AS a brand, Zoom Video Communications (Zoom) is in an enviable position – almost everyone recognises Zoom as a household name for video conferencing. However, Zoom is more than just a tool for virtual meetings.
With over 50 innovations introduced in just March and April this year, Zoom continues to re-define how we Malaysians – and the world at large – collaborate and communicate.
One of its most significant innovations thus far is Zoom Workplace, its AI-powered collaboration platform that helps organisations re-imagine teamwork by streamlining communications, increasing employee engagement, optimising in-person time and improving productivity across flexible work.
Zoom Workplace is everything that users already know and love about Zoom with artificial intelligence (AI) woven throughout, according to Zoom’s head of Asia Lucas Lu.
Lu highlighted that AI has emerged as a big game-changer in the workspace to help empower employees by taking on the time-consuming mundane tasks by allowing them to focus on what matters most.
But while other platforms charge a premium for AI, Zoom’s generative AI assistant AI Companion comes at no extra cost to its paid users.
“We believe that the benefits of AI should be made available to as many people as possible without organisations having to pay a premium per user or have a minimum number of seats to gain access,” Lu told FocusM.
“This stems from Zoom’s commitment to empower our customers to be more productive, connect better with teammates and deliver higher-quality customer experiences in a way that simply makes work less work.”
Innovation at best
Zoom AI Companion can help draft e-mails and chat messages, summarises meetings and chat threads, improves brainstorming with colleagues, and more.
It currently supports more than 30 languages (in preview) for in-meeting capabilities and Team Chat including Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin in addition to automatic detection of supported languages for meeting summaries to help drive greater equity and inclusivity in the workplace.
Coming later this year is Ask AI Companion which can gather, synthesise and share information from multiple sources across the entire Zoom platform, including third-party apps.
“Our automated translation and transcription feature on Zoom Meetings is a key way to help organisations build an inclusive work environment to enable their hybrid teams across geographies collaborate better,” enthused Lu.
“This is especially important in such a diverse market as APAC where employees come from different backgrounds and cultures.”
He further revealed: “Zoom has always been customer-first in our approach and customers love Zoom because it just works. We have a team in Malaysia who is constantly engaging and listening to our customers to understand their needs and innovate, all while delivering a best-in-class experience with simplicity at the core.”
Zoom’s clientele in Malaysia includes some of the country’s largest enterprises as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Among them are MC Plus, the largest online tuition provider in Malaysia which is leveraging Zoom’s platform to enable a truly integrated and comprehensive learning experience for its students, and AEON.
Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading super-app, is also another satisfied client, which leverages on Zoom’s AI Companion.
Lu also shared that Zoom is focused on actively growing its partner ecosystem in Malaysia to increase reach and better serve customers. “We already work with partners like ESIGO in Malaysia and are looking forward to welcoming more to our ecosystem,” he envisages.
He explained that Zoom does not really target specific industries in Malaysia as its products are relevant across industries. However, he believes that there is a huge opportunity in the business process outsourcing (BPO) market.
Malaysia is one of the largest BPO market in the region. Statista projects revenue in Malaysia’s BPO market to reach US$1.44 bil in 2024 and grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 6.36% from 2024 to 2029.
“There is demand for easy-to-use AI tools like ours to help organisations in Malaysia strengthen their customer relationships and help their agents be more productive, ultimately leading to higher-quality customer experiences,” observed Lu.
“Our omnichannel cloud contact centre platform, Zoom Contact Center, is the first video-optimised omnichannel contact centre in the market.”
He added: “As businesses in Malaysia and beyond seek smarter, more integrated solutions, Zoom is set to play a crucial and strategic role in driving productivity and connectivity.” – July 3, 2024
