Ep 392: AI-First Workplaces – What You Need to Know

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The Rise of AI Tools in Workplaces

With businesses pondering on ways to leverage AI tools for enhancing productivity and understanding its impact on future workplaces, this episode provides crucial insights. AI has emerged as a powerful tool, helping people keep up with the changing dynamics of the world. From summarizing crucial insights to recapping important news, AI has opened new vistas in productivity and workflow management.

The Journey Toward AI-First Workplace

AI has become a potent tool in redefining productivity. Collaborative tools, powered by AI, ease the process of multiple people working on the same document, leading to better collaboration and results. The episode emphasizes the evolution of workplaces, starting from using typewriters, transitioning to desktop computing, and then to internet-based collaboration tools. Today, we stand at the threshold of a new era, the era of generative AI.

AI applications like AI Companion are transforming workplaces into AI-driven productivity suites. With functionalities like transcribing and summarizing meeting content, identifying next action steps, these AI tools are gradually becoming indispensable for professionals.

Navigating the Challenges

While the AI-integrated tools lend many advantages, they also bring certain challenges to the table - one notable being the occasional discrepancies or inaccuracies referred to as "hallucinations." AI tools may not always be 100% accurate, and therefore, it is vital to approach AI outputs with an independent, critical eye.

The Future of AI-First Workplaces

The future belongs to the challengers ready to leverage the power of genrative AI. The capabilities of AI integrate seamlessly with traditional graphic user interfaces, producing an innovative fusion of technology and productivity. This integration aims to monitor and track the lifecycle of action items, leading to increased efficiency and task-oriented workflows.

The AI-first workplaces hold the promise of abundant productivity and efficiency, with seamless flow of information, improved collaboration, effective tracking of tasks, and enhanced connections. Leveraging the AI capabilities will be a game-changer for businesses, leading to a remarkable transformation in workplace productivity and effectiveness.

Topics Covered in This Episode

1. Changes in the Workplace Due to AI
2. Adapting an AI-First Workplace
3.Integration of GUI and Conversational User Interface

Podcast Transcript

Jordan Wilson [00:00:17]:
The workplace has changed so much. Right? I remember when I first started working in the early days of the Internet, things seemed very slow or even back when, you know, I was on a a word processor. But things have changed so much recently with technology, obviously, with, with the web and cloud and and mobile phones. But generative AI, I think, is maybe bigger than all of them in terms of how we work, how we think, how we, become pro, productive in the workplace. Right? And I think so much of how we work is dependent on what we work on. Right? Are you are you using Google? Are you using, you know, Microsoft? Are you using maybe Zoom? Right? So that's why I'm excited today to have an industry veteran and a leader at Zoom to really talk about, AI first workplaces. Like, what does that even mean and what you actually need to know to still be productive and to really get the most out of your day? Alright. So I'm excited for today's conversation.

Jordan Wilson [00:01:23]:
If that sounded like you, right, if you're wondering how can I be more productive with all of these AI tools and what does work even look like in the future, well, you're in the right place? My name is Jordan Wilson, and welcome to everyday AI. This is a daily livestream podcast and free daily newsletter helping us all keep up with what's going on in the world of AI because it is a ton. But how we can actually learn from it, understand it, and use it to get ahead to grow our companies and our careers. So thank you. If you are listening on the podcast, please go to your everydayai.com. Sign up for the free daily newsletter. Every single day, we give you everything you need to know as well as recapping all of the important insights. So if you miss anything from our guest today, don't worry.

Jordan Wilson [00:02:03]:
It's going to be in our free daily newsletter as well as the news. Yeah. Normally we do this all live, but, you know, we got people joining us from all over the world, so technically prerecorded, but, debuting live. So, enough chit chat. I am super excited, to bring on our guest for today. So, everyone out there, please help me in welcoming. There we go. We have Xuedong Wong, the chief product officer at Zoom.

Jordan Wilson [00:02:29]:
Xuedong, thank you so much for joining the Everyday AI Show.

Xuedong Huang [00:02:32]:
Jordan, thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Jordan Wilson [00:02:35]:
Alright. I'm I'm excited. So let's let's do this. Let's start at the very end, maybe, Xuedong, and then we'll, you know, rewind our way back. But let's just start with the big question right now. What do people actually need to know about, you know, being an AI first workplace?

