Zoom brings AI-powered features to sales teams

Zoom Video Communications has launched a new solution Zoom IQ for Sales that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse sales meetings and leads to provide actionable insights. With this new product, the company has for the first time, ventured into sales automation software.

The solution is also equipped with new functionalities to facilitate Zoom events and webinar including backstage and webinar session branding.

 “Zoom IQ for Sales is a conversation intelligence add-on for Zoom Meetings that turns customer interactions into meaningful and actionable insights, helping teams across marketing, sales, and competitive intelligence improve crucial interactions with customers, the company said in a press statement. In other words, “with the help of conversation intelligence, the company can increase seller productivity with automation, risk assessments, and quick search functionality”, it said.

Some of the added features include its tight integration Salesforce, leading calendars, and Zoom Meetings. Zoom IQ for Sales consolidates work streams and provides an aggregated view into conversations and opportunities. Zoom’s web interface also makes it easy for admins to onboard users and manages their integrations and quick for users to view insights and recordings. Plus businesses have the flexibility to easily add users when needed, the company said.

 “Every interaction counts in a video-first world – whether it’s a call with a customer service agent, a video meeting with the sales team, or a hybrid event with customers and prospects. World-class customer engagement is where competitive differentiation happens,” said Oded Gal, Chief Product Officer at Zoom.

Sales automation software market, according to Verified Market Research could grow to $7.3 billion in size by 2028, growing at a CAGR of over 36% from 2021 to 2028, and is led by players such as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, HubSpot, closer home Zoho, among others and a host of start-ups that are currently driving the growth.

Needless to say, sales changed dramatically during the pandemic, when lockdowns forced companies -- and their sales teams -- to adopt digital tools to get work done. McKinsey has said in an April 2021 report that post the pandemic almost 90% of sales moved to a videoconference, phone, web sales model as companies in particular began to see digital interactions as highly important.

A June 2021 report by Harvard Business Review cited that with the right tools companies can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their sales activities by 30%. The report also found 82% of companies believe that, out of all technologies, AI has the potential to "significantly" improve alignment between sales and other departments such as marketing and finance by introducing more trust and accountability.

Betting on its increasing investments in AI, Zoom last May introduced an AI-powered feature that shows highlights from recorded meetings, automatically selecting the ‘most relevant’ parts of meetings based on keywords from audio transcriptions. In June 2021, the company acquired Kites, a Germany-based start-up founded in 2015 and has academic roots with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which specialized in real-time translation and transcription to improve meeting productivity and efficiency.

“These new innovations are yet another example of Zoom’s ability to bring new solutions to life quickly and seamlessly, based on the needs of its customers,” said Dave Michels, Founder and Principal Analyst at TalkingPointz.

According to Michels, “With the introduction of Zoom Events, Zoom Contact Center, and now Zoom IQ for Sales, the Zoom platform is poised to make an impact on reimagining the customer experience, by expanding it to include the entire customer journey from marketing to sales to ongoing support – the total customer experience.”