Zoom AI Companion: A Productivity Boost for Healthcare Professionals

So this post has nothing to do with Halaxy, but I've been absolutely LOVING this new Zoom feature for all of my coaching calls, clinic accelerator days and our Halaxy monthly workrooms so I wanted to share it with you! If you’re already using a paid plan on Zoom for telehealth or team meetings, this is something you'll want to check out too.

Zoom has rolled out an AI Companion feature, and the best part is, if you have a paid Zoom account, it's already included. No extra costs, no new subscriptions—just a simple tool to make your Zoom sessions more efficient.

Let’s take a look at how it works and how it can help you in your day-to-day practice.

What is the Zoom AI Companion?

In a nutshell, it’s like a virtual assistant that works in the background during your Zoom calls. Whether you’re doing a telehealth session with patients, holding team meetings, or hosting a webinar, the AI Companion can automate certain tasks, helping you focus on what really matters.

How Can It Make Your Life Easier?

• Automated Meeting Notes
  Forget about scrambling for notes during a meeting. The AI Companion will create live notes and summaries for you, so you can focus on the conversation.

• Quick Summaries
  Don’t have time to sit through an hour-long meeting replay? The AI can give you a summary, making it easy to review key points.

• Action Item Tracking
  Discussing follow-ups or tasks during a session? The AI Companion will track those for you, creating a handy to-do list.

• On-the-Fly Answers
  Ever zoned out during a meeting or came in late and missed some key details? The AI Companion allows participants to discreetly ask questions within the AI Companion Question section during the meeting, and the AI will generate a summary or pull up information based on the ongoing discussion. Questions like "Catch me up", "Was my name mentioned" and "What are the action items" are displayed prompts but participants can ask any question. 

   

AI companion question prompts that participants can select for information about the session so far. 

How to Activate Zoom AI Companion

If you’ve got a paid Zoom subscription, you don’t need to upgrade or purchase anything. The AI Companion is already available, you just need to enable it:

• Automatically Activate for All Meetings
  You can switch it on via your Zoom settings, so it’s ready to go for every session. Once enabled, it’ll start running in the background without you having to think about it.

• Manual Activation for Individual Meetings
  If you’d prefer to turn it on only when needed, you can manually activate it through the Zoom call control panel during each meeting. Just look for the option once your meeting is underway, and you’re set. You need to be the meeting host to turn on the AI Companion but participants can access the question function if you've enabled it. 

AI Companion button on the Zoom screen 

When Could You Use It?

If you’re already using Zoom (paid version), test out the AI companion on your next call! Here’s how you might use it in your practice:

• Telehealth Appointments
  Have the AI Companion handle note-taking and generate summaries, so you can focus on your patients rather than documentation. I'd still take notes too but it'll give you a helping hand and may catch things that you miss. 

• Team Meetings
  If you’re managing remote staff, this can streamline things by automatically generating follow-up tasks and providing meeting summaries. Forget about needing someone to take the meeting minutes!

• Webinars & Training Sessions
  The AI can track audience questions, generate session notes, and summarise key points, making post-session follow-up a breeze.

What does the summary look like?

This is a snippet from the AI Companion summary of our last Halaxy Q&A session. My favourite part is the to-do list that it creates!

Privacy and Security

Zoom and the AI companion is HIPAA compliant, so it meets healthcare’s strict privacy standards. Your data from Zoom calls isn’t used to train any AI systems and your information stays private and secure.

Final Thoughts

If you’re already paying for Zoom, this feature is right there at your fingertips. It’s a simple way to get more out of the platform, whether you're using it for patient sessions, team meetings, or training. Just enable it during your next session, and you’ll be good to go.