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There\u2019s probably a million places you\u2019d rather be than stuck in meetings\u2014and Zoom\u2019s founder and CEO Eric Yuan gets this. So he\u2019s working on an AI avatar, or \u201cdigital twin\u201d as he calls it, that can do your drudge work while you enjoy life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are doing now, it\u2019s really looking at your entire schedule, how to leverage Zoom<\/a> Workplace to help you out,\u201d Yuan told The Verge<\/em><\/a>. \u201cEssentially, you can leave Zoom Workplace, and Zoom Workplace can help you get most of your work done, right? That\u2019s our pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of those grand plans is the ability to create a clone of yourself that can make business decisions on your behalf during meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cI can send a digital version of myself to join so I can go to the beach,\u201d the billionaire Chinese-American chief said, adding that your avatar would also be able to respond to most emails and take phone calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday 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,\u201d Yuan added. \u201cHow [do we] leverage AI, how do we leverage Zoom Workplace, to fully automate that kind of work? That\u2019s something that is very important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019re not just imagining the life draining out of you when you\u2019re on back-to-back video calls. Research has proven that your brain activity literally drops<\/a> when you have a Zoom meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Yuan predicts workers will soon only need to attend 10% of the meetings they do today. The rest of the time? You\u2019ll be able to do the things that lights the fire in your belly.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s assume, fast-forward five or six years, that AI is ready. AI probably can help for maybe 90% of the work,\u201d the engineer-turned-exec said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou do not need to spend so much time [in meetings]. You do not have to have five or six Zoom calls every day. You can leverage the AI to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n In Yuan\u2019s vision, so much of life\u2019s administrative work will be taken over by AI that not only will people have more time to do more fun human work\u2014for example, lunch meetings\u2014but they will also only need to work for three to four days a week.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, the reason why we cannot do that is because every day is busy, five days a week. It\u2019s boring,\u201d the CEO said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou and I can have more time to have more in-person interactions, but maybe not for work,\u201d he added. \u201cWhy not spend more time with your family? Why not focus on some more creative things, giving you back your time, giving back to the community and society to help others, right?\u201d<\/p>\n The CEO outlined how Zoom\u2019s digital twin technology would likely start out as a voice assistant before becoming more immersive, like Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.<\/p>\n This is just \u201cthe beginning,\u201d but he sees a world where your digital twin captures people so well that \u201cyou can\u2019t know if it\u2019s a real person or just a 3D version.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, it might even be better than the real deal because theoretically, you\u2019ll also be able to have multiple versions of yourself for different needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, you may be able to create a more confident or outspoken version of yourself specifically for sales meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I know I\u2019m not good at negotiations. Sometimes I don\u2019t join a sales call with customers,\u201d Yuan explained. \u201cI know my weakness before sending a digital version of myself. I know that weakness. I can modify the parameter a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n But unfortunately\u2014for those thinking this all can\u2019t come soon enough\u2014 Yuan stressed that Zoom\u2019s digital twin technology is quite some way away from becoming reality.<\/p>\n \u201cFor now, the number one thing is AI is not there yet, and that still will take some time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Zoom didn\u2019t respond to Fortune\u2019s<\/em> request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRobots will handle 90% of your meetings\u2014making possible a 3-day workweek?<\/h2>\n
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