Zoom Is Launching Its Own Google Docs Competitor

Zoom is setting out to compete with Google and Microsoft by introducing Zoom Docs at its annual Zoomtopia 2023 event on Tuesday. Zoom Docs is the company’s own version of an AI-powered workspace that will provide users with AI capabilities to draft, edit, summarize, and include information from meeting discussions.

The company said in a press release that its new feature will be integrated into the meetings feature, and says it will make it “easy for teams and individuals to create, collaborate, manage projects, and stay organized.” It will also reportedly include the option to include tables, charts, and images in the Zoom Doc function, according to the press release.

“Am I giving my train of thought to the [document] or am I giving it to the attendees and participants?” Theresa Larkin, head of employee experience product marketing for Zoom, told The Washington Post. “We’re able to streamline [documents] so you don’t have to juggle both worlds,” she added.

The Zoom Docs feature is scheduled to be generally available in the spring of 2024, although the company has not confirmed the exact release date or cost for the program. Zoom’s newest feature announcement comes after it recently released its Zoom AI Companion which generates content from other sources and will be incorporated into Zoom Docs to populate the document.

Microsoft’s Teams and Google’s Meets features already compete with Zoom which gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic as employees were forced to work from home and schools transferred teaching to video conferences. Both Microsoft and Google have strived to incorporate AI-powered features into their software, with Microsoft introducing ChatGPT into its Suite 365 business software in March.

Meanwhile, that same month, Google also announced it was adding generative AI to Google Docs and Google Excel which would capture notes from Meet chats, proofread, write, and rewrite documents, among others. Zoom is now introducing similar measures to attract users to its product and make it easier to move between video calls and taking notes in the document.

Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan told Forbes he doesn’t expect Zoom Docs to replace other note-taking applications, but hopes it offers an alternative to toggling between tabs during meetings. “We cannot force anyone to standardize on one platform,” Yuan told the outlet. “The way I look at this is to give a customer flexibility. That’s the most important thing.”

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