Catch up on meetings you're running late to with Zoom's new AI features

To rival Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Salesforce's Slack, the video conferencing application is incorporating various new AI-powered functionalities, as well as integrating with Mail and Calendar.

Zoom has recently announced a partnership with OpenAI to expand its use of artificial intelligence (AI). The collaboration will bring AI-generated summaries, message drafts, and other features to the video conferencing app through its Zoom IQ AI-powered assistant, which can already create chapters and highlights for recorded meetings.

The new features that Zoom IQ will provide include a way to catch up on meetings that you may have missed by summarizing what you've missed and answering further questions. Additionally, Zoom IQ can generate whiteboards based on text prompts, provide recaps of meetings, summarize threads in Zoom Team Chat, and generate responses to your colleagues using AI.

Zoom plans to roll out AI-powered message and email drafts on an invitation-only basis in April and will introduce "select" Zoom IQ meeting summary features more broadly. The company's decision to expand its AI capabilities is likely a response to similar moves by competitors Google and Microsoft, who have been adding new AI features to their productivity apps.

Zoom has also added other capabilities that make the service more of an all-in-one productivity app. The new Mail app allows you to connect your Gmail or Microsoft 365 address, and the new Calendar integration lets you view third-party calendars straight from Zoom. The company has also introduced a new feature called Huddles, which is a "video-enabled virtual coworking space" that allows you to hop into quick video calls to ask questions or chat with a colleague.