Zoom AI Companion (Now ZoomMate): Features, Setup & How to Use It

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Are you making the most of your Zoom meetings? Managing virtual collaboration is hard when so much time goes into note-taking and chasing action items after every call. What if AI could handle that part for you?

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That is what Zoom AI Companion (now ZoomMate) is built for. It comes on both the free and paid Zoom plans, and it is the set of AI features inside Zoom that quietly takes care of the repetitive work, like drafting emails, summarizing meetings, and highlighting key points, so you can stay focused on the conversation. 

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In this guide, we will walk through what Zoom AI Companion does, its features, how to turn it on, and how to add AI notes to any meeting, even when you are not the host. 

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What Is Zoom AI Companion?

Zoom AI Companion is a suite of AI-powered features built into Zoom that helps you work more efficiently, collaborate better, and handle routine tasks across your meetings, chat, and calls. A limited amount is available for free, and fuller use comes with a paid Zoom plan. 

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It is designed to fit into Zoom without adding complexity, automating routine work so you can spend your attention on the discussion itself. 

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A note on naming: in 2026 Zoom began retiring the “AI Companion” name and moving these features under ZoomMate, its newer agentic AI. What you likely know as AI Companion (meeting summaries, transcription, notes, in-meeting questions) still works the same way, so this guide still applies. What changed is the packaging: there is a free ZoomMate tier with a limited monthly amount of AI, and a paid ZoomMate plan (US$16.67/user per month, billed annually) that adds AI credits and agentic features which can complete tasks for you, like drafting documents or generating slides. 

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Here’s a breakdown of how Zoom AI Companion works across different areas of Zoom:

• Zoom Team Chat: Zoom’s AI Companion can craft personalized chat messages in any desired tone and length. Moreover, you can ask it to summarize previous conversations so you can get up to speed without scrolling through every message. 
• AI Summarization: After any meeting, the AI Companion can provide a concise summary of what was discussed, including any action items, making it easy to follow up on important points. 
• Zoom Whiteboard: With Zoom Whiteboard, AI Companion takes your brainstorming sessions to the next level. It can generate ideas, organize content into categories, and create visual elements like stickies, tables, or mind maps. 
• Zoom Mail: You can use AI Companion suggestions to draft professional messages, whether you’re writing to colleagues or clients.
• Zoom Notes: Zoom’s Companion can help you structure and summarize your notes, making it easier to stay organized and track essential information from your meetings or projects. 
• Zoom Phone: AI Companion extends its benefits to Zoom Phone by summarizing conversations from phone calls and voicemails, so you can extract action items regardless of how you communicate with your team. 
• Conversational Interface: You can privately ask Zoom’s AI Companion for assistance during meetings, such as requesting summaries or updates on action items, simply by typing or speaking your request.

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Zoom AI Companion Features for Meetings

When it comes to meetings, you can use Zoom’s AI companion in several different ways:

• Pre-meeting preparation
• In-meeting real-time support
• Post meeting

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A. Pre-Meeting Preparation

Nailing your meetings often involves setting an agenda, organizing notes from previous sessions, and getting your whole team on the line. With Zoom AI Companion, the entire process is simplified. 

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Here's how Zoom AI Companion helps with meeting preparation:

• Scheduling automation: AI Companion can detect meeting intent from your Zoom Team Chat. For example, if someone mentions the need for a meeting, the AI will offer you a scheduling option, so you can set up Zoom meetings without switching tools.
• Generate meeting agendas: AI Companion assists with creating structured agendas based on prior communications and relevant meeting information. This ensures every meeting starts with a clear direction.
• Prepare for the meeting: The Companion makes it easy to pull up summaries of previous meetings, so you can easily review past decisions, action items, and key topics and walk into meetings fully prepared.

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B. In-Meeting Real-Time Support

Once your meeting is underway, Zoom’s AI Companion steps in as an AI-powered assistant, offering real-time support that helps you stay focused and productive without getting bogged down by administrative tasks. 

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Here's what Zoom AI Companion does during meetings:

• Real-time questions: During the meeting, if you have the ‘AI Companion questions’ enabled, you can ask private questions about the session in progress. For instance, you can ask AI Companion for a quick summary of what’s happened so far or check if your name was mentioned. 

• Note-taking and action item tracking: AI Companion automatically takes notes, tracking key points and action items as they come up in conversation. 
• Whiteboard content generation: If you're using Zoom Whiteboard for brainstorming or project planning, AI Companion can help generate content like stickies, tables, text boxes, and even mind maps based on the discussion. This keeps the meeting visually organized, helping teams collaborate more effectively.

