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From reactive to proactive: How AI reshaped our customer experience at Zoom
Find out how to build a proactive customer experience strategy that works with Jeff Harling, Head of Digital Customer Experience at Zoom.
Updated on February 27, 2026
Published on February 27, 2026
In this blog
- 01 Why we needed to change - Jumplink to Why we needed to change
- 02 Building a self-service-first model - Jumplink to Building a self-service-first model
- 03 The results we’ve seen - Jumplink to The results we’ve seen
- 04 What we learned along the way - Jumplink to What we learned along the way
- 05 What’s next - Jumplink to What’s next
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Jeff Harling
Head of Digital Customer Experience, Zoom
When I joined Zoom five years ago, our support model looked a lot like everyone else’s. Customers reached out when something went wrong, and we worked hard to fix it fast. That worked for a while, but it wasn’t enough for the long-term. Especially in the age of AI.
We wanted to move from reacting to resolving. From waiting for problems to anticipating them. That shift changed everything about how we think about customer experience.
See the transformation for yourself
Customer expectations have grown fast. We're all feeling that. I know mine have when it comes to interacting with the brands I use on a day-to-day basis. As a recent Zoom-commissioned Morning Consult report found, the top three chatbot frustrations are failure to resolve the issue (43%), getting stuck in a loop (38%), and having to repeat information (37%). It's no surprise that people want answers right away, in their own language, on their own time. The problem is scaling that kind of support with live agents just isn’t sustainable.
We saw the same challenges that I'm sure many of you as CX leaders face:
- High volumes of repetitive, low-value inquiries
- Data scattered across systems
- Rising demand for 24/7 help without adding headcount
We knew AI could help, but only if it could make the experience better, not just faster.
Our goal wasn’t to replace people. It was to make every interaction, human or automated, feel connected and personal.
We started by introducing Zoom Virtual Agent (ZVA), our AI-first self-service chat and voice bot. But it’s more than a bot, it’s a digital concierge that uses agentic AI to understand natural language and keeps context throughout the conversation. Let's say a customer asks three questions, it remembers all three and works through them one by one.
When an issue needs a live agent, ZVA passes along the full conversation history. The customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves. That small detail has made a big difference in satisfaction.
In just 18 months, our customer satisfaction score (CSAT) rose from 55% to a staggering 80% .
We’ve also seen:
- Fewer escalations
- Faster resolution times
- Happier agents who feel more empowered to solve complex issues
Customers are echoing how helpful Zoom Virtual Agent has been in their feedback. That’s a big shift from the days when people looked to avoided virtual agents altogether.
A few lessons stand out:
- Keep your content clean and strong: AI is only as good as the knowledge it draws from; structure, consistency in answers, and context are all necessary attributes.
- Start small and measure everything: Focus on your highest-volume issues first, then expand.
- Use feedback loops: Every escalation is a chance to improve the experience.
- Treat your AI like a digital employee: Someone should own its performance and training every day.
We’re now expanding ZVA’s reach, adding multilingual support and advanced analytics with Zoom CX Insights to improve feedback loops and ultimately the service we provide. The goal is consistent, intelligent interactions across every channel, from chat to phone to social media. With Zoom Virtual Agent's recent feature enhancements, there's even more we can do to achieve our vision to reduce customer effort, prevent repeat contacts and scale the experience.
This transformation didn’t happen overnight. It took patience, iteration, and a lot of listening to both customers and agents. But the payoff has been worth it. AI didn’t replace our people, it helped them do their best work. And that’s what real transformation looks like.
If you’re exploring how AI can help your contact center move from reactive to proactive, I shared more about our journey in a recent webinar. You can watch the full recording on demand to see how we did it and what’s next for AI in CX.
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