Zoom AI Companion: Review of Its Features, Efficiency, Pricing & Alternatives

As the corporate world moves towards more remote and connected environments, the prevalence of AI meeting assistants continues to surge. While we have reviewed a number of AI meeting assistants and transcription tools like Otter AI and Fireflies AI, we were a little curious about the recently launched Zoom AI Companion. This tool literally has everything you need for your team meeting, plus the powers of generative AI. 

Launched initially as Zoom IQ, this AI assistant was rebranded as Zoom AI Companion (Possibly inspired by Microsoft Copilot). This tool brings AI capabilities across the Zoom platform using its own large language model (LLM), enhancing the team chats with real-time feedback and smart chapters. 

So, if you’re here, the possibility is that you’re either just starting out with this tool or have some questions regarding it. No matter what the case is, we will clear all your doubts about this AI assistant through this detailed Zoom AI Companion Review 2024. 

Let’s get started, but before, here are the key market statistics on AI meeting assistants…

• The global market size of AI Meeting Assistants was valued at $2.22 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $17.26 billion by the end of 2032, growing at a CAGR of 25.6%. (Source: MarketResearchFuture) 
• Approximately 30% of businesses with more than 50 employees use AI meeting assistants. (Source: Notta)
• 65% of users utilize AI meeting assistants daily, while 25% use them weekly. (Source: Zoom)
• For an interview of 1 hour, it may take up to 6 hours to transcribe, which means a transcriber takes 2.35 minutes to transcribe a 1-minute talk. (Source: GMR Transcription)

What is Zoom AI Companion?

Zoom AI Companion is a Gen AI assistant that helps platform users create content like meeting agendas, session descriptions, and speaker bios. It's included for free with all paid Zoom accounts, making it a cost-effective alternative to Copilot Pro. However, it only works within the Zoom platform.

This isn't Zoom's first attempt at providing an AI assistant. You might remember tools like Zoom IQ from the past. But AI Companion is more than just a rebranded version of IQ. It's a full-fledged generative AI solution powered by large language models such as Llama 2, Open AI, and Anthropic. This "federated" approach is different from competitors like Google, who use their own proprietary models.

Although Zoom AI Companion is included in your paid Zoom plan, it's not enabled by default. You need to activate the features you want to use. We will explain how to do that shortly. But first, let's explore the Zoom Ai Companion features. 

Zoom AI Companion Features That Make it Stand Out

The features of Zoom AI Companion are probably the solid reason behind its immense popularity among businesses. If you’re still doubting its capabilities, these features will make you believe why it is the best AI meeting assistant out there. 

• Automated Meeting Summaries: Zoom AI Companion creates summaries of meetings, capturing the main points and key discussions. This saves time by removing the need to review recordings for important details manually.
• Highlighting Key Action Items: The AI identifies action items and follow-up tasks, ensuring nothing is overlooked. Key decisions, assigned tasks, and deadlines are clearly marked, making it easy for team members to know their responsibilities and next steps.
• Conversational AI for Team Chat: The AI drafts responses and summarizes long chat threads, understanding the context of conversations.
• Whiteboard Idea Generation: The Zoom AI assistant helps enhance brainstorming sessions by using whiteboard content, including mind maps and sticky notes. 
• Multilingual Support: The AI assistant has the capability to answer questions in multiple languages, making it accessible for global teams.
• AI-Powered Email and Event Assistance: The AI helps create drafts for emails and compose event content, streamlining communication for Zoom Events.

What Does the Zoom AI Companion Do?

Zoom AI Companion is a tool specifically designed for Zoom meetings. It helps teams transcribe conversations and agendas in real-time. It captures spoken words during meetings and converts them into text instantly using advanced speech recognition technology. This allows participants to follow along with written text on their screens.

The real-time transcription feature is highly accurate, ensuring the text closely matches the spoken words. The best part of using this tool is that it supports multiple languages, making it great for global teams. It can even detect different accents and dialects, providing accurate transcriptions.

Here's a quick summary of what Zoom AI Companion can do:

• Summarize meetings, including what happened before you joined.
• Translate speakers in real-time with speech-to-text transcriptions.
• Generate ideas with a digital Whiteboard displayed to all participants.
• Create smart recordings for meetings, annotated by "Chapter," similar to YouTube videos.

Is Zoom AI Companion Safe?

As per Zoom, this AI assistant is designed to be safe and secure for users. It takes privacy seriously and ensures that your data is handled responsibly. When you use Zoom AI Companion, your data, such as audio transcripts and chat messages, is used to provide the service. 

However, Zoom does not use this data to train its AI models, which means your information stays private. Additionally, Zoom encrypts communication to keep your data secure.