C. Post Meeting

Once the meeting is over, Zoom AI Companion ensures that follow-up tasks are seamless and organized. 

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Here’s what post-meeting tasks you can simplify with Zoom AI Companion: 

• Meeting summaries: AI Companion generates detailed summaries of each meeting, and automatically sends it to the Zoom host, who can share it with participants and those unable to attend the meeting.

• AI Companion smart recordings: For meetings that are Cloud-recorded, Zoom AI Companion goes a step further with:

1. Recording highlights: AI identifies and highlights the most important sections of the meeting, allowing you to revisit only key moments.
2. Smart chapters: The recording is automatically divided into chapters, each with a brief title and summary, so you can skip to specific parts of the meeting.
3. Next steps panel: Suggested next steps based on the meeting are displayed below the recording, ensuring all follow-up tasks are clear and actionable.‍
4. Meeting coach: This feature provides metrics about your meeting performance, such as your talk-listen ratio, speaking speed, and use of filler words to help you improve future meetings.

• Follow-up messages: Hosts can send meeting summaries to everyone involved, making sure all participants have the same information moving forward.
• Seamless integration: AI Companion syncs with tools like Trello or Slack to ensure action items flow directly into your existing task management platforms, minimizing manual data entry.

How to Activate Zoom’s AI Companion

Now that you’re familiar with how Zoom AI Companion can enhance your workflow, let's go over how to activate it. 

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Here’s how to activate Zoom’s AI Companion:

1. Choose your Zoom plan
2. Check with your admin
3. Log in and update your Zoom client
4. Access your Web portal settings
5. Manage AI Companion settings
6. Begin exploring

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Step 1: Choose Your Zoom Plan

The AI now runs under ZoomMate, and it comes in two tiers:

• ZoomMate Basic (free): included with a free Zoom Workplace Basic account. It gives you a limited monthly amount of AI, such as 3 meeting summaries, 3 AI note-taking uses, and 20 AI queries per month.
• ZoomMate (paid): US$16.67/user per month, billed annually. It adds a monthly allowance of AI credits (2,200 to start), unlimited AI note-taking, and agentic features that can complete tasks for you.

This is separate from Zoom’s Workplace meeting plans (Pro, Business, Enterprise), which set your meeting limits, cloud storage, and admin controls. → For the full plan-by-plan breakdown, see our guide to Zoom pricing plans.

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Step 2: Check with Your Admin

By default, all AI Companion features are disabled, and your organization’s Zoom admin will need to enable them first. If you're in a Zoom meeting and notice the AI Companion icon in your toolbar, click on it to follow the instructions for requesting that your admin activate the feature. 

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NOTE: Admins can enable or disable AI Companion capabilities or features  at both the account and group levels. If you’re unsure who your admin is, reach out to your IT or support team for guidance.

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Step 3: Log In and Update Your Zoom Client

Log in to Zoom and make sure you are on the latest version of the Zoom Workplace app. AI Companion depends on recent versions, so keeping the app updated ensures you have access to the newest features. 

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Step 4: Access Your Web Portal Settings

Once logged in, head to your Zoom web portal account settings:

1. Click Settings in the left-hand panel.
2. Look for the AI Companion tab within the settings menu.

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NOTE: For features that have user-level settings, such as meeting summaries or smart recordings, you can turn each capability on or off according to your preferences. 

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Step 5: Manage AI Companion Settings in One Place

Zoom lets you manage all your AI Companion settings in one place. From the settings tab you can configure every feature, from meeting assistance to email composition, without jumping between screens.

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Step 6: Begin Exploring

Once your AI Companion settings are activated, start exploring! You’ll find the AI Companion icon in various Zoom products, such as:

• The Zoom Meetings controls toolbar
• Zoom Team Chat window
• Other Zoom tools, such as Zoom Whiteboard and Zoom Phone

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Simply click the icon to access AI Companion’s capabilities, whether you need help drafting a message, generating meeting summaries, or asking questions in real time during a meeting. 

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How to Add More Functionality to Your Zoom Meetings with an AI Companion

Want to get more out of your meetings, even if you’re not the host or you use the free version? MeetGeek’s AI Companion cuts down unnecessary meeting time, streamlines tasks, and lets you tailor the experience further. 

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And because MeetGeek also supports Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, you get an AI companion in virtually every meeting, not just Zoom.

