Zoom's New Communications App 'Purpose-Built' for Frontline Workers

Video software company Zoom has announced a new mobile app for frontline workers in the retail, manufacturing and health care industries, where employees are not typically sitting on a computer.

The app will include scheduling capabilities, real-time updates and chat, push-to-talk, and task management. The AI companion alongside it will automatically report on shifts with data such as attendance reports and task completion rates. The AI tool can also search company information and can chat with users in their preferred language to answer questions on company policies such as leave or promotion.

Zoom expects this to help companies with frontline employee support and alignment. Vice president of product management Ritu Mukherjee told Newsweek that the app is "purpose-built" for shift workers and shift managers across the aforementioned industries.

"This workforce really doesn't have the tools that the information workers have had historically," she said. "These communications are not necessarily digitized [...], so consolidating it and really making it very efficient, that is where the biggest opportunity is."

Managers and workers can log into the app to see their upcoming schedule and staffing, "almost like your calendar tab," Mukherjee said. Managers can also communicate with shift workers and share updates easily. This prevents people from having to look across text, email or other clunkier work software systems to access information and communicate with colleagues.

"We're seeing a lot of traction among our customer base with retail customers," Mukherjee shared. "We also have customers from health care organizations and manufacturing there also, but primarily, we are seeing a lot of traction from the retail customer."

For people on a shift, the software can automatically create a chat or voice call for that group. It can also assign available people to a shift proactively if someone indicates they are unable to make their scheduled shift in the future.

"We have developed capabilities like a walkie-talkie, or push-to-talk. [The message] then gets propagates to all the floor managers," Mukherjee said. "They can listen in, they can respond."

The platform takes into account the many needs of shift workers. Some of the shift management data is pulled from UKG, a workforce management system provider. The AI companion summaries include who worked the shift, task and project progress, and any messages or voice chats during that time. And, the platform incorporates 10 languages, including English, Spanish and Chinese.

Mukherjee also said this solution is aimed at addressing or supporting onboarding, employee engagement and turnover.

"There's a very high churn in [frontline roles]," she explained. "Another benefit of this product is there's a very low training cost. You just walk in, get this application, and you should be able to get going quickly."

Zoom's core offerings, the video meeting and webinar software, is primarily used by knowledge workers. But knowledge workers need to communicate with frontline leaders and workers at times as well.

"The information-worker tools are just too heavyweight for this group," Mukherjee said, emphasizing the mobile-first nature of this new app. "A lot of our features for information workers are desktop first. Now that the AI is here, we think there is a lot more opportunity to really support this group."

In health care, the stakes are often a bit higher than most retail settings. Mukherjee notes that health care represents a large segment of the Zoom customer base, with providers meeting with patients over the platform. The company is now looking to support better communication for physicians, nurses, and other staff members on the ground, while maintaining the industry's compliance standards as it has before.

"We have to be mindful of certain requirements. HIPAA compliance is a critical piece of it. Another interesting thing is there's a lot of faxing still going on in health care, and we just launched fax," Mukherjee said. "It is a unique nature because of regulation and sensitivity data."