Use Zoom’s AI Companion to Take Notes and Summarize Meetings Leave a comment
Click on-clack, click-clack. That’s the sound of somebody typing assembly notes throughout a Zoom name, and it’s tremendous annoying. Like caffeinated chipmunks, folks typically don’t notice they’re clattering away on a keyboard. But, somebody has to jot down motion gadgets and reminders.
That “somebody” doesn’t must be a human, although. Launched final fall, Zoom’s new AI Companion feature—included with all paid Zoom subscriptions—is like having an admin assistant on each name. The bot can summarize a gathering, create motion gadgets, and even let you know who talked essentially the most.
AI Companion makes use of massive language fashions from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta however has additionally educated itself by listening in on 1000’s of conferences between Zoom workers, in keeping with Smita Hashim, a chief product officer at Zoom. (“For confidentiality, we don’t use any actual conversations from our prospects for any coaching functions,” she says.)
Whereas AI Companion is highly effective, it’s not at all times apparent what you are able to do throughout a name or how the bot saves you time. I made a decision to carry a number of conferences and put Zoom’s AI helper via a collection of assessments. I’ll clarify methods to obtain these identical outcomes, offering the most effective prompts to get you began. And, I’ll cowl what the AI Companion can’t fairly do—but.
Summarize a Assembly
Throughout a gathering, you’ll be able to entry AI Companion by clicking the icon under the principle video window. (It seems to be like a magic wand with sparkles.) Zoom supplies just a few built-in prompts that will help you get began resembling “Summarize the assembly,” which lists intensive bullet factors primarily based on what has been mentioned up to now. The AI Companion works like a human admin throughout conferences; you’ll be able to have the bot create a whiteboard of concepts primarily based on the real-time dialog as a approach to visualize the dialogue.
In my assessments, it turned apparent the characteristic works finest when individuals are clear and intentional in the course of the Zoom name. If you happen to stick with a gathering plan, masking crucial matters in a succinct method, the abstract is absolutely helpful. On one name speaking a couple of new web site design, the abstract talked about doing the design work, constructing a prototype, and testing. Nonetheless, AI Companion didn’t at all times seize the speaking factors completely. In a gathering to plan out an abroad journey with relations, the dialog was too random, and the AI-generated abstract I bought afterward didn’t actually make sense. Bots are educating us methods to stay of their world, proper? AI Companion works finest when your assembly follows a well-defined construction.
As an alternative of a abstract, you may also ask the AI Companion to “Catch me up” or ask “Does anybody have any motion gadgets?” The bot received’t summarize the whole lot within the assembly however will point out just a few high-level matters and takeaways. Within the name a couple of trip, the bot instructed me my daughter Rachel had simply talked about flights. When your thoughts wanders throughout a gathering, asking for a catch-up is amazingly useful. Not that any of us ever do this in Zoom conferences, in fact.
