Zoom drops the ‘video’ from its company name

Zoom is altering its identify from Zoom Video Communications Inc. to only Zoom Communications Inc. In a post on the company blog, Zoom Communications CEO Eric Yuan writes that Zoom is now an “AI-first work platform for human connection” that delivers “fashionable, hybrid work options.” It’s a muddy, if imprecise, change in comparison with its 2020 rise when the basic Zoom Conferences product turned synonymous with video conferencing and thrived as firms have been compelled to transition workers to work at home.

Now, it now not desires to be recognized for video as employees have returned to places of work, and larger, better-resourced competitors from Google, Microsoft, and Slack affords video as a characteristic of the workplace suites firms already pay for.

By the top of 2020, Zoom’s year-over-year revenue had quadrupled, however by early 2022, the projections had modified, as Wedbush analyst Dan Ives predicted that “the work at home beneficiaries… Netflix, Fb, Zoom, Peloton, they’ll see progress fall off a cliff.” For each Peloton and Zoom, the subsequent few months and years have borne that out.

Zoom has fought again by launching extra complete communications instruments, beginning with Zoom Team Chat. Now, Zoom affords its personal full-suite Zoom Office answer with Google- and Microsoft-style Workplace productivity apps, a enterprise e mail shopper, and extra.

…right now all of us spend a whole lot of time both making cellphone calls, becoming a member of conferences, sending emails, deleting some spam emails and replying to some textual content messages, nonetheless very busy. How [do we] leverage AI, how will we leverage Zoom Office, to totally automate that sort of work? That’s one thing that is essential for us.

Zoom’s AI companion 2.0 launched in October with improved summarizing and help instruments, which he says “will translate into a totally customizable digital twin outfitted together with your institutional information, liberating up a complete day’s value of labor and permitting you to work simply 4 days per week.”