In a recent conversation with The Verge, Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom, shared his forward-looking ideas for the future of video conferencing, including an innovative concept – digital twins for meetings.
Eric Yuan envisions Zoom going up against Microsoft and Google soon
Previously an employee at Cisco, Yuan founded Zoom with the intent of streamlining video conferencing. Now, he aims for Zoom to expand its horizons beyond video calls. Yuan envisions Zoom competing with tech giants such as Microsoft and Google in enterprise software, providing a full suite that includes document collaboration, email services, and chat functionality in addition to video conferencing.
Investment in AI
The interview also highlighted Zoom’s substantial investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI), a trend that is rapidly gaining traction across numerous industries. Yuan believes AI has tremendous potential in the workplace, particularly through the creation of “digital twins.” These AI-driven avatars could represent users in Zoom meetings, potentially even making decisions on their behalf while the user handles more urgent tasks.
User Control Over Digital Twins
Yuan, however, stresses the importance of users maintaining control over these digital twins. He imagines a future where users can train their digital twins to display different traits depending on the meeting context. For instance, a user might have one digital twin designed for sales presentations and another for technical discussions. While he acknowledges the uncertainties that come with AI development, Yuan is optimistic about the eventual realization of this technology.
It is important to note that Zoom has already addressed user concerns about AI development in its terms of service.
