Zoom AI Companion: First time use
What is Zoom AI Companion?
Zoom AI Companion Meeting Summaries
Zoom AI Meeting Highlights
Zoom Live Captions
Interacting with Zoom AI Companion
Troubleshooting and FAQ
To use the Zoom AI Companion for the first time, you need to be using the Zoom Workplace application for Zoom Meetings. If Zoom Workplace is not on your device, please visit the Zoom knowledge base article for more information on obtaining this application.
You will also need to sign out of Zoom, and then sign back in using SSO one time to get the new permissions.
(1) To sign out, click the profile circle button at the top right of the Zoom application:
(2) Click the Sign out button.
Once signed out, sign back in using the SSO option:
If necessary, type in "bakercollege" before .zoom.us and click Continue:
To get started as a meeting host, click on the AI Companion button once a meeting has started:
Zoom AI Companion is an optional AI assistant that is integrated into Zoom to enhance the features that we use everyday. Baker College has adopted Zoom AI Companion features such as generating meeting summaries after a meeting, or even interacting with the Zoom AI Companion within the chat window.
It is important to note that these features are not automatically enabled, and must be manually turned on at the start of each meeting. When enabled, all meeting participants will be informed that the Zoom AI Companion is active and will be gathering data for the use of these features. Hosts can change this startup behavior in their personal meeting settings under AI Companion at bakercollege.zoom.us.
There are two features that can be enabled with Zoom AI Companion: Meeting Summary, or Ask Meeting Questions. You can choose either option or choose both by selecting "Turn on All".
Participants can also request that the host turn one or more of these using the AI Companion button. Depending on the request, the host will receive a message similar to this.
All participants will get a notification (even if joining late) that the AI Companion has been enabled similar to these next two examples below:
When the Zoom AI Companion is enabled, it will always flash a white star at the top right. There is always full transparency that Zoom AI Companion is enabled for all participants.
The main feature of the Zoom AI Companion is its ability to create a meeting summary from any participants voice, or other Zoom content of a meeting (such as chat) while it is enabled. This feature essentially takes notes for you as discussions take place. Zoom AI Companion will also do it's best to divide the notes into meaningful sections. The host will receive an email at the end of the meeting after a short delay. This will include only content beginning at the time stamp that the AI Companion was turned on. The host will receive a link to access the summary as shown by the example below:
Here is a full example meeting summary that the Zoom AI Companion assembled on its own after transcribing a test meeting.
Note: These meeting summaries use technology that is similar to text to speech on smart phones. It is important to check them for accuracy before using any AI generated content as a source of truth.
When recording a Zoom Meeting to the cloud, the AI Companion is automatically enabled. The AI Companion will then edit the meeting footage to include "Meeting Highlights". This feature attempts to seperate the meeting into useful sections allowing you to optionally watch only what the AI Companion has decided are important details or allowing you to share them to other users.
To start a cloud recording, click the Record button at the bottom of the screen. If you do not see the record button on you panel, it may be under the More button as shown below.
Choose Cloud Recording, and this icon will appear on the Zoom panel indicating that the meeting is recording:
After the meeting is over, to find the cloud recording, visit bakercollege.zoom.us and login if necessary using the SSO login option.
Click Recordings & Transcripts on the left hand side and find the recording.
Depending on the length of the meeting, the cloud recording will take time to process, as shown below.
Use the "Only play Highlights" toggle at the bottom of the screen to watch only the meeting highlights, or the entire meeting.
You can use the "Edit Highlights" button to add highlights, or remove inaccurate ones.
Closed Captioning is now enabled in Zoom. You can enable this by clicking either the Show Captions, or the Request caption button from the Zoom Panel. The presence of the request captions button indicates captioning is not enabled by the host yet. The host will receive a request to enable them.
If you do not see one of these on your Zoom panel, check under the More button.
Once enabled, other users will receive a prompt that the meeting is being transcribed. Here is an example of the live transcriptions within Zoom.
Once the AI Companion is running, you or any participant can choose to interact with the Zoom AI Companion in real time before the meeting summary is available. Try this out by clicking the AI Companion button at the bottom, and then click "Ask Meeting Questions".
Note: If the Meeting Questions feature was not yet enabled by the host, the AI Companion button will instead send a prompt to the host to enable this feature.
As a participant, (shown below) the "Summary" button will request the host to start the meeting summary feature, or if the feature was already turned on, it will instead list which of the two AI Companion features are currently enabled between Meeting Summaries, or Ask Meeting Questions.
