Megan: Yes. That piece of faith is very important today, isn’t it? And Sam, as much as AI has influenced audio innovation, audio has also influenced AI capabilities. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about audio as a data input and what advanced technologies like large language models, LLM, are enabling.
Sam: Absolutely. Audio is indeed a rich data source that has added a new dimension to AI capabilities. If you think about speech recognition or natural language processing, there have been significant advances in them because of the audio data that has been made available to them. And to Brendan’s point about trust and accuracy, I like to think of the products that Shure enables customers to essentially have eyes and ears for leading AI companions like Zoom AI Companion. You really need that pristine audio input to be able to trust the accuracy of what the AI produces. These AI assistants have been very helpful in the way we do business every day. I mean, between transcription, speaker attribution, the ability to add action items within the meeting, and being able to track what’s happening in our conversations, all of these really have to rely on accurate and pristine input from the audio into the AI. I think this gives our end users more confidence in the results of AI and enables them to get more out of it.
If you think about it, if you look at how AI audio inputs enhance that interactive AI system, it enables more natural and intuitive interactions with AI. And it really allows that seamless integration and the ability for users to use it without having to worry about whether the room is set up correctly? Is the audio level appropriate? And when we also talk about agentic AI, we’re working on future developments where systems can heal themselves or detect that there are problems in the environment so that they can self-correct and adapt to all these different environments and enable AI to do more effective work, if you will.
Megan: Sam, you talked about future growth there. I wonder if we could end our conversation today with some perspective on the future. Brendan, can you share the innovations Zoom is working on right now and what you’re most excited to see come to fruition?
Brandon: Well, your timing is perfect for this question because we just finished Zoomtopia 2025.
Megan: Oh wow.
Brandon: And this is where we discussed many of the new AI innovations coming to Zoom. To begin with, there is AI Companion 3.0. And we’ve launched the next generation of agentic AI capabilities in Zoom Workplace. And with 3.0 when it releases, it’s not just about transcribing, it’s actually turned into a platform that helps you with follow-up work, prepare for your next conversation, and even proactively suggests how to free up your time. For example, AI Companion can help you intelligently schedule meetings across time zones, suggest which meetings you can skip, and still stay informed, and even prepare you with context and insights before you engage in the conversation. It’s about helping people focus on strategy and creativity rather than administrative busy-ness. And specifically for hybrid work, we introduced Zoomi Group Assistant, which will be a huge leap forward for hybrid collaboration.
Acting as an assistant for group chats and meetings, you can simply ask, “@Zoomie, what’s the latest update on the project?” or “@Zoomie, what are the team’s action items?” And then get instant answers. Or because we’re talking about audio here, you can walk into a conference room and say, “Hey, Zoomy,” and get help with things like checking in on the room, adjusting the lights, the temperature, or even sharing your screen. And while these are all built-in features, we’re also expanding the platform to allow custom AI agents through our AI Studio, so organizations can bring in their own agents or integrate with third parties.
