Zoom AI Companion

Zoom AI Companion is a built-in generative AI assistant within the Zoom platform which allows users to automate tasks, summarize content, and assist with communication across meetings, chat, and whiteboards, without using customer data for training its models. Key features include generating Meeting Summaries, allowing participants ask In-Meeting Questions, and create Smart Recordings, among others.

Ethical Use and Verification

Zoom AI Companion, like all generative AI tools, is designed to assist, not replace, human judgment. While it can be helpful for summarizing meetings, identifying action items, or supporting accessibility, its outputs should always be reviewed and verified by a human.

AI-generated content may contain inaccuracies or omissions, reflect bias present in training data, oversimplify complex discussions, and/or misinterpret context or intent.

AI Companion outputs should not be treated as authoritative records or final decisions. Faculty and staff remain responsible for verifying accuracy, applying disciplinary expertise, and ensuring that AI-supported work aligns with institutional values, pedagogical goals, and ethical standards.

Meeting Consent and Transparency

Before enabling Zoom AI Companion in any meeting, users should inform all participants and obtain their consent, just as they would before recording a Zoom session. Attendees should understand what the AI Companion will be used for (e.g., meeting summaries or action items) and how the output may be shared.

Meeting Summaries

Creates quick recaps, highlights, and action items from meetings.

Ensure that the appropriate Zoom AI Companion settings for Meeting summary are enabled. Login to your Skidmore Zoom account at https://skidmore.zoom.us and click on Sign In. In the left-hand navigation menu click Settings. Click the AI Companion tab. Under Meeting, click the Meeting summary with AI Companion toggle to enable or disable. See the image below for an example of this feature toggled on and set to send email notification when sharing with users.

After ensuring the your Zoom AI Companion Meeting Summary settings are configured as desired, you will be able to start and stop meeting summaries in your Zoom meetings as follows.

Start Meeting Summary as the host

1. Start a meeting.
2. On the in-meeting controls, click AI Companion .
   The meeting summary will begin to be generated, and participants will see a notification informing them that Meeting Summary is active.
3. (Optional) Click AI Companion , then Stop AI Companion to stop summary generation.

After the meeting has ended, the summary will be finalized and sent out.

Request Meeting Summary as a participant

1. Join a Zoom meeting.
2. In the meeting control toolbar, click AI Companion . 
   Note: If Meeting Summary is not currently enabled for the meeting, the participant will be prompted to request feature enablement.
3. Click Ask host.
   The request will be sent to the host (if the host is an admin) or any admins in the current meeting. If no admins are present, an email request is sent instead.

Access Meeting Summary via email

Once a meeting summary is available, a copy of it is provided through email. If continuous meeting chat is disabled for the meeting with the corresponding meeting summary, the summary is only shared this way.

1. Access your email inbox.
2. Select the email with the same subject as the meeting topic to view the summary.
3. (Optional) In the body of the email, click Edit Summary Here.
   You will be prompted to sign in to your Zoom account (if you are not already) to continue editing the summary through the web portal.
   Note: Only the host has the Edit Summary Here option.

Visit these links for more information on enabling Zoom Meeting Summary and using meeting summary with Zoom AI Companion.

In-Meeting Questions

Ask in-meeting questions about the conversation using preset prompts or custom questions, helping you catch up without interrupting the meeting flow.

If you would like to allow in-meeting AI prompting, then that setting must first be activated. Login to your Skidmore Zoom account at https://skidmore.zoom.us and click on Sign In. In the left-hand navigation menu click Settings. Click the AI Companion tab. Under Meeting, click the Allow users to ask AI Companion questions about the meeting toggle to enable or disable. See the image below for an example of this feature toggled on and set to allow participants and invitees in our organization to use this tool during meetings.

Start AI Companion as the host

When the meeting starts, the host can manually start AI Companion so that it is available to in-meeting participants. Meeting hosts can also configure AI Companion to be automatically available to meeting participants when meetings start.

1. Start a meeting as the host with the Zoom desktop app.
2. In the meeting control toolbar, click AI Companion .
   The AI Companion panel will open in the meeting.
3. At the top of the panel, click Start AI Companion.
   Note: This will enable meeting AI Companion features.
   A transcript of the meeting will begin to be generated for AI Companion to reference, and participants will see a notification informing them that AI Companion is active.

How to ask questions about the meeting with AI Companion

With AI Companion active for the meeting, participants will be able to ask questions about the meeting based on the meeting transcript. The meeting host’s settings control if participants can ask questions about the meeting, including from which point in the meeting they can ask questions (e.g., from the start of the meeting, or from only when they joined).

While optimized for meeting-related queries, AI Companion may respond to general questions using its broader knowledge base when unrelated to the discussion.

1. In the meeting control toolbar, click AI Companion .
   The AI Companion panel will open on the right side of the meeting window.
   Note: If this is the first time opening AI Companion in the current meeting, some typical preset questions are provided. Any subsequent views of the panel for the current meeting will have your questions and responses thus far shown instead.
2. Click a provided question, or click the text compose box at the bottom of the panel to enter a custom question.
   Zoom’s AI Companion will provide a generated response based on the available data sources.
   • (Optional) In the compose bar, use the following:
     • Click the attachment icon  to attach a file.
     • Click the add icon  to access agents, apps, and knowledge collections.
3. (Optional) Use the following actions:
   • Click either thumbs up  or thumbs down  to rate the generated response.
   • Click the Copy icon  to copy the generated response.
4. Click the ellipsis  to use the following actions:
   • Send via Team Chat 
   • Create Task 
   • Create Doc 
5. (Optional) Enter another custom question, or click the New conversation icon  to start a new conversation with AI Companion.

Visit this link for more information on asking in-meeting questions with Zoom AI Companion.

Smart Recordings

Smart recording with the Zoom AI Companion allow you to organize your cloud recording into sections called smart chapters, get the key takeaways in a quick and digestible format through recording highlights, and identify action items to take after the meeting with next steps. 

To generate recording highlights, smart chapters, and next steps, you must have a cloud recording and audio transcript processed and available to view and have Smart recording with AI Companion enabled. You will receive email notifications when the recording and transcript are finished processing. These emails include links to view your recordings and transcript. Recording highlights, smart chapters, and next steps can be edited by the owner of the cloud recording (the host) or a user with permission to manage cloud recordings. 

The Smart recording with AI Companion settings can be found by logging in to your Skidmore Zoom account at https://skidmore.zoom.us and click on Sign In. In the left-hand navigation menu click Settings. Click the AI Companion tab. Under Recording, click the Smart recording with AI Companion toggle to enable or disable. See the image below for an example of this feature toggled on.

How to manage your cloud recordings with smart recording

Once the cloud recording and audio transcript have finished processing, you can go to the Zoom web portal to manage and edit the recording highlights, summary, smart chapters, and next steps. You can also trim the recording, download the files, and more.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Recordings & Transcripts.
3. On the Cloud Recordings tab, click the name of the recorded meeting or webinar.
   You will see a list of recording files. 
4. Click the video thumbnail.
   The recording will open and the transcript text will appear to the right of the video.

Visit this link for more information on Smart recordings with Zoom AI Companion.