Attend Zoom Meetings as Your AI Avatar
▼ Summary
– Zoom will soon allow users to create photorealistic AI avatars to represent them in meetings if they are not camera-ready, launching for Workplace users in December.
– The AI avatar feature will track users’ real-life movements and allow them to dress their digital likeness in professional outfits.
– Zoom is implementing safeguards including live camera authentication and in-meeting notices to prevent misuse and ensure the avatar matches the user’s identity.
– A real-time AI translation feature will be added, enabling participants to hear speakers translated into languages including English, German, Chinese, and others.
– Zoom’s AI assistant is being updated to schedule meetings, create video clips, and join meetings on other platforms like Microsoft Teams and Google Meet to take notes.
The future of remote collaboration is taking a bold step forward as Zoom prepares to introduce photorealistic AI avatars for its Workplace users this December. This innovative feature allows participants to generate a digital double of themselves, ensuring they appear professional and camera-ready even on days when turning on the live camera isn’t an option. By uploading or capturing a photo directly within the app, users can create a lifelike avatar that mirrors their appearance and movements in real time during meetings.
Zoom’s new avatar capability builds on last year’s introduction of AI-powered prerecorded messages, but now enables live meeting participation through an AI-generated likeness. The avatars will be customizable with various professional attire and will track the user’s real-world movements and speech, creating a more dynamic and engaging virtual presence. This development aligns with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan’s earlier vision of a “digital twin” future, where AI agents handle tasks like attending meetings or managing communications autonomously.
To maintain security and authenticity, Zoom has integrated safeguards into the avatar feature. The platform will use live camera authentication to verify that the person uploading the image is indeed the account holder, preventing impersonation or misuse. Additionally, meetings will display clear indicators when a participant is using an AI avatar, ensuring transparency among all attendees. According to Zoom’s chief product officer, these enrollment and authentication measures may evolve as the feature moves toward general availability.
Beyond avatars, Zoom is rolling out several other AI-driven enhancements. A real-time voice translation tool will allow meeting participants to hear speakers translated instantly into their preferred language, supporting English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Portuguese, and Italian. The platform is also upgrading its AI assistant, which can now schedule meetings, generate video summaries, and even join conferences on third-party platforms like Microsoft Teams and Google Meet to provide automated note-taking services.
These updates reflect Zoom’s ongoing investment in AI to make virtual interactions more flexible, inclusive, and efficient. As remote and hybrid work models continue to evolve, tools like photorealistic avatars and real-time translation are poised to redefine how people connect and collaborate across distances.
(Source: The Verge)
