Overview
Zoom AI Companion is a generative-AI digital assistant that hosts can enable to deliver powerful, real-time capabilities to help improve meeting productivity. It can provide real-time assistance in Zoom meetings by offering features like automated note-taking and meeting summaries with action items. The AI Companion can answer questions about what has been said earlier in the meeting. Users should be aware that this is a developing technology that will likely make errors that require manual correction.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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1. What is Zoom AI Companion?
Zoom AI Companion is a smart AI assistant integrated into the Zoom platform, designed to enhance productivity and collaboration. Zoom AI Companion is set to off by default; you will need to change your Zoom settings to opt in.
2. What do I need to consider before enabling Zoom AI Companion?
- Be mindful of data privacy: Hosts are responsible for preventing AI tools from sharing sensitive or private information. Follow the College's Data Classification Policy (2020), and be aware of the data classification level of topics discussed in meetings. Zoom does not use meeting content to train Zoom AI Companion, but does save summary and recording information if enabled by the meeting host, and can email a summary post-meeting.
- College policies and guidelines: Union College community members who choose to enable AI Companion in Zoom should use it in compliance with existing ITS and College policies including Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources (January 22, 2024), Copyright for Faculty (December 2023), Copyright for Undergraduates (December 2023), Information Security Policy (January 2025) login required, FERPA and Honor Code.
- Potential for errors or misinterpretations: Recognize that AI is not perfect and might occasionally produce inaccurate summaries, responses, or suggestions. Users should exercise judgment and not solely rely on AI output. Human correction is often needed before dissemination.
Tip: Meeting hosts should verbally announce the use of the AI Companion at the start of meetings, including a notice that the AI content may not be completely accurate, and that attendees can request the host disable these AI features for that meeting.
3. What Zoom AI Companion features are available?
Zoom AI Companion offers a variety of features designed to enhance productivity across different aspects of the Zoom platform. Here's a breakdown of a few key features:
For Meetings:
- Meeting Summaries: Automatically generates summaries of meetings, highlighting key discussion points and action items. This can be shared via email or Team Chat.
- In-Meeting Questions: Allows attendees to ask the AI questions during the meeting to get clarification or catch up on missed information without disrupting the flow.
- Smart Recording: Enhances cloud recordings with:
- Highlights: Identifies key moments in the recording.
- Smart Chapters: Divides the recording into logical sections based on the discussion topics.
- Summaries: Provides a written summary of the recorded meeting.
- Next Steps: Identifies and lists any agreed-upon action items.
- Analytics: Provides insights into key meeting and conversation factors.
For Messaging (Zoom Team Chat):
- Chat Compose: Helps users draft messages by suggesting content based on the conversation context and user prompts. It also allows adjusting the tone and length of the message.
- Thread Summary: Quickly summarizes the content of long Team Chat threads, making it easier to understand the main points.
- Quick Scheduling: Enables users to easily schedule meetings directly from a chat conversation based on the context.
- Sentence Completion: Suggests words and phrases as users type, helping to speed up message composition.
4. How do I enable or disable Zoom AI Companion features?.
- Log into Zoom and go to settings.
- Select AI Companion from the top navigation.
- Under General, locate AI Companion panel in Zoom Workplace and enable (i.e., toggle button left to right-it will turn blue).
- Recommended default Settings for key meeting settings: There are many settings to review that control how Zoom AI operates in your account. ITS recommends minimizing automatic AI features, and instead manually enabling them once in a meeting.
| MEETING SETTING |
SELECTION |
NOTES |
| Allow users to ask AI Companion questions about the meeting |
Enable, and leave "Automatically allow access when the meeting starts" unchecked |
A meeting host can decide to enable this feature for attendees when meeting starts. |
| Share access with |
Only meeting host |
A meeting host can decide to enable this feature for attendees when meeting starts. |
| Meeting summary with AI Companion |
Enable, and leave "Turn on meeting summary automatically when meetings start" unchecked |
A meeting host can decide to enable this feature for attendees when meeting starts. |
| Automatically share summary with: |
Only me (meeting host) |
A meeting host can iforward summaries to attendees after reviewing them. |
| Remind me to turn on AI Companion when I'm hosting a meeting |
Enable |
The AI Companion summary can be started manually in the meeting. |
| Auto-delete meeting summaries |
Off |
Zoom recordings are deleted after 120 days. If you want meeting summaries deleted before then, turn this feature on and set date. |
5. How do I use AI Companion features in Zoom meetings?
- AI Companion needs to be enabled in your Zoom account settings.
- Only the host can typically enable AI Companion features during a specific meeting. During the meeting, look for the AI Companion icon or a prompt that allows you to enable features like meeting summary or in-meeting questions.
- DO NOT enable/use AI in any meeting where sensitive information will be shared/discussed.
- Inform meeting participants that AI Companion is being used in the meeting.
- Provide a short explanation of what AI features are being used and how the participants can interact with the AI.
If you are having difficulty or you have unanswered questions, please contact the Help Desk through the ITS Service Catalog or call (518) 388-6400.