help users maintain efficiency—whether they need to step away for personal matters or simply prefer to avoid being on camera.

Smita Hashim, Zoom's chief product officer, expressed in the company's official post:

“Now, with the enhanced capabilities in AI Companion 2.0, users can get more done and focus on what's most important. And, with the new custom add-on for AI Companion, organizations will have the ability to tailor AI Companion to their specific needs and workflows at an affordable price."

Alongside this, Zoom's AI suite will offer features like real-time suggestions, app integrations, and Retrieval Augmented Generation for smarter data retrieval.

The entire package, including analysis tools and integration with advanced models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, will be available for $12 a month, promising a more seamless and efficient work experience.

Digital Cloning is the New Future?

Zoom's introduction of AI avatars aligns with a broader trend as other companies also explore the digital clone space.

It feels reminiscent of the metaverse's once-hyped trillion-dollar potential, suggesting that AI avatars may be part of a new wave of virtual workplace tools.

While these avatars are designed to boost productivity, they raise valid concerns about misuse, particularly as AI-generated replicas become increasingly convincing.

To address these risks, Zoom plans to implement advanced authentication and watermarking features, according to Hashim, who emphasized the company's commitment to ongoing security enhancements.

How these avatars will be used in the workplace remains to be seen.

Will they truly revolutionise productivity, or will they foster complacency?