Xuedong Huang [00:02:54]:
Well, I think the best way to share that story is to review the 3 eras we all went through. When I was, you know, a student for more than 30 years ago, I was using typewriter to write paper. And I remember if I have spending hours, I got to use the liquid paper to correct that. Microsoft really helped to change that with desktop computing. And I wrote a book using Microsoft Word up to 800 pages published by Princeton. That was amazing. That was really really a huge productivity left because the whole paper, the whole book, 800 pages formatted in exactly the same group, you know, style we wanted. With the Internet emerging, Google brought us Google Docs and you know collaboration improvement.

Xuedong Huang [00:03:55]:
That really just give a lot of people the benefit to have multiple people working on the same document and collaborate better. So the Internet Hero created another productivity suite that are prominent as well. Just like Microsoft Office that did lead desktop computing. With general AI, this is absolutely exciting new era. In the general AI, Zoom is transforming the company from a meeting company to a productivity company, to the AI native productivity suite. I'll give you an example how I already benefit from AI companion. Zoom introduced AI company last year. So really, I can't live without AI Companion myself.

Xuedong Huang [00:04:47]:
Whenever I have a meeting, this is one of the most important business function. I do not need to bring my chief of staff to the meeting, like I used to do in Microsoft where I was a Azure AI CTO. So AI companion will transcribe and summarize everything we talked about in the meeting. The most important thing is a company will identify next steps, action items I need to follow. Once I got that set of action items, that will flow into Zoom Docs. So if the formal task is for me to write a blog, Zoom AI companion will write the doc draft on my behalf. So I have the blog, I just need to touch it. I'm done.

Xuedong Huang [00:05:36]:
Can you imagine the journey from you have to worry about every single letter with typewriter? Mhmm. To worry about the whole style of formatting, every chapter with heading and the italic style using Microsoft Word, which is you collaborate with a number of people on the same document using Google Docs. Now is air company to write on your behalf from meeting to docs to chat. That whole life cycle is already there for you to save more time to be more productive. And if you want to actually have some brainstorming idea, AI Companion as we launch in October, we bring not only work information, but also web information seamlessly together.

Jordan Wilson [00:06:29]:
Mhmm.

Xuedong Huang [00:06:29]:
It's so seamless that you can ask their competitor question. Their competitor will bring the right information under your fingertips. You can incorporate that into Zoom Docs.

Jordan Wilson [00:06:42]:
So, actually, like, that that that was a such a great, like, you know, almost history lesson for all of us. Right? And, yeah, thank you for, you know, sharing your background, you know, working for, you know, 30 years at Microsoft. You know, just goes to show you that you've been through. Right? And and you've been helping lead, you know, this slow but steady, kind of transition into the future of work. You brought up one thing, right, that you no longer need to bring your chief of staff, right, to meetings because you hey, you're using, you know, Zoom's AI companion. Right? Like, even for me, that's personally something I love. Right? Having, you know, we've been paying, you know, paid Zoom Zoom customers for for years and, you know, being able to talk, to the Zoom AI companion for me in the middle of a meeting. Right? Because let's be honest, everyone out there, you get distracted when you're in meetings.

Jordan Wilson [00:07:32]:
Right? Especially when they're virtual, an important notification comes up, you know, you're writing notes about something else, and I love going in there and saying, like, hey, what? Like, tell me everything that has been said so far, and what I still need to, you know, worry about. So do you think that this kind of AI first workplace that we're living in now and in the future, does it kind of give everyone a chief of staff? Right? Like, is that kind of what it's like to be, you know, an AI first workplace?

Xuedong Huang [00:08:01]:
Absolutely. I really feel that this AI companies get to know me every day. And not just meeting, we can democratize to help get the action item identified. If you need to write up something, you can brainstorm with AI companion. AI companion can really write a better draft. If you're not happy, you can be rude to say go and work harder. Make that, you know, change. AI companion will just do that on your behalf.

