Zoom, AI Companion

Overview

The AI Companion provides real-time features in Zoom meetings including meeting summaries, automated note-taking, Smart Recording, and answering questions based on live transcription (Current Zoom AI Companion features). These features can make meetings more efficient and inclusive, but as a developing tool, AI Companion can make errors requiring human correction. 

The goal of this pilot is for Williams users to build experience in understanding the benefits and risks associated with AI features, and provide feedback to help us develop our guidelines and practices around AI-enabled tools. Community members who choose to enable AI Companion in Zoom will abide by all relevant College policies, including: the Data Classification Policy, Honor Code, Accessibility Policy, and Computing Ethics and Responsibilities.

Note: Williams has not committed to making these features available permanently and reserves the right to terminate the pilot at any time.

Instructions

Should I Use AI Companion? Benefits, Limitations, and Considerations

Zoom AI Companion offers both benefits and limitations:

  • Boost Productivity: Automate tasks like note-taking, creating summaries, and identifying action items, freeing you to focus on the meeting itself.

  • Enhance Engagement: Ask AI Companion questions in real-time based on the meeting transcript, promoting deeper understanding and interaction.

  • Improve Accessibility: Generate live transcriptions and translations, making meetings more inclusive for participants with diverse needs and backgrounds.

  • Streamline Workflows: Receive automated meeting summaries and recordings, making it easy to review key information and share with those who couldn't attend.

  • Accuracy Varies. As a developing tool, AI Companion may make occasional errors in summaries or when answering questions. Always review AI-generated content before sharing it officially.

  • Data Privacy. Meeting hosts are responsible for ensuring that protected information is not shared with AI Companion. Adhere to Williams’ Data Classification Policy guidelines and be mindful of the data classification level of topics discussed.  If in doubt, don’t turn on the AI companion for that meeting.  

  • Attendee Notification. While meeting participants are notified if AI has been enabled in a meeting, if the feature is turned off and then on again, participants are not notified.

  • Pronoun Usage. While AI Companion claims to reference pronouns from user profiles, it may sometimes make mistakes. If you notice incorrect pronoun usage, inform the meeting host.

Enabling the Zoom AI Companion in Your Williams Account

  • If you have read the benefits, limitations and considerations and would like you enable the Zoom AI Companion, you can do so by following these instructions:

  • If enabled, make sure to follow these best practices below.

Best Practices

  • Announce AI Use: At the start of meetings, inform participants that AI Companion is enabled and that its content may not be completely accurate.

  • Respect meeting participants: Disable the AI companion if attendees are not comfortable with it.

  • Be Mindful of Settings: Familiarize yourself with your AI Companion settings, and customize them to align with your meeting needs and privacy preferences.

  • Provide Context: When asking AI Companion questions, provide clear and specific context for the most accurate responses.

  • Review and Edit: Before sharing AI-generated summaries, always review and edit them for accuracy and completeness.

Recommended settings

There are many settings to review that control how Zoom AI operates in your account. OIT recommends minimizing automatic AI features, and instead manually enabling them once in a meeting.

SETTING NAME

SELECTION

NOTES

Automatically share summary with

Only me

A meeting host can then forward summaries to attendees after reviewing them.

Turn on AI Companion automatically when meetings start

Off

The AI Companion summary can be started manually in the meeting.

Auto-delete meeting summaries (after 30 days)

On

Turn auto-delete ON and set to 30 days

Who can ask questions to AI Companion

All participants only from when they join the meeting

Who can ask questions of the AI companion can also be controlled and changed in the meeting itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I enable/disable AI Companion?

Q: Who can enable/disable AI Companion in a meeting?

  • A: Only the meeting host has this ability. Attendees can submit a request to the host if they would like to change how AI Companion is being used.

Q: How accurate are the AI summaries?

  • A: AI summaries are generally accurate but may contain errors, including names, pronouns, and other content. The meeting host should always review summaries before sharing.

Q: Will meeting content be used to train AI Companion?

Q: How can I give feedback to OIT about AI Companion?

Q: What if I have more questions about using AI Companion features?

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