It's important to remember that while AI tools are helpful, they are not perfect. Users should always review the AI-generated content to ensure accuracy and appropriateness. Zoom provides guidelines on how to use AI Companion safely and effectively.

Is Zoom AI Companion Free?

Yes, Zoom AI Companion is free but for users with paid subscriptions. However, the service isn’t yet available on free plans. This means that if you use Zoom's paid services, you can use the AI Companion without paying anything extra. 

Here’s a summary of the features each Zoom pricing plan offers: 

Basic (Free)

• Meetings up to 40 minutes 
• 100 Participants per meeting
• Whiteboard Basic - 3 editable boards
• Team Chat
• Mail and Calendar
• Clips Basic: 5 two-minute videos
• Notes
• Docs Basic

Pro ($12.49 per month)

• Everything in Basic, and:
• Meetings up to 30 hours per meeting
• Mail and Calendar - Client & Service
• Clips Plus - Unlimited videos
• AI Companion
• Unlimited Docs 
• Cloud Storage - 5GB
• Free premium apps for one year 

Business ($18.32 per month)

• Everything in Pro, and:
• 300 Participants per meeting
• Unlimited Whiteboards
• Scheduler
• Extras SSO managed domains & more

Business Plus (Custom Pricing)

• Everything in Business, and:
• Cloud Storage - 10GB
• PhoneGlobal
• Translated Captions
• Workspace Reservations
• Visitor Management

Enterprise (Custom Pricing)

• Everything in Business Plus, and:
• 1000 Participants per meeting
• Cloud Storage - Unlimited
• PhoneFull-featured PBX
• Rooms
• Webinars

How to Use Zoom AI Companion?

Using Zoom AI Companion is easy and can make your Zoom experience much better. Here’s a simple guide to get you started:

Step 1. Activate AI Companion

First, you need to enable the AI Companion. Sign in to your Zoom account on the web portal. Go to the settings and find the AI Companion tab. Turn it on by clicking the toggle button.

Step 2. Using AI Companion in Meetings

During a Zoom meeting, you can use the AI Companion to help with various tasks. For example, it can summarize the meeting, so you don’t have to take notes. It can also answer questions in real-time without interrupting the meeting.

Step 3. Composing Messages

AI Companion can help you write emails and chat messages. It can suggest the right words and tone, making your communication more effective and saving you time.

Step 4. Summarizing Information

If you have a lot of chat messages or missed a meeting, AI Companion can quickly summarize the important points for you. This helps you catch up without spending too much time.

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How to Enable Zoom AI Companion?

Now that you know how Zoom AI Companion can support you throughout your workday, here’s how to start using it immediately. You can access the AI Companion features included with the paid services linked to your Zoom user account at no extra cost. 

Follow these steps to activate it:

• Check with your admin: All AI Companion features are turned off by default. Your admin needs to enable these features through account and group-level settings. If you’re in a Zoom meeting and notice the AI Companion icon in your toolbar, click it and follow the instructions to request that your admin enable the feature.
• Log in and update your Zoom client: Ensure you’re logged into your Zoom client and that it’s updated to at least version 5.16.0.
• Adjust your web portal account settings: Navigate to your account settings on the web portal (click “Settings” in the left panel) and find the AI Companion tab. For features with user-level settings, you can toggle each capability on or off.

Is Zoom AI Companion Worth It?

Like many other online meeting assistants, Zoom AI Companion has improved the functionality of its AI capabilities over time. As we have reviewed a number of AI meeting assistants, we had higher expectations from Zoom Companion. And believe us, it lived up to our expectations. 

This AI tool is especially beneficial for organizations, helping them enhance the communication and collaboration of their teams. Its features, such as Automated Meeting Summaries, Conversational AI, and Whiteboard Idea Generator, are probably the platform's USP. 

The only downside to Zoom AI Companion is its limitation to the Zoom platform only. Additionally, its availability to paid Zoom accounts may disappoint users who are just starting out with the platform. 

Top 5 AI Meeting Assistants Like Zoom AI Companion

Although Zoom AI Companion has all the power of artificial intelligence, it may still fall short of your specific requirements. In such a situation, we have compiled a list of some of the best Zoom AI Companion alternatives: 

#1. Fireflies AI

Website: https://fireflies.ai/ 

When you're juggling numerous meetings each week, Fireflies can help you streamline and organize them all. Its array of AI-powered features allows you to categorize meetings by topic, project, or team, making it easy to find the information you need when you need it.