Here’s how MeetGeek can add more functionality to your meetings:

• Automated meeting recording and transcription: With MeetGeek, you don’t have to press any extra buttons, since it connects with your calendar and automatically joins, records, and transcribes every meeting in your calendar.
• Unlimited recording privileges: Unlike Zoom, which requires you to be a meeting host to record your sessions, MeetGeek allows you to record your conversations regardless of your role in the meeting. 
• AI meeting summaries: MeetGeek generates personalized meeting summaries right after your call ends. Whether it’s a sales call, weekly team catch-up, or a board meeting, you’ll have all the information you need in a concise, personalized, and easy-to-read meeting summary.
• Seamless integration with your favorite tools: MeetGeek syncs effortlessly with other apps, including HubSpot, Slack, Notion, or Trello, reducing manual data entry and ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks. For those looking for custom integrations, MeetGeek connects with 10,000+ apps via Zapier integration and offers Open API.  
• Contextual insights: MeetGeek not only records your meetings but also provides valuable insights by tracking trends and speaker engagement. This helps you improve team performance, offers coaching opportunities, and boosts productivity.
  

• Searchable meeting repository: All meeting recordings, notes, and insights are securely stored in a searchable library, making it easy to access past meeting information when needed.

• Automated follow-ups: After every session, MeetGeek automatically generates and distributes professional follow-up emails for your entire team.‍

• Mobile app: If you’re often on the go, MeetGeek’s mobile app allows you to catch up on meetings from anywhere with just a few taps, even when you can’t attend. Plus, with the mobile app, you can enjoy MeetGeek’s features in the real world, record offline conversations with your clients and colleagues, and still get accurate transcripts and summaries.
• Privacy and compliance: MeetGeek is GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC compliant and goes through regular annual audits, so if you work with regulated or sensitive information, your data is handled to recognized security standards. 

Zoom AI Companion Frequently Asked Questions

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1. What are the limitations of Zoom AI companion?

Zoom AI Companion is capable, but a few limits are worth knowing. On the free Basic plan you get only a small monthly allowance of AI (a few summaries, notes, and queries); unlimited use requires a paid ZoomMate plan. Features are also off by default, so an admin has to turn them on for your account or group. 

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Additionally, Zoom AI Companion is not approved for use in meetings that involve sensitive information such as HIPAA data, Social Security numbers, or credit card information, as Zoom has restrictions on recording and storing this type of data. 

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Lastly, AI Companion relies on the latest version of Zoom, so it's essential to keep your Zoom client updated to ensure access to its features.

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2. How secure is the Zoom AI companion?

Zoom AI Companion is built with security and privacy in mind. Zoom states that it does not use any of your meeting data (such as audio, video, transcripts, or shared content) to train its AI models or third-party models. 

If you regularly handle regulated or sensitive information and want a tool audited against GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC, MeetGeek is built with those certifications, which can make it a good fit alongside or instead of Zoom for those workflows. 

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3. Does Zoom AI Companion notify participants?

Yes, once enabled by the meeting host, Zoom AI Companion notifies all meeting participants when it is active. A pulsing AI Companion icon appears in the upper left corner of your Zoom meeting when generative AI Companion capabilities are in use, such as meeting summaries or smart recordings. 

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That’s because secretly recording Zoom meetings violates worldwide privacy regulations and may result in serious legal consequences. Even if you use a 3rd party tool to record your sessions, find a solution like MeetGeek that automatically notifies participants so you can avoid any lawsuits. 

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4. Can I turn my Zoom transcripts into searchable summaries?

Yes. Zoom AI Companion can summarize a meeting after it ends, and if you want every past conversation kept in one place, MeetGeek stores each recording, transcript, and summary in a searchable library you can filter and search by keyword, so finding what was said in a call weeks ago takes seconds. 

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5. Can I auto-generate a recap and action items after a Zoom call and sync them to my CRM?

Yes. After each call, MeetGeek automatically drafts a meeting summary with action items and can push them into the tools you already use, like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Slack, through its integrations. For Zoom specifically, the MeetGeek Zoom integration records and summarizes your calls without you pressing a button. 

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Let AI Take Over Your Zoom Meetings with MeetGeek!

Zoom AI Companion (now ZoomMate) is a valuable tool that can make your meetings more efficient, help you stay organized, and save you time by automating routine tasks. From generating meeting summaries to assisting with real-time questions, it's designed to enhance how you collaborate and communicate. 

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If you want AI notes in every meeting, across Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, and even when you are not the host, try MeetGeek for free today!