The Ask Meeting Questions button will request the host to start Meeting Questions, or if already enabled, it will instead open a chat box with the AI Companion tool.
An example prompt from a participants point of view:
An example prompt from the hosts point of view:
The AI Companion will attempt to answer questions or prompts such as "Was my name mentioned?" or "Catch me up".
You can also propose your own questions to the Zoom AI Companion. The accuracy and general experience with this will vary depending on factors such as participant voice clarity, the length of meeting and several other factors.
Note: The data available to each participant will only include information starting at the time a particular participant joined the meeting. Conversations with the Zoom AI Companion are between a participant and the AI Companion only.
What if sensitive data was used in the meeting while the AI Companion was running?
If at any time during a meeting the host wants to turn AI Companion off, you can do so by clicking on the AI Companion button again, and select "Turn off all".
You will then be prompted with an optional check box that will "Delete meeting assets". This will prevent any meeting summary from being generated.
Once disabled, you can choose to re-enable the AI Companion again, however it will only transcribe information going forward in time.
What if I want to delete the meeting summary, but the meeting as already ended?
To delete meeting summaries visit bakercollege.zoom.us and login if necessary using the SSO login option. Click "Meeting Summary" from the left hand side under "Personal".
Find and check the box for the meeting you want to delete, and click "Delete Selected".
Click the "Trash" and force delete it, otherwise it will be automatically deleted in 30 days.
Why am I unable to see the AI Companion in Zoom?
There are several reasons why the AI Companion may not be showing up in Zoom. If you are stuck after reviewing these possible problems below click Submit a Ticket on the right hand side of this article.
| Problem |
Solution |
| The meeting is hosted from outside Baker College, and their Zoom instance is not configured to allow the AI Companion. |
The host will have to request that their organizations administrator enable the AI Companion features. |
| The meeting is hosted from a Baker College user that has opted to turn AI Companion off. |
The Baker College host will need to visit bakercollege.zoom.us and login if necessary using the SSO login option. Click "Meeting Summary" from the left hand side under "Personal". Under AI Companion turn on Meeting summary with AI Companion. |
| Your personal settings have turned AI Companion turned off. |
Visit bakercollege.zoom.us and login if necessary using the SSO login option. Click "Meeting Summary" from the left hand side under "Personal". Under AI Companion turn on Meeting summary with AI Companion. |
| You are not the host of the meeting. |
Either click the AI Companion button and request that the host turn on the AI Companion features, or opt to host the meeting instead. |
| You are using Zoom within a web browser that does not support AI Companion features. |
Install the latest version of Zoom Workplace from Zoom.us or click Submit a Ticket on the right hand side of this article for Baker College issued devices. |
| The version of Zoom you are using is out of date. |
Install the latest version of Zoom Workplace from Zoom.us or click Submit a Ticket on the right hand side of this article for Baker College issued devices. |
| You are currently sharing your screen. |
The Zoom AI Companion does not currently show up during screen sharing. If the host is sharing, a participant can still request that the host turns on AI Companion and the host can enable it through a prompt. |
Can I share my meeting summary with other people?
Meeting summaries can be shared, but only to internal Baker College recipients.
Visit bakercollege.zoom.us and login if necessary using the SSO login option. Click "Meeting Summary" from the left hand side.
Click on the Meeting Summary you are interested in sharing, and then click the Share button at the bottom left.
Type in the persons name, or click the "+ Add all meeting invitees" button if desired.
Is my data safe?
Generative AI is new to the world, and the full scope of privacy issues surrounding these tools is currently a major topic of interest. How the data is used once in the hands of other companies is a topic that Baker College takes seriously. While Zoom has been selected as a trusted partner, features such as the AI Companion continue to be scrutinized to protect our students and staff.
- Zoom has stated that they will not train on meeting data, and has provided controls to us to decide which features we want to enable.
- Zoom shares certain data with its subprocessors such as Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, Anthropic and others for various reasons. (See Zoom Third-Party Subprocessors & Zoom Affiliates).
- Zoom commits to minimize data processing to necessary services only, maintaining transparency, and protecting personal data. See the Global Data Processing Addendum.
- The first step to protecting personal data should be limiting where this data is stored in the first place. Because there is always a possibility that personal data could be mishandled once outside the organization, personal or protected data should not include such data when working with any AI tools. When a meeting is including sensitive topics such as HIPPA, FERPA, or any other sensitive personal data, the AI Companion should be left off, or turned off/deleted once discovered.