ServiceNow Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. announced today at the annual Zoomtopia event an expanded strategic partnership to integrate their generative artificial intelligence technologies — ServiceNow’s Now Assist and Zoom AI Companion — by the first half of 2025.

With this integration, Zoom hopes to enhance enterprise productivity by automating workflows based on meeting discussions. When you think about all the time we spend in meetings, this could be a great boon to enterprises that strive for intelligence-driven collaboration.

The demand for AI solutions that streamline meetings and generate actionable tasks rapidly increases. In the announcement, the two firms pointed to a Gartner study showing that 92% of employees seek AI support with administrative tasks and information summarization.

That number may seem high, given that we are relatively new in the generative AI cycle, but its use is very sticky. Try it once, and people realize how easy it is and how much time it can save. Generative AI is trending towards ubiquity, like how the Internet progressed. Early in the cycle, people questioned the internet, and now it’s embedded in everything we do. Generative AI still has a few naysayers, but the technology will soon be mainstream in almost every application.

Integrating Zoom AI Companion with Now Assist converts unstructured meeting discussions into structured workflows. This will reduce the manual effort required for meeting follow-ups and administrative tasks, helping teams transition seamlessly from discussion to action.

AI-powered workflow automation and collaboration

The Zoom/ServiceNow integration emphasizes using AI to create a seamless flow of information within and between team collaboration platforms. For example, Zoom AI Companion can transcribe and summarize meeting discussions, highlighting key actions and follow-up tasks.

Now, Assist for Strategic Portfolio Management will review these transcripts to identify key actions and automatically trigger workflows. Automation will create tasks and assign them to relevant team members. At the same time, email notifications will fire off to attendees, summarizing key takeaways and post-meeting deliverables.

This latest partnership builds on builds on existing collaborations between the two companies, including:

• ServiceNow Employee Center for Zoom Workplace: Enables access to benefits information and human resources within the Zoom interface.
• Zoom Contact Center for ServiceNow: Embeds Zoom Contact Center capabilities within the ServiceNow platform, improving information access for agents and facilitating quicker resolution of customer issues.
• Ticket Collaboration with Zoom Team Chat: Allows service teams to work collaboratively in real-time on customer inquiries, eliminating back-and-forth communications and providing better customer service experiences.

The Zoom/ServiceNow partnership reflects a commitment to continually enhance the AI capabilities of both platforms, with a focus on creating custom AI skills and agents that support broader organizational needs. This expansion aims to elevate productivity and broaden the impact of both companies across enterprise operations.

How this partnership fits into overall industry trends

This strategic partnership between ServiceNow and Zoom is in step with many enterprise software and AI trends. With the rapid development of gen AI technologies, companies are looking to integrate AI capabilities directly into their workflow and collaboration tools. ServiceNow and Zoom are trying to automate more than just isolated tasks — they’re aiming at entire processes, from communication to project management, aligning with several key industry trends, such as:

1. AI-driven workflow automation and productivity: The industry is increasingly focused on AI solutions that can handle administrative and organizational tasks, enabling faster decision-making. This partnership represents the shift from simple automation to more complex, multistep workflows by leveraging AI to convert meeting discussions into actionable tasks. This can improve productivity by reducing the time spent on manual follow-ups and enabling real-time progress.
2. AI as a collaborative partner: Increasingly, AI functions as a collaborative partner rather than a standalone tool. Zoom AI Companion and Now Assist’s capabilities demonstrate how AI can seamlessly support team discussions, summarizing key points and automating administrative processes to allow employees to focus on high-impact tasks.
3. Emphasis on integrated user experiences: As AI becomes more embedded in enterprises, there is an emphasis on creating cohesive, cross-platform experiences. This partnership reduces the need to switch between multiple applications by allowing Zoom and ServiceNow to work together more cohesively. The seamless transfer of data from communication tools to project management platforms can significantly enhance efficiency and reduce the risk of errors.
4. Scaling AI across business functions: The ServiceNow/Zoom integration highlights how AI can work across various business domains, from customer service and HR to strategic portfolio management. This scalability enables organizations to use a unified AI approach for diverse functions, fostering consistency and improved performance.
5. Responsiveness to employee demand for AI tools: Employees increasingly seek AI tools to handle repetitive tasks and enhance productivity. Integrating ServiceNow and Zoom AI technologies should help meet this demand by offering user-friendly solutions that deliver immediate and practical benefits, such as reducing administrative burdens and summarizing complex discussions.
6. AI-powered decision-making and strategic growth: Beyond task automation, this partnership represents AI’s role in supporting strategic business growth and decision-making. By offering real-time summaries, task identification, and workflow automation, the integration supports organizational strategies from planning through execution, driving business agility and growth.

Some final thoughts

The partnership between ServiceNow and Zoom reflects a strategic response to the growing demand for integrated AI solutions that help improve productivity and efficiency. By combining Zoom AI Companion’s capabilities for communication and summarization with ServiceNow’s Now Assist workflow management, this integration has a chance to transform how enterprises operate, seamlessly moving from conversation to action.

But as with any announcement — especially an integration like this — the proof will be when it’s out in the wild. With general availability in the first half of next year, it could be 12 months or more before we see whether this will be the next step in the evolution of AI-powered productivity.

Zeus Kerravala is a principal analyst at ZK Research, a division of Kerravala Consulting. He wrote this article for SiliconANGLE.

Photo: Zeus Kerravala