This week, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan announced various upcoming features and considerations for the next evolution of the famed video conferencing software. Like others in the field, Zoom is taking a dedicated approach to providing immersive XR versions of its application on emerging headsets, with the CEO referring to a number of upcoming immersive features.
However, following a period of first-time deployment on XR devices, it appears that the company CEO is outlining an expansion of Zoom’s product focus to include various AI-powered XR features, perhaps launching Zoom as a significant player in providing immersive workplace applications.
The noted XR features include digital twins and AI avatars that display an immersive representation of a caller with integrated AI interactions. In an interview with The Verge, Yuan explained:
Down the road, the [Zoom] experience would be immersive, like with Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3. I think again, this is also the beginning, but the experience down the road, that’s a 3D version of yourself that can mimic you very well, so you can’t know if it’s a real person or just a 3D version.
Moreover, the CEO hinted at new Zoom features such as integrating phone calls, emails, whiteboards, coding, creative tasks, manager tasks, and project management tools alongside new AI and XR integrations. Zoom is significantly expanding its offering with unifes various workflows and services under one digital roof—” That’s the direction. That’s part of our Workplace [platform]. It’s our 2.0 journey,” Yuan noted.
Zoom will remain a video conferencing service at the moment; however, with the firm researching and launching innovative new AI and XR features, it may cement itself as a major XR and AI service provider, or, as Yuan explains, “we are going to become an AI-first company.”
AI Avatars and Digital Twins will Arrive on Zoom Platforms
According to Yuan, Zoom is working to include co-workers’ AI avatars, or digital twins, to boost engagement and immersion during video calls; “essentially, in order to listen to the call but also to interact with a participant in a meaningful way.”
Yuan also added:
Let’s say the team is waiting for the CEO to make a decision or maybe some meaningful conversation, my digital twin really can represent me and also can be part of the decision making process. We’re not there yet, but that’s a reason why there’s limitations in today’s LLMs. Everyone shares the same LLM. It doesn’t make any sense. I should have my own LLM — Eric’s LLM, Nilay’s LLM. All of us, we will have our own LLM. Essentially, that’s the foundation for the digital twin. Then I can count on my digital twin. Sometimes I want to join, so I join. If I do not want to join, I can send a digital twin to join. That’s the future.
Yuan’s comments may indicate that Zoom plans to integrate profound 3D experiences and services into its video conferencing service, with an unprecedented sophistication that practically fulfils workplace needs and expectations.
However, the future is still uncertain, and Zoom is not instantly integrating business-ready 3D avatars yet. Yuan explained that Zoom will start its AI-avatar journey by integrating voice-only representations of workers, with 3D representations coming soon to make Zoom calls more immersive, “like with Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.”
“I think again, this is also the beginning, but the experience down the road, that’s a 3D version of yourself that can mimic you very well, so you can’t know if it’s a real person or just a 3D version,” Yuan remarked.
Zoom’s journey to digital twins and avatars is based on the firm’s R&D and understanding of current and future workplace expectations. Yuan highlighted that to reach Zoom’s XR vision, “there are two technologies” to help enable an immersive future.
Yuan added:
One is AI — another is AR. Vision Pro, the Meta Quest 3 — it’s just starting. Look at today and all the generative AI [products]; it’s just started. I do not think those technologies are ready yet, but they will help us get there.
Yuan also noted how Zoom’s digital twin/AI integration will allow users to create avatars ready for various workplace scenarios. The CEO said that there are “multiple digital twins.” For example, Yuan noted that a worker can create a digital twin for training, sales, and engineering.
Zoom XR: Years in the Making
Despite CEO Yuan’s recent comment, the firm has keenly distributed XR services since the platform’s boom during the pandemic era.
In 2022, Zoom announced a partnership with Microsoft Teams to allow users to make cross-platform calls and share meeting data between the services without additional licenses or third-party support. The update also includes plans to incorporate advanced artificial intelligence and VR features to improve video conferencing on both Zoom and Teams.
The same year, Meta announced that it was working with the video conferencing platform Zoom to test out its avatar mode in workplace settings; Angela Cheng, the Quest Product Team Lead, stated during Connect 2022, “this is another reason why the Quest Pro is a big step forward for communication, including for work. More people work in distributed teams now, and being able to share a space with your co-workers and feel like you’re really together is still missing.”
More recently, and as Yuan mentioned, Zoom debuted a Vision Pro version of its video conferencing service. Zoom on Apple Vision Pro will help teammates and workers stay connected “no matter when and where they work, or how they communicate and collaborate,” said Smita Hashim, Chief Product Officer at Zoom.
