Pronouns in Zoom AI Companion Meeting Summary | Community
Skip to main content
S
Newcomer
sandrineg
Newcomer
November 27, 2023
Solved

Pronouns in Zoom AI Companion Meeting Summary

  • November 27, 2023
  • 7 replies
  • 0 views

The Zoom AI Companion is using incorrect pronouns in the meeting summary. Please update the logic used for determining pronouns to either use the pronouns provided by the user within their Zoom account and/or always use gender neutral pronouns.

    Best answer by Bort

    Hi @sandrineg 

    Just wanted to follow up on this and let you know we recently updated our AI models and Meeting Summaries will either use the participant's pronouns they specified in their Zoom Profile, or, if not specified or not signed-in, the gender-neutral "they" will be used instead. 

    This should affect Meeting Summaries generated after Dec 5th. 

     

    Let me know if that's working better for you!

    7 replies

    Bort
    Employee
    Bort
    Employee
    November 27, 2023

    Hi @sandrineg 

    Thanks for the feedback! We are working on many different aspects of the AI Companion Meeting Summary feature and appropriate pronoun usage is one thing we're working on improving. 

    N
    Newcomer
    nateharris4
    Newcomer
    January 5, 2024

    It would make so much more sense to predict he/she based on the name. Using “they” is so confusing in the summary and often makes no grammatical sense. If 99.9% of people can easily be identified by the male/female name, why not use that as the baseline and if someone wants a non binary pronoun they can select it. Assuming gender neutrality with “they” just makes the summary difficult to understand, especially because it can mean one person or multiple people, and that matters. 

      G
      Newcomer
      george_glass
      Newcomer
      September 13, 2024

      "Names are not gendered"   Well, George, some of our clients  may prefer to be gender-specific, and if so, they deserve that respect.  I agree we need to be sensitive to the nuances of language.  Since the 1970's I never use "he" as "representing both "he" and "she" the way we were all taught prior to the awakening of inadvertent sexism.  But in being inclusive, we should not forget to respect those who prefer their sex be acknowledge.  Susan.    (she/her)!


      Hi Susan,

      I completely agree that everyone should be respected and have their correct (correct=identified by the user) pronouns used. Not sure how that relates to my comment about names not being gendered. I think we can all agree that Zoom has not yet come up with an appropriate fix for this, but assuming someone's gender by their name is 100% not the answer. Assuming pronouns is never the answer, and defaulting to a choice, like 'they/them,' can be tricky without confirmation from the individual. The best solution is to allow users to self-identify their pronouns, ensuring respect and accuracy for everyone. When that is not possible (user pronouns have not been selected in their profile), the option should not be to "guess" a gender, attach what pronouns AI deems to be gender appropriate and call it good. Neutral pronouns are just that - neutral and no assumptions.

      Sincerely,

      Casey (they/them)

        G
        Newcomer
        GidonAriel
        Newcomer
        December 11, 2023

        I would prefer the AI to guess if the speaker is a male or female. My Zoom meeting have never had someone who is not binary and clearly identifiable, and if that ever will happen I will deal with it. But to replace "they" with he or she every time is quite bothersome

          Bort
          Employee
          BortAnswer
          Employee
          December 15, 2023

          Hi @sandrineg 

          Just wanted to follow up on this and let you know we recently updated our AI models and Meeting Summaries will either use the participant's pronouns they specified in their Zoom Profile, or, if not specified or not signed-in, the gender-neutral "they" will be used instead. 

          This should affect Meeting Summaries generated after Dec 5th. 

           

          Let me know if that's working better for you!

            K
            Newcomer
            KeithFu001
            Newcomer
            January 5, 2024

            Hey Bort -- 

             

            So the direct feedback from two -- now three -- users is that this is not a good solution. As the other two stated, none of my clients are nonbinary (and how many of the Zoom users are??). You're putting the burden on the vast majority to "protect" a noisy and tiny minority around pronouns. 

            It's a pain to have to export the doc, Search and Replace gender-neutral pronouns and change them to gendered before I send this off to my clients. Why not simply have the default be GENDERED, because those who care about this kind of thing can change their pronouns in their Zoom profile to be NONGENDERED? Doesn't it make sense to put the burden on those who don't want to be misgendered? 

            The "them/they" stuff is a grammatical nightmare and makes the meeting summary hard to get. 

              J
              Newcomer
              js310
              Newcomer
              January 19, 2024

              Since the summary is generated by AI in the first place, how hard would it be to default to conventional genders by name and then allow meeting hosts to update genders -- whatever they may be -- when editing the report and have AI adjust accordingly? Manually changing every pronoun is an enormous pain. (You can't search-and-replace because noun cases may differ from "they" to "he/she".)

                C
                Newcomer
                cleedy
                Newcomer
                October 11, 2024

                Still isn't working, so not really sure why this article says it's "solved".  I added my pronouns today, marked it to always share (because an article said if you don't share the AI won't use it).  I did a test meeting about 5 mins later.  The summary is still showing "He/His" for me despite my pronouns being in as "She/Her".  WTF?

                  P
                  Newcomer
                  pe9609st
                  Newcomer
                  November 6, 2024

                  Came here to say the same thing. Pronouns in my profile, marked to always share, yet still the wrong pronoun.

                    S
                    Newcomer
                    scook_
                    Newcomer
                    May 30, 2025

                    This remains unresolved. Here is a message I was relayed by Zoom support:

                     

                    "Please note that if you do not set your pronouns or choose not to share them in the meeting, the pronouns chosen by the Large Language Model (LLM) will be used instead when referring to you. Which is most likely a masculine given your name."

                     

                    The above statement appears to confirm that when a user leaves the pronoun field blank in their profile, pronouns are inferred by the Large Language Model (LLM), often defaulting to masculine or feminine based on the user's name. This contradicts @Bort's earlier assertion that gender-neutral pronouns such as "they" are used in the absence of specified pronoun.

                    K
                    Newcomer
                    KD09
                    Newcomer
                    May 30, 2025

                    Howdy I’m also in ongoing communication with Zoom support, we’re at the front lines of fighting AI-based discrimination here. in response to my last email to Zoom support, which I have admit did include bright pink, all bold all caps fonts, they said:

                     

                    ”We’re committed to addressing this with the seriousness it deserves, and I appreciate your determination in holding us accountable.”

                     

                    I will keep y’all updated here. 

                    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                    Copyright © Zoom Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.