Zoom has signalled its attempt to crack the office software market with the launch of its own word processor tool.
Available now, Zoom Docs is the video conferencing company's move to offer a wider variety of tools, meaning users can potentially collaborate and create across a single platform.
First announced in October 2023, the new offering is heavily AI-powered, backed up by the company's Zoom AI Companion generative AI assistant, promising to boost creativity and productivity across the board by doing away with repetitive or dull tasks.
Zoom Docs launch
This Zoom AI Companion backbone will allow users to create meeting summaries from their Zoom video calls and meetings, as well as Team Chats, to create or start writing and collaborating on documents such as an action list or wrap-up report.
Users can also start or schedule meetings from a Zoom Doc, streamlining the process of getting colleagues together in a single place, and can quickly create, share and collaborate on docs during a meeting in real time, before sharing across the Zoom Workplace suite afterwards.
Zoom Docs uses content blocks to build a document using a modular approach, allowing for a truly customizable layout, with the addition of images, tables and bullet blocks helping craft exactly what they need.
Colleagues or contacts can be asked to collaborate via mentions, with comments and threads allowing for multiple opinions and opportunities for feedback. Up to a hundred users are able to collaborate on a Zoom Doc, but permissions or access can be quickly added, changed or removed where necessary.
When a document is ready, users can also ask the Zoom AI Companion to help edit or change the tone to make it more acceptable for a certain audience, as well as being able to quickly summarize or query the content to make sure all the key details are present.
“Zoom Docs is our first Zoom Workplace product with generative AI built in from the ground up; it effortlessly transforms information from Zoom Meetings into actionable documents and knowledge bases, so teams can stay focused on meaningful work,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom.
“Zoom Docs is included at no additional cost with Zoom Workplace paid licenses, creating even more value for our customers. With AI Companion available every step of the way, Zoom Docs is purpose-built to empower people to ‘work happy’ and give them more time back in their day.”
The company says Zoom Docs will be included with all paid Zoom Workplace plans, to users of the Zoom Workplace app, version 6.1.6 or later. Basic (free) Zoom users will be able to create up to 10 shared docs and unlimited personal docs without AI Companion.
