Overview
Zoom AI Companion provides a suite of artificial intelligence tools designed to assist meeting hosts and participants by generating summaries, enhancing chat interactions, improving recordings, and offering real‑time support during meetings. These tools can improve communication, accessibility, and productivity across academic and administrative contexts.
Because these features may collect and process meeting content, the University provides the following guidance to help all faculty, staff, and students use Zoom AI Companion responsibly and in accordance with institutional policies and applicable laws.
University Disclaimer on the Use of Zoom AI Companion
Zoom Meetings may utilize Zoom’s AI Companion to automatically generate a summary of the session using artificial intelligence. When Zoom AI Companion is turned on for a meeting, a brief disclaimer pop-up will present to all meeting attendees before they can continue in the meeting. By joining the meeting and accepting the pop-up, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technologies that may capture, analyze, and summarize your verbal contributions and interactions during the meeting.
Please be advised not to disclose personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), student education records, or other confidential data unless you have appropriate authorization and understand the implications of its inclusion in the AI-generated summary. This guidance applies to all participants, including faculty, staff, and students. In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and applicable university policies, any disclosure of student education records must be authorized and compliant with institutional and federal regulations. The AI-generated summary may be accessible to meeting participants and university personnel for academic, administrative, or archival purposes.
Participation in a meeting involving Zoom AI Companion constitutes acceptance of these terms and affirms your understanding of the implications of AI-assisted documentation in compliance with applicable university policies and federal regulations.
For further guidance on safe and appropriate use of Zoom AI tools, please review the component descriptions below.
Zoom AI Companion Components
Below is an overview of the primary Zoom AI Companion features currently available for University use. Each component includes a link to a related knowledgebase article where more detailed instructions, limitations, and governance considerations can be found.
To take advantage of the best Zoom AI Companion has to offer, be sure the installed Zoom Workplace App on your computer is fully up to date. Learn how to check for updates in the app if needed.
Please note: AI-driven tools can occasionally generate errors or misinterpret information. Please remember to exercise caution and verify important details when relying on these functionalities. In all cases, it’s important to be transparent and communicate openly with meeting participants about your use of AI tools.
1. Meeting Summaries
Zoom’s AI Companion can generate automated summaries of meetings, including key points, action items, and decisions. This feature may process audio content, optical character recognition (OCR) of screen-shared content, and participant contributions in the meeting chat.
Learn more: Meeting Summaries KB Article
Examples of appropriate use:
- Faculty department meetings
- Project planning and administrative meetings
- Governance committee documentation
- Lectures in Zoom (where permitted)
Important considerations:
- Avoid sharing sensitive or regulated information unless explicitly authorized.
- Meetings using Zoom AI Companion will present a disclaimer message to all internal and external attendees alerting them about Zoom AI Companion within the meeting. Attendees must accept the disclaimer statement before they can join the meeting.
Zoom AI Companion provides AI‑generated meeting summaries to help users quickly review key points and action items. These summaries are intended as a convenience and may not capture every detail or nuance of a discussion.
To review meeting content more thoroughly and verify the accuracy of an AI‑generated summary, users are encouraged to:
- Generate and save a meeting transcript
-
Record the meeting (when appropriate and permitted)
Using transcripts or recordings allows you to confirm context, clarify details, and ensure important information is accurately reflected.
2. Team Chat
The AI Companion for Team Chat can help summarize long chat threads, suggest replies, and help users quickly catch up on conversations.
Learn more: Team Chat AI KB Article
Useful for:
- Academic committees
- Cross‑department collaborations
- Student organization discussions (when appropriate)
Important considerations:
Do not share confidential employee or student information, PII, or PHI within chat channels unless permitted.
3. Smart Recording
Smart Recording uses AI to automatically index, highlight, and summarize Zoom cloud recordings. It may analyze audio, video, and shared screen content.
Learn more: Smart Recording KB Article
Appropriate use cases:
- Recorded lectures (where permitted)
- Staff training sessions
- Workshops and webinars
Important considerations:
Recordings involving students may constitute education records and must comply with FERPA.
4. AI Companion Panel
The AI Companion Panel provides real-time assistance during meetings, such as answering questions about what has been discussed, identifying unresolved items, and helping participants stay engaged. It is also available as a side panel within the Zoom Workplace Desktop application.
Learn more: AI Companion Panel KB Article
Useful for:
- Large meetings with many participants
- Keeping track of key topics and outstanding questions in a meeting
- Organizing information related to upcoming meetings
- Schedule events with others through the calendar
- Get summaries or ask questions about past chats and/or meetings
Important considerations:
Information processed in real time may appear in generated summaries or action lists.
Additional Resources