Xuedong Huang [00:08:33]:
So it's really becoming, a daily assistant that whether it's writing or reading, those are the 2 most important function. Right? And if for anyone, if you want to be productive, you have to consume information. A company will help you to consume information with the contacts you are doing in Zoom workplace. If you want to write up something, a company got the whole context. We also write on your behalf. A lot of people in the past, they go to challenge GBT to do things. I wanna share the the story. This is almost analogous to British invented steam engine that started the 1st industrial revolution.

Xuedong Huang [00:09:15]:
If you run American business here on this side, you want to use that steam engine, you have to travel across Atlantic, get the the power of steam engine, then come back. We change that. A companion will actually be part of your experience. You can really get the context into a companion seamlessly, whether it's from the work or web. It's a seamless. You do not need to talk between web or work or travel across Atlantic to do something there then come back. So we work with perplexity. We have a seamless integration to bring their capability on web search into the Zoom workplace contacts.

Xuedong Huang [00:10:00]:
So this is really a game changer.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:08]:
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AI [00:10:26]:
Your prime, prompt, and polish class was absolutely fantastic. If you're new to AI like me, it leapfrogs your learning immensely. If you've been playing around with it for a little while, I can imagine how it would help you just elevate your learning that much faster. So I'd encourage you all to give it a try and check it out.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:43]:
Everyone's prompting wrong, and the PPP course fixes that. If you want access, go to podpp.com. Again, that's podpp.com. Sign up for the free course and start putting ChatGPT to work for you. You know, you you kind of hit this this big area of how we all work. Right? So many of us traditionally have spent times and so much time in meetings. Right? And then generally what we do is we read. Right? And then we we write.

Jordan Wilson [00:11:18]:
Right? These are and there's obviously thinking and connecting of the dots, you know, but, like, along that line. Right? But I feel that those are 3 areas that we spend as as, you know, knowledge working professionals. We spend so much time in those 3 areas. So, you know, now with things like, you know, AI companion, and we have, you know, large language models built into everything, you know, perplexity for web search and and all of these things. So I'm wondering even for you for you personally. Right? When you look at those, you know, meetings, reading, and writing, How has, you know, AI even changed how you work and how you spend your time in those three areas? And maybe, I mean, I'm I'm guessing you've become more productive in those areas. And if so, where are you then spending, that additional time? You know that maybe you used to spend more in those three areas.

Xuedong Huang [00:12:12]:
So one more things I want to add in addition to reading, writing is to connect with people. Zoom is extremely good. We do we do bring people together with Zoom workplace and AI company. We help you to get information in the right place and the right time without the traveling across Atlantic. This is the example and then another example I share, right? Because of that capability to have information flow naturally, I want to emphasize into every corner of a Zoom workplace. Zoom workplace got meeting, chat, email, calendaring, and docs. The action item extracted from the meeting or from Zoom docs or from your email is monitored, harvested, updated by a company just like your chief of staff. You know, if you want to really get more productive, you have to focus on what is you have to do, what are the action items, what are the task you have to track.

Xuedong Huang [00:13:21]:
Zoom AI company is like a super AI agent. It's following and the tracking the life cycle of the action item, and help you to get work done faster, better. This is how we can dramatically improve productivity, not just for focus on formatting the document, make this slide more beautiful, or enable 2 people editing 1 page. Those are all good capabilities. We love all of them. You know, Google, Microsoft really created this amazing productivity suite that helped all of us. But now with Zoom AI companion or Zoom workplace, we're moving the bar much much higher. We help you to focus on getting work done, focus on action item is system of action with a task oriented tracking.

Xuedong Huang [00:14:13]:
And all the drafting, you know, creating document, creating blog, or write a piece of email can be helped with a company with all the context information incorporated from your history. What do you do? So we create this unique use interface. I want to highlight graphic use interface has been dominant for so long, right? It's the representative whether it's a Mac or Windows or office, graphic user interface is iconic. Charlie GBT changed with that. Open AI conversational interface as defined by Charlie GBT really open the imagination for everyone. Zoom workplace is trying to bring those 2 together. What I call AI led using the face or AUI. That will seamlessly combine graphic user interface and the conversational user interface seamlessly with information flowing from both.