The app transcribes everything said during the meeting, attributing the dialogue to the correct speaker once you've identified them in the app. After the meeting, it processes the transcription with several AI capabilities:

• It extracts key details like dates, times, metrics, tasks, and questions, allowing you to filter them later.
• It performs sentiment analysis to highlight the positive, negative, and neutral aspects of the meeting.
• It provides a list of all participants, including their speaking rate and the percentage of time they spoke compared to others.
• It tracks various topics discussed, and you can add your own topics for Fireflies to continue organizing effectively.

#2. Otter AI

Website: https://otter.ai/ 

Otter.ai is a perfect Zoom AI Companion alternative designed to transcribe meetings, create live summaries, and generate action items. Connecting OtterPilot to your Google or Outlook calendars can automatically join your Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet meetings. OtterPilot offers various plans, including a free version.

The app includes a built-in chatbot that allows you to interact with Otter and your team, providing instant responses about your meetings, content creation, and more. Otter AI uses advanced algorithms to ensure high transcription accuracy, converting audio recordings into text for a seamless transcription experience, enabling real-time review of meeting notes.

Otter AI is compatible with popular online conferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Additionally, the Otter mobile app for iOS and Android keeps you connected on the go.

Key AI features include:

• Speaker identification
• Voice command control
• Real-time transcription
• Search and keyword analysis
• Highlighting of key points

3. Krisp AI

Website: https://krisp.ai/ 

Krisp.ai is an advanced noise-canceling app that leverages advanced deep neural networks to remove background noise from real-time audio, significantly improving the quality of digital communication. 

It is compatible with a wide range of communication platforms, making it an excellent choice for remote professionals, content creators, and anyone who needs clear audio in their conversations. 

This tool is particularly beneficial for those working in noisy environments or places where maintaining a quiet setting is challenging.

AI-powered features of Krisp.ai include:

• Analytics and Reporting
• Conversation intelligence
• Sentiment analysis
• Action item tracking
• Transcription and note-taking

4. MeetGeek

Website: https://meetgeek.ai/ 

MeetGeek is all-in-one meeting assistant that can be added to your video conferencing tools to capture, transcribe, and share key moments from your meetings with participants. 

It effortlessly syncs with your calendar and automatically joins your Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams sessions. Once the meeting concludes, it promptly generates and delivers meeting notes and summaries to your inbox.

AI-driven features of MeetGeek include:

• Meeting insights
• Workflow integrations
• Automatic summaries
• Highlights and keyword detection
• Auto recording and transcription

5. Microsoft Copilot

Website: https://copilot.microsoft.com/ 

Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant that is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams. It can take notes during meetings, pinpoint action items, and create summaries. Additionally, Copilot can send follow-up emails to meeting participants, outlining the next steps and deadlines.

Copilot uses the Microsoft Prometheus model, which is based on OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model. This model has been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. 

Copilot's conversational style is similar to ChatGPT's, allowing it to cite sources, compose poems, generate songs, and communicate in various languages and dialects.

Key AI features include:

• Automatic summaries
• Integration with other tools
• Transcription and note-taking
• Conversation intelligence
• Multilingual transcription

FAQs

What is the AI Companion in Zoom?

The Zoom AI Companion is a generative AI assistant integrated into the Zoom platform. It helps users by composing messages, summarizing chats and meetings, and providing real-time assistance during meetings. It is designed to enhance collaboration and productivity and is included at no extra cost with paid Zoom accounts.

Is the Zoom AI Companion Any Good?

The Zoom AI Companion is well-regarded for its ability to improve productivity. It offers features like real-time transcription, meeting summaries, and sentiment analysis. Users appreciate its ability to help them stay engaged in meetings without taking notes manually.

Can Zoom AI Companion Take Notes?

Yes, the AI Companion can take notes. It generates meeting summaries and captures key action items, allowing users to focus on the discussion rather than note-taking. This feature helps ensure that important details are not missed.

How to Use the Zoom AI Tool?

To use the Zoom AI Companion, you need to enable it in your Zoom settings. Once activated, it can assist with composing messages, summarizing meetings, and answering questions during meetings. You can access it through the AI Companion icon in Zoom Meetings or Team Chat.

What is the Difference between Zoom AI Companion and CoPilot?

The main difference between Zoom AI Companion vs CoPilot is in licensing and customization. Zoom AI Companion is included at no extra cost with paid Zoom accounts and has no complex licensing add-ons. In contrast, Microsoft Copilot offers various versions and customization options through Copilot Studio, but it comes with additional costs.

How to Turn Off Zoom AI Companion?

To turn off the Zoom AI Companion, go to the Zoom web portal, navigate to Account Management, then Account Settings. Under the AI Companion tab, you can disable features like Meeting Summary and AI Companion Questions by toggling them off.