Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering at the US-based $4.5-billion Zoom Video Communications Inc never realised that when he joined the company in 2020 he would be working on a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity provided by the Covid pandemic. The world came to a standstill and movement of people restricted due to the pandemic, making Zoom a household name across the globe, with everybody either in front of the personal computer, a laptop or mobile to get connected virtually using the company’s platform. “We went from 10 million meeting participants to 300 million meeting participants in a short space of time,” he told businessline. Sankarlingam spoke on a range of topics, including the increased adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the critical role of India for Zoom in both as a market and as a technology centre. Excerpts:
How did the company manage during the pandemic?
We went from 10 million meeting participants to 300 million meeting participants in a very short span of six or eight weeks. We had to increase our capacity many times. And a lot of it also had to deal with how the product was architected; we can use our own data centre or public cloud. Wherever we had the capacity, we actually added it. During the pandemic, even though we were growing from our customer traffic, we gave the platform free to K-12 children in around 1,25,000 schools globally. We needed to make sure we built the capacity for that as well.
Are things slowing down as employees return to work?
Yeah, it has slowed down, but there are new communications happening like people using Zoom over weekends and for get-togethers. Traffic is not growing like earlier. Coming back to the office is complicated, as the world is now in a hybrid working model. Pre-pandemic, there was a conference where 10 people met and some would join using a Zoom. And the priority was all the discussion that happened in the conference room. And then it shifted with everybody having a Zoom window.
How are you adapting to the new change?
Every company is going to have a different flavour of hybrid-based model in the region; based on the industry and the environment. We also change accordingly. We recently launched Zoom Workplace, which is a completely AI-powered platform. This brings communication, employee engagement, spaces and productivity solutions together on a single platform with Zoom AI Companion capabilities woven throughout.
Looks like it is all AI driven now?
Yes. AI is a very powerful technology and is playing a critical role. For instance, we launched Zoom Virtual Agent, an AI-powered chatbot that understands customer questions and provides accurate answers quickly. Zoom always had AI capabilities like green screen; virtual background and then noise reduction. When there is a vacuum cleaner or a dog barks, you do not want to hear. Using Generative AI, Zoom launched Meeting Summary functionality to generate a text-based summary of what was discussed in the meetings and to list next steps that were determined in the meeting. The host can choose who receives the Meeting Summary. In September, Zoom launched AI Companion, a Generative-AI assistant to help users create content, such as meeting agendas, session descriptions and speaker bios. It’s included at no extra cost with all paid Zoom user accounts.
Where does India fit in your scheme of things?
India is very critical for Zoom. With the establishment of our second technology centre in Chennai in April 2022, alongside the existing one in Bengaluru and two data centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad, we reinforced our commitment and enhanced our service capabilities within India. This expansion supports our mission to help customers in India reimagine employee experiences and customer experience roadmaps across various sectors.
What’s the centre’s focus?
The technology centre is focusing on research and development of new products including Zoom Contact Center and cutting-edge technologies to build a collaboration platform that drives impact with intelligence, and makes teamwork more meaningful and engaging while elevating the experiences for and relationships with customers. The Chennai facility is led by Zoom’s global engineering teams based at the company’s San Jose, California, headquarters. With the Chennai technology centre, we strive to compete at the forefront of technological leadership and help raise the bar in the new modern era of collaboration.
How about India as a market?
India is a huge market. We do not give country-specific numbers. The start-up ecosystem in India has increased tremendously and a lot of creative things are emerging. One example is Lenskart, which faced a significant challenge in managing the uneven distribution of optometrists across different regions in India. To address this, Lenskart turned to Zoom Contact Center, which enabled optometrists to carry out remote eye tests for customers via video. The company is also planning to utilise AI features in Zoom Contact Center to enhance CX outcomes while scaling their services.
Published on May 14, 2024
