Zoom recently announced Zoom Docs, a modular workspace designed to foster team collaboration, with the company’s Zoom AI assistant built-in. This innovative tool allows you to generate new content or compile a document using different sources of information. This is the first step towards the creation of a complete office suite, in direct competition with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Both of these platforms have begun to integrate tools powered by artificial intelligence, called Duet AI and Copilot respectively. Zoom Docs offers a number of interesting features: users can ask Zoom AI to bring meetings, chats and other information back into Zoom Docs, or even generate tables directly in the document. This tool also supports linking and inserting documents, as well as offering hierarchical organization with folders. Documents can be managed directly from meetings, from Zoom team chat, or via a browser, both from desktop and mobile devices.
Unlike productivity suites from Microsoft and Google, Zoom Docs appears to be geared more towards team collaboration than traditional charts and presentations. Additionally, Zoom AI Companion offers a significant price advantage, being included in the cost of Zoom’s paid subscription plans, starting at $149.90 per year per user. For comparison, Microsoft charges an additional $30 per user per month for 365 Copilot, while Google has announced similar intentions. It should be noted that Zoom has not yet specified the exact pricing for the Zoom Docs app, although it does include one year of access to its “Essential Apps” with paid subscriptions. This could be an incentive for companies that primarily use note-taking and meeting tools, allowing them to save on remote office software costs.