Zoom Unveils Cross-App AI Companion and Photorealistic Avatars

Zoom’s AI push expands beyond meetings

At Zoomtopia, Zoom doubled down on AI with an upgraded AI Companion that now operates across other meeting platforms, plus new features for note-taking, scheduling, and photorealistic avatars. The company is positioning these updates to compete with specialized meeting notetakers and productivity tools while moving AI deeper into everyday collaboration.

Zoom’s baseline AI — meeting recording and transcription — has been around for a while. This release focuses on breadth: make the assistant cross-application, extend it into in-person meetings, and give users the power to add raw notes that AI will expand and structure later.

• Cross-app AI Companion that works with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams and takes notes during in-person sessions.
• User-driven notes that the AI expands and structures (inspired by Granola’s approach).
• Cross-platform search across Google and Microsoft ecosystems and calendar-aware scheduling features including a “free up my time” request.
• Proactive meeting recommendations, group AI assistants, and AI-powered meeting prep (tasks and agenda suggestions).
• Photorealistic avatars that mimic your video presence for when you’re not camera-ready, plus Zoom Clips, a refreshed web UI, and higher-quality video options.

These features directly challenge startups like Read AI, Otter, Fireflies, Granola and Circleback, and calendar tools such as Clockwise. Zoom is trying to be both the platform and the layer on top of other platforms — a familiar strategy for incumbents seeking to neutralize niche competitors.

But the rollout raises practical and security questions. Photorealistic avatars offer convenience but carry deepfake risk and potential misuse of personas. Cross-platform access and expanded search increase attack surface and complicate data governance and compliance for regulated organizations.

For IT and security teams, the calculus is clear: adopt selectively and prepare controls. Here are practical steps organizations should consider.

• Run a pilot that tests cross-platform note capture and search with a small team to map data flows and retention needs.
• Define governance for avatars and identity use, and set default IT controls to disable or limit photorealistic personas where necessary.
• Assess integrations with Microsoft and Google for compliance, e-discovery, and data residency before enabling cross-platform search.
• Quantify productivity gains from automated notes and scheduling to prioritize which AI capabilities to enable company-wide.

Zoom’s feature set is pragmatic and incremental: it brings together transcription, generative expansion of user notes, calendar intelligence, and more natural presence through avatars. For businesses the questions aren’t just technical — they’re operational and legal.

QuarkyByte helps organizations weigh those trade-offs by modeling integration scenarios, simulating data exposure, and recommending staged rollout plans that balance productivity with risk. For teams deciding whether to enable cross-platform AI, a focused assessment and governance roadmap can turn these shiny new features into measurable business value rather than unexpected liability.