Say hi to a 2.0 version of you in the coming years!
Ever since the pandemic, online video conferencing tools, such as ZOOM, have been used prevalently in classes and offices to maintain social distancing. It made things easier to conduct meetings and team huddles, especially for those whose members are from different countries and locales.
However, video conferencing still requires the attendee to actually take the time to join in the meeting. But, what if there would be someone else who will take it on your behalf? And that someone will also be you?
ZOOM Eases Up The Busy Buddy
Imagine attending meetings almost 24/7 even when you’re on vacation; it sucks, but it’s necessary. So, you take some minutes off from your vacation time and join in the said meeting that could’ve just been an email instead. Well, the good news is that ZOOM CEO, Eric Yuan, shared a literal life-changing plan for ZOOM’s users during his interview with The Verge.
“Again, today we all spend a lot of time either making phone calls, joining meetings, sending emails, deleting some spam emails and replying to some text messages, still very busy. How to leverage AI, how do we leverage Zoom Workplace, to fully automate that kind of work? That’s something that is very important for us,” said Yuan.
The practical goal of making life easier led Yuan to devise a plan to reduce his and his users’ daily workload. According to Yuan, the ZOOM AI avatar will mirror the user’s appearance and speech, and it will autonomously make all the necessary decisions. Yuan even suggested that ZOOM could potentially automate AI-generated responses for meetings and even provide meeting summaries. Yuan added, “I truly hate reading email every morning, and ideally, my AI version for myself reads most of the emails. We are not there yet.”
It’s fascinating to think about how technology continues to evolve, especially in the realm of online communication. The idea of having an AI version of oneself attend meetings and handling emails while enjoying some well-deserved vacation time sounds like a dream come true. It’s a testament to how far we’ve come in terms of streamlining our daily tasks and making life more efficient.
Of course, with every innovation comes potential drawbacks, and it’s important to consider the implications of relying too heavily on AI. While having a digital avatar to handle mundane tasks can free up valuable time, there’s also the risk of losing the human touch in our interactions. Personal connections and genuine human input can’t be replicated by technology, and it’s essential to strike a balance between automation and human interaction.
As we move forward into the future, it will be interesting to see how AI continues to shape our daily lives and how we adapt to these changes. Here’s to embracing the possibilities while staying grounded in what truly matters.
What do you think? Will AI avatars in ZOOM lean more into an advantage or a threat? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
