Zoom shares jump as CEO says company to develop and deploy AI tools
By Samantha Delouya, CNN
(CNN) — Shares of Zoom jumped in after-hours trading Monday after the company said it expects to rake in stronger-than-expected earnings in the rest of this fiscal year.
The company, which provides video and audio chat services, raised its outlook for profitability for the 2024 fiscal year in its second quarter earnings report. It now expects revenue to be just under $4.5 billion. That represents approximately 2% growth year-over-year.
Zoom’s founder and chief executive officer Eric Yuan also touted the company’s rollout of recent AI features on a conference call with investors. Yuan said that the company’s “aggressive roadmap” when it comes to artificial intelligence is “aimed at empowering our customers to work smarter and serve their customers better.”
ZoomIQ, one recent AI-powered feature that the company expanded earlier this year, allows chat hosts to create meeting summaries powered by AI technology.
After discussing ZoomIQ on an earnings call Monday, Yuan said, “All of those generative AI features can make the platform not only more sticky, but also more valuable.”
Zoom (ZM) recently faced backlash on social media after it updated the wording of its terms of service to potentially allow the company access to user data to train AI technology. However, Zoom’s chief product officer, Smita Hashim, assured customers earlier this month in a blog post that it would not use customer data to train AI models.
On Monday, Yuan reiterated that message, saying that as the company develops AI solutions, “we strongly believe that technology should advance trust.”
“I’m proud of the approach we are taking. By putting customers’ privacy needs first, Zoom is taking a leadership position in ensuring customers can use our AI features with confidence that their content is protected,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
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