The State of Zoom Phone: The AI Features You Already Own and Aren't Using

I've been at Zoom for almost six years, and I was here when Zoom Phone first started. My seat back then was in technical support, which means I learned this product by fielding the questions people had when something didn't make sense. How do you build an IVR menu? What's the difference between open and closed hours? Where do the shared voicemails actually live? I remember all of it feeling daunting. Now it's second nature, and the only thing that got me there was time on the product.

I bring that up because it's the same curve most people go through with Zoom Phone. The first week feels like a lot. Then one day you realize you haven't thought about how it works in months, because it just works. That's the good news. The part I want to talk about is what happens after that, once the phone is quietly doing its job and you stop looking at it.

The phone stopped being just a phone

When Zoom Phone launched back in 2019, it was a VoIP system. Reliable calling from your computer, your cell, a conference room, or a desk phone, with the dependability you'd want from an office line. The same calling people have relied on for decades, moved to software.
 

It's not just that anymore. It's a business communications solution, with texting, call recording, integrations into your CRM and contact center, and a layer of AI built into the calling experience itself. In 2019 I wasn't thinking about AI on a phone call at all. Today AI can generate my call summary before I've finished putting my headset away. The core is still the same, a phone system that keeps people connected. What's changed is everything that now happens around the call.
 

And that's exactly where the gap is.

Many people own more than they use

Here's the honest state of things. A lot of Zoom Phone accounts are using a fraction of what they're paying for. This is especially true if Zoom Phone came to you as part of a bundle. You may have a complete communications platform sitting in your account, and you're using it to make and take calls, full stop. Nothing wrong with that. But there's a real difference between owning a tool and getting everything out of it.
 

I don't think this is a selling problem. It's an awareness problem. Nobody tells you on day one that the voicemail box you've been scrolling through by timestamp can sort itself by what actually matters to you. You'd have no reason to know that unless someone pointed it out. So consider this me pointing it out.

I'll be honest that this applies to me too. I use Zoom Phone every single day, and writing this was a good reminder that even I leave value on the table. Toggling between apps all day is the part of my job I like least, and every one of these features is one less place I have to go.
 

So here's what I've actually come to rely on. Three AI features, included with eligible Zoom Phone plans, that work best as a set. One handles what happens during the call, and two handle what lands in your voicemail. Together they take the busywork off the call and leave you with just the conversation and the follow-up. (If you knew these as Zoom AI features, this is the same set, now simply part of Zoom Phone.)

Call summaries

After an eligible call, you can get a summary that includes the key points and the names and dates that came up, all in your call history. You can edit it, email it, or turn it into a document to share.
 

I use this constantly, and not because I'm bad at taking notes. It's that a call is a conversation, and while I'm listening well I'm not writing well. I'll finish a call sure that I caught everything, read the summary, and find a detail I'd already half lost. That's the whole value. It's the difference between meaning to follow up and actually following up on the right thing.

Voicemail prioritization

This is the one that changed how I work through my inbox, and it's my favorite thing to show people. You can define up to five topics or intents that matter to you, and AI will prioritize and surface the voicemails that match them first.
 

Here's why it matters, from my own week. When I've got ten voicemails stacked up, I do what everyone does. I go in order, oldest to newest. By the time I've worked my way down to the ninth one, that's the message that actually needed a fast response, and now it's been sitting for an hour. Setting your priority topics fixes that. The urgent message comes to the top instead of waiting its turn behind five that could've waited. Five minutes of setup, and your inbox is organized to surface what matters most to you.

Voicemail tasks

Related, and just as useful. AI can extract key details from a voicemail transcript and pull out the follow-ups buried inside it, so a message about scheduling a callback or sending over a document turns into a task on your list instead of something you have to remember. No replaying the message three times to catch the details you missed the first time.
 

All three come with eligible Zoom Phone plans. If you're on an eligible Zoom Phone plan, you may already have access to these features. That's the part I most want to land. This isn't a pitch to buy something. It's a nudge to use what may already be in your account.
 

One practical note. These AI features are controlled at the account level, so if you open your settings and don't see them, your admin likely needs to switch them on first. That's a quick ask, and the support link at the bottom walks through it. If you're an admin reading this, you can turn these on for your whole team in a few minutes, and you'll do more for adoption in those few minutes than any email from me will.

There's more where that came from

I'm keeping this focused on the features you may already have and can turn on today. Zoom Phone goes further than this, including AI that can answer and route inbound calls for you when the team is heads-down or out of office. We've written that up separately, so if front-desk coverage is your pain point, that guide is the place to start rather than this one.
 

But you don't need any of that to get value this week. The three features above may be already sitting in your account, and turning them on is one of the quickest ways to start getting more value from Zoom Phone. So here's exactly where I'd start.

What I'd do this week

If you take one thing from this, make it this section. Pick one of these and try it before Friday.

Open your voicemail settings and set your five priority topics. Think about the words that show up in the messages you can't afford to miss, a client name, "urgent," "contract," "callback," and let Zoom float those to the top.
 

Read the summary after your next real call instead of scribbling notes during it. See if it caught something you didn't.

Look at one voicemail and let Zoom suggest the tasks inside it. Watch a two-minute message turn into a clear next step.
 

None of these take a project or a meeting. They take about five minutes each, and they can change the shape of your day more than you'd expect.

Where to go next

If you want the step-by-step version of how to switch these on, I've written a companion guide, Zoom Phone: 3 Need-to-Knows to Get the Most Out of Your Phone Experience, which walks through enabling the AI features, call routing, and integrations. For the deeper setup work, the Zoom Support Center has dedicated articles on each feature. And keep an eye on this community space, because my team runs live webinars where we set these up with you in real time and answer whatever your account throws at us.
 

I'll keep doing my part. There's more short-form content on the way, quick walkthroughs and showcases that make this easier to learn without reading a manual. Until then, the best thing I can tell you is the simplest. Go open Zoom Phone today and try one feature you've never touched. My guess is you'll find something you already own and didn't know was there.
 

Thank you to everyone who shows up to our sessions, asks the hard questions, and pushes us to keep making this better. It's the reason the product has come as far as it has.

For additional technical insights tailored to IT admins and decision makers, visit the Zoom Technical Library.

Written by Matthew Baker, Product Adoption Expert, Zoom Contact Center & Zoom Phone. For questions about this article or other Zoom Products, reach out via the Zoom Community or your Customer Success team.