Technology Magazine March 2024 | Page 23

who else is sat around you . When you don ' t always work in the office , it gives you that little bit of familiarity between people , and I think that ' s really important .”
AI innovations at Zoom As with many businesses , Zoom has embraced AI and is today incorporating it into its offerings . Zoom ' s AI Companion helps draft emails and chat messages , summarise meetings and chat threads , and make brainstorming sessions more fun and productive .
As Hawthorn explains , when developing AI applications it ’ s essential that the tools serve a clear purpose . “ We ' ve spoken about AI for years in this industry . This is not a new thing . Right now , AI is out there because we ’ ve becoming far more intelligent in the way that we ' re using it . I think the important thing is to make sure AI is useful , and not just something that ' s there to make you look cool .
“ Personally I hate writing emails . So the capability for me to put in a few words into Zoom , and it literally spit out a great big long email is music to my ears . I ' d rather personally jump onto a call or a video call , but there are some times when you need email . The fact that I can say , ‘ make me sound a little bit less harsh when I ' m writing this ’ and the AI tool will do that for you , are examples that everyday users will get .”
Another of Zoom ’ s AI functionalities , to summarise chats , is another benefit . “ Everyone has opened up their email and thought , how am I going to get through all these things ? The fact that it can summarise it , is fantastic . We use the summary of meetings quite a lot in my own team . No one likes being the secretary . So the fact that you ' ve got this tool in the background that ' s sat there listening to the conversation , taking it all down , noting who is doing what – and then you consider the accuracy of it as well – is just beyond phenomenal .
“ Usable AI though , for me , is the key thing . Don ' t just have it there for the sake of having it . Don ' t make it complicated . Definitely don ' t be using my data for things that you shouldn ' t be using it for . These are the things I think that are important to people now .”
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