Zoom AI Companion uses meeting speech to generate summaries and answer questions about a call. It can also retain a transcript when that option is enabled. To turn it off during a meeting, the host opens the AI controls and selects Stop Zoom AI. Turning it off for future meetings requires separate account settings.
Zoom now uses Zoom AI branding in its support instructions. Older versions and some settings still use AI Companion.
What Zoom AI Companion Does
Zoom AI Companion turns the conversation into text that its meeting features can use. A summary can therefore exist even when you have not made an audio or video recording.
Meeting summaries condense the discussion into topics and next steps. They cover the portions of the meeting when the feature runs. Starting it halfway through a client call leaves the earlier discussion outside that summary.
The saved transcript is a separate record of the conversation. Zoom’s meeting transcript settings control whether that record is retained and who can view or download it. A summary is selected material from the call, so it cannot replace a transcript when you need the words spoken.
With in-meeting questions, authorised participants can ask what they missed or what action was agreed. The host controls who can ask and whether answers can include discussion before someone joined.
Custom AI Companion is a paid add-on for eligible Zoom Workplace accounts. It adds organisation-specific tools, including meeting summary templates and connected knowledge sources. A brokerage using those connections must assess access to those sources as well as the call itself.
What Zoom Does With Meeting Data
Zoom says it does not use customer communications content to train its own AI models or third-party AI models. That covers meeting audio and video, chat, screen sharing and attachments. Its AI data-handling whitepaper distinguishes that training commitment from the processing needed to provide the features.
The deployment model controls which providers process the content. Storage and processing locations depend on the account’s hosted region and settings. An Australian brokerage cannot infer Australian storage from its own address.
Where Summaries and Transcripts Go
Meeting summaries can be available through Zoom’s web portal or app, with delivery through email and meeting chat depending on settings. An email-only configuration keeps summaries out of the portal and app. Automatic recipients can include only the host, selected host roles, internal invitees or external invitees.
For confidential client calls, select host-only sharing so you can review the summary before distributing it. Check the setting for the meeting you are hosting. Receiving a summary does not mean every participant received the same copy.
Zoom’s summary instructions warn that recipients can save and share a summary elsewhere. Deleting the Zoom copy cannot recall an email or a document someone already saved.
Saved transcripts have their own retention and download permissions. Zoom also describes configurations that discard temporary summary inputs after successful summary generation. Those settings do not delete a separate cloud recording or copies retained independently by participants.
Turn AI Companion Off
The host can stop meeting AI during a call. A user can disable it for meetings they host, while an account administrator can enforce settings across the brokerage. Your personal settings do not control another organisation’s meeting.
Stop It for One Meeting
Use the host controls in the Zoom desktop app:
- Hover over the Zoom AI icon at the top right of the meeting window. Older versions place AI Companion in the bottom toolbar.
- Select Stop Zoom AI to stop meeting summary and meeting questions together.
- Confirm Stop. If you also select Delete meeting assets, Zoom deletes the covered summaries and transcripts. Completed participant My Notes transcripts are an exception.
- Open the controls again and confirm both meeting features are inactive before continuing the sensitive discussion.
Stopping only Meeting summary leaves Meeting questions under its own control. Stopping without deleting can leave a summary of the earlier discussion.
Participants see the AI diamond change colour when meeting AI runs. Treat that indicator as notice of processing. Ask the host to stop it if you are a participant who cannot use the host controls.
Disable It for Your Meetings
Use the Zoom summary settings in the web portal:
- Open your profile picture or initials, then Settings.
- Open Zoom AI and find Meeting.
- Turn off Meeting summary with AI and confirm Disable.
- Disable the separate meeting questions setting. Some screens call it Allow users to ask AI Companion questions during meetings.
- Save applicable changes, reload the settings and confirm both remain off.
Switching off Auto-start alone allows someone to start the feature manually. A greyed-out switch means a group or account administrator controls it.
Disable It Across the Brokerage
An administrator with account-setting permissions can apply a common policy:
- Open your profile menu, then Admin Center.
- Select Settings, then Zoom AI.
- Disable Meeting summary with AI and the meeting questions setting.
- Confirm each change and lock the settings to prevent users changing them.
- Check an affected user’s settings and a new meeting. Both meeting features must remain disabled.
Meeting transcript is a separate setting under Meeting, then In Meeting (Advanced). Review that control and recording permissions if the brokerage’s policy also prohibits saved transcripts or recordings.
Using AI Companion on Client Calls
Use an AI-generated summary on a client file only after explaining the processing and reviewing the result. A notice in Zoom does not, by itself, establish the client’s informed consent.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, or OAIC, says privacy obligations apply to personal information entered into AI and personal information it produces. Its commercial AI guidance also addresses transparency and accuracy. Sensitive information generally needs consent, subject to applicable exceptions.
Before starting, explain that Zoom will transcribe the discussion to produce a summary. Tell the client who can receive it and whether you will retain the transcript. Offer a call with manual notes if they decline. Follow your licensee’s approved process and the applicable phone call recording rules before capturing the conversation.
After the call, use this file-note process:
- Record the participants and their agreement to the stated AI use. Identify any period when AI was stopped.
- Read the summary against your own notes and the source documents. Resolve errors in income, loan amounts and agreed actions before using them.
- Mark the note as AI-assisted and record who reviewed it. Preserve corrections under your licensee’s record policy.
- Save the approved note in the correct client file with access restricted to authorised staff. Apply the agreed retention policy to the Zoom assets separately.
For example, a summary might turn a client’s tentative borrowing estimate into a firm request. Correct that distinction and confirm the intended amount with the client before it enters the application. Keep the reviewed file note as the record you rely on.
