Chennai emerges as key development hub for Zoom’s Global Contact Center

Chennai has emerged as a key development hub for Zoom’s global Contact Center business, with teams in the city working on critical components of the cloud-based customer service platform, according to Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering at Zoom.While Zoom Contact Center is developed across multiple locations globally, India is the primary development base for certain components of the products, Sankarlingam said. He declined to disclose the specific areas being developed in Chennai.“In terms of development, context and product, there are certain components, like India is the primary development,” he said, adding that Chennai has played a “big role” in product and contextual development.Zoom established its Chennai technology centre in 2022, primarily focusing on product development. The company has increasingly positioned Contact Center as a key part of its broader strategy to expand beyond video conferencing into workplace collaboration and customer engagement.Zoom Contact Center enables businesses to manage customer interactions across voice and chat, while also incorporating AI-powered virtual agents.Enterprise business drives growthZoom does not disