Zoom has announced a host of new features that the California-based company says have been designed to enhance team collaboration and customer experience on the proprietary videotelephony software program. The new features that have been introduced include an inbuilt email and calendar clients feature, a virtual coworking space, a conversational AI chatbot, an AI-enabled virtual coach for sales professionals, and a marketplace for app developers. The inbuilt email and calendar features will minimise the user’s need to navigate away from the platform while accessing the tools they need.

The inbuilt mail service feature being introduced by the company is called the Zoom Mail Service and will provide active Zoom Mail Service users with end-to-end-encrypted email capabilities. Meanwhile, the inbuilt Zoom Calendar Service will include an appointment booking feature, which will allow users to select an available time to meet on Zoom.

Meanwhile, a “video-enabled persistent space” built within the platform will be made available in early 2023 to support inclusive conversations and keep team members in touch, the company stated in a blog post.

Zoom’s intelligent conversational AI and chatbot solution is being called the Zoom Virtual Agent and will employ machine learning and natural language processing to handle customer issues. The new Zoom Virtual Agent will also be made available in early 2023.

The company will also introduce a IQ Virtual Coach as part of IQ for Zoom will is designed to help sales professionals perfect their pitches through recommendations and suggestions. “It will simulate a variety of selling scenarios to give salespeople a practice environment where they can improve their pitches, get input from prospects, and receive real-time content suggestions while speaking with them,” said Zoom.

Zoom is also enabling administrative-authorised installation of apps, through a Zoom App Marketplace which will allow app developers to provide for and manage apps that interact with the platform.