Xuedong Huang [00:15:19]:
So with zoom workplace, if you can chat with AI companion, you can get a walk down, but the zoom workplace also can bring up traditional graphic user interface together. For example, if you wanna schedule meeting, the calendar application will be part of that experience. You can stay intact with the graph of using the face, but you are right conversational use interface understand what is you are doing. So we are bringing those capabilities together. That's the second slide I want to share. The most important one is we are taking this effective AI approach. That means we are bringing the best model from everywhere. Unlike many companies, they only use one model.

Xuedong Huang [00:16:08]:
We are using Google Gemini, Matter, Llama, Anthropic model, and the open AI gbt 4. All together, massage them in a way that will create the most relevant, most productive action oriented information flow. That is the iconic differentiation of a Zoom workplace. This is why we think we will be the new kid on the block for productivity lift. We respect Internet era, Google Docs, desktop era, Microsoft Office, they will be there. They're very, very important tooling. But this general AI capability as represented by a companion from Zoom is going to be unmatched.

Jordan Wilson [00:16:58]:
This is this is why I love having, you know, super smart people on the Everyday AI Show. I didn't even know that, you know, so you have a almost like a mixture of experts set up, right, with the all the big model makers, love that. You know, using I think it's so smart, you know, to be able to apply the right AI solution at the right time in the right place. You know, when you talk about productivity, right, you don't wanna be using, you know, model a if it's not really good at task b. So I think that's great. So one thing though that that I want to ask you is, you know, you are the chief product officer of of of a product.

Xuedong Huang [00:17:33]:
I'm sorry. I'm the chief of technology officer.

Jordan Wilson [00:17:35]:
Oh, sorry. Thank you. Thank you for, you know, correcting me on that. So the chief technology officer for a product that 100 of millions of people use every single day. How do you, you know, how can you chart out the future? Right? Because I think generally, when you're trying to understand, hey, what comes next? And I'm sure, you know, maybe your time at Microsoft is maybe a little different than your time at Zoom because things move so fast. Right? Even those models that you just talked about, those 4, you know, kind of, you know, large language model makers, They've all had huge updates in the last week. How can you keep up and and kind of chart ahead, you know, how 100 and millions of people are working? Mhmm.

Xuedong Huang [00:18:20]:
They are really simple. The only three things as I talked about. Let me just summarize. Number 1, as a as we trying to create the AI back end, we not only use the best model out there, but we do federate them together. In addition to that, we're also creating our efficient small language model that will bring the context everything to work together with the larger language models in the cloud. So that is really a major differentiation. So that's a part of our Microsoft and Google. Microsoft Copilot mostly use open edge before.

Xuedong Huang [00:18:58]:
It's a great model. And, Google most use a Gemini. It's great model, but we are using Anthropic. It's great model in addition to OpenAI and the Gemini and the meta. So we build on the success of this powerful set of models in addition to Zoom's own small language model working as one system like agent to deliver value. This is why we offer unmatched experience to track the next steps from your meeting to curate and harvest that action oriented information flow. That is the back end. The second thing is really we are trying to bring GUI graph use interface, traditional GUI and the chat interface, conversational interface seamlessly together in Zoom workplace will bring that information flow from both to enhance productivity.

Xuedong Huang [00:20:00]:
Number 3, because of the UI innovation and the back end AI innovation, we are going to focus on action or render the task information flow. This means the whole life cycle of what you need to worry would be helped by Zoom AI companion. The whole life cycle, I really want to emphasize that. It's like your agent. Focus on tracking the task you have to accomplish for the whole life cycle of that task. Those 3 things combined will make Zoom AI companion and the Zoom workplace, the new kid on the block.

Jordan Wilson [00:20:42]:
So, you know, speaking of the whole life cycle Xuedong, I one thing, you know, I've I've literally I've I've trained thousands of people on, you know, using large language models. And, you know, one thing I'm always talking about, you know, especially when it comes to, you know, AI first workplaces is being able to unlearn things. Right? To unlearn good habits. As an example, I'm someone that generally during meetings, because I used to be a journalist, I would type a ton of notes. Right? And now when I'm on Zoom calls, right, I don't. So I've I've had to go through this process of of unlearning good habits and knowing, like, okay, you know, I have, you know, large language models now that are doing certain tasks for me. What's your best piece of advice for people, you know, maybe who are mid career and they've been, you know, successful, you know, in the workplace for maybe a decade or 2? What best advice would you have to them on how to really lean into, you know, this AI first workplace that now we're all living in?

Xuedong Huang [00:21:47]:
I think the best advice I have is make sure we all have that critical thinking, independent critical eyes. Because AI company or any other large energy model, they do hallucinate. Mhmm. So just like you're working with someone, the person may not be 100% accurate all the time. So that independent critical thinking is super important. Always keep that in mind when you work with a companion, which is a new species. Just like you're working with a new person, you have to maintain that critical thinking and the judgment. But the for the drafting together, you know, 90% of the work down is amazing.

Xuedong Huang [00:22:33]:
That 10% hallucination is going to be there for all of us to be aware and, manage.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:43]:
You know, I just I just thought of something that I I I generally don't think about, you know, when you say, hey, you know, AI models are always going to hallucinate and I think, you know, people have kind of gotten used to that. But, you know, I'm curious. What maybe new skills. Right? Because you're someone that's been, you know, working at some of the largest companies for the majority of your career. What new skills are you looking to develop? Right? Is is maybe a new skill, you know, being able to spot hallucinations in AI models or maybe are you even personally, creating new creative skills that maybe you didn't have the time for previously. But, you know, I'm I'm I'm wondering as we become more productive with tools like, you know, Zoom's AI companion and, you you know, your whole, suite of products, what new skills are you even trying to develop right now?

Xuedong Huang [00:23:36]:
It's the ability to ask the right question. That's related to critical thinking. And large language model, the output of large language model and general AI really depends on what kind of questions you ask. Raising the right question will help you reach the right outcome. It's interesting. That makes I

Jordan Wilson [00:24:03]:
mean, that makes sense. Right? Like, yeah, like, I I I personally spend so much time, you know, speaking to large language models. Right? And I think sometimes I just try to personally, I just try to double down on on productivity. Right? It's like, oh, you know, I have all this time. I I should be more productive, but I think what you said there is important. Right? You have to maybe use some of that extra time or head space to think more creatively and ask the right questions. I think that's paramount. So, actually, we've we've covered a lot in today's conversation.

Jordan Wilson [00:24:32]:
Right? You brought us through a a history of of the workplace. You gave us a a glimpse into, the future of, you know, these AI first work workplaces, and you kind of shared, you know, how, Zoom, is is, you know, fitting into that equation. But, you know, as we wrap up, maybe what is the one most important piece of advice that you have for people on how to still succeed and, you know, business leaders to grow their business in AI first workplaces?

Xuedong Huang [00:25:01]:
I think the incumbents is going to struggle. If you look in the history, it's always the challenger that it can take a full advantage of this new forces. Generally, AI really create a new forces at the level, the playing field. So I'm excited that we are absolutely on the right time to take advantage of Genuity AI, create a productivity that will really help everyone on this planet to perform much better, to gain more time, and with with better connection to almost everything. Not just to people, better connection to almost everything. Gosh.

Jordan Wilson [00:25:46]:
Is anyone else pumped up? Is that just me? Like x x d just gave me some some some hope for humanity. Right? And I love that, you know, the the challengers can take advantage of that because I think so many, so many of us out there, you know, we are in that challenger position. So, actually, you just gave us, I think, some great advice on how we can really take advantage of the best of what generative AI has to offer. So thank you so much, for taking time out of your busy day, to help us understand kind of the future of AI first workplaces. We appreciate your time and insights.

Xuedong Huang [00:26:20]:
My pleasure. Thank you, Jordan.

Jordan Wilson [00:26:21]:
Alright. And hey, everyone. As a reminder, we went over a lot as we always do. If you didn't catch every single thing in there, because that one was jam packed of great information. Yeah. Maybe you didn't have your Zoom AI assistant dropping in taking notes. Don't worry. We'll have that all in our newsletter.

Jordan Wilson [00:26:37]:
So make sure you go to your everydayai.com. Sign up for the free daily newsletter, and we'll see you back tomorrow and everyday for more everyday AI. Thanks y'all.

Xuedong Huang [00:26:45]:
Thank you.