Zoom's biggest contact center customers want AI - here's what it means for support teams
AI has become the deciding factor in Zoom's largest customer experience deals. On the company's Q3 2026 earnings call, President and CEO Eric Yuan said nine of the ten top CX deals included AI tools like Zoom Virtual Agent and AI Expert Assist. The customer experience business, which includes Zoom Contact Center, grew annual recurring revenue in the high double digits.
"The same AI innovation powering how teams collaborate is also transforming how companies engage their customers, and Zoom is at the center," Yuan said. "Customer experience is one of our fastest-growing businesses and an important long-term growth vector for Zoom."
What changed
Zoom committed to an AI-first contact center strategy in August. That bet is gaining traction as customers adopt both autonomous bots and human-in-the-loop AI.
New accounts like SolarWinds and LegalShield partnered with Zoom to replace fragmented setups with a single AI-enabled platform. The pitch is simple: unify channels, automate the obvious, and give agents real-time support when the conversation gets complex.
Why this matters for support leaders
Your procurement team, your CFO, and your VP of CX are all looking for the same thing: measurable outcomes. Vendors that prove resolution, deflection, and clear agent productivity gains are winning. That's where AI is separating contenders from the pack.
Zoom's momentum signals where buying criteria is moving. If AI isn't central to your next contact center plan-automations, assistive guidance, and integrated analytics-you'll feel it in costs, SLAs, and customer satisfaction.
Pricing shift to watch
According to CFO Michelle Chang, Zoom is exploring an outcome-based pricing model for Zoom Virtual Agent, moving away from pure consumption-based billing. If adopted, this could tie spend to results (for example, resolutions or successful containment) rather than minutes or messages.
For leaders, that changes how you forecast value and negotiate contracts. It puts more weight on clean intent design, accurate routing, and reliable measurement-because your invoice could reflect how well your automation actually works.
Action plan for the next 90 days
- Map your top 20 intents by volume and cost. Prioritize the five easiest wins for automation with clear resolution paths.
- Pilot AI in two tracks: a virtual agent for high-volume, low-complexity inquiries and agent assist for live conversations.
- Define success upfront: containment rate, resolution rate, transfer rate, average handle time impact, agent adoption of assist, and CSAT change.
- Build two business cases: one for consumption-based pricing, one for outcome-based. Stress test each with best/worst-case ranges.
- Tighten integrations: CRM, knowledge base, ticketing, and QA. AI is only as effective as the data and workflows it can touch.
- Enable your team: train agents to use real-time guidance and update QA rubrics to evaluate AI suggestions and handoffs.
- Set governance: review model performance weekly, track misroutes and failed intents, and maintain clear escalation rules.
Metrics that matter
- Containment and first-contact resolution (bot and human)
- Transfer and escalation rates
- Average handle time and after-call work
- Agent assist usage and impact on productivity
- CSAT and sentiment by channel
- Cost per contact and cost per resolved intent
- Time-to-launch and time-to-optimize new intents
The numbers from Zoom
Zoom reported $1.2 billion in revenue for Q3 2026, up 4.4% year over year. Online average monthly churn was 2.7% for the quarter. The company noted high double-digit ARR growth in its customer experience segment, with AI central to the largest deals.
If you're validating these details with your finance team or board, you can reference Zoom's investor page here: Zoom Investor Relations.
Level up your team's AI capability
If you're rolling out virtual agents or agent assist, a bit of targeted upskilling goes a long way. Explore role-specific AI courses for support and CX teams here: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job.
Bottom line: AI has moved from nice-to-have to selection criteria. If you make it the core of your next contact center upgrade-with tight metrics, clean integrations, and clear governance-you'll see measurable gains in both customer outcomes and unit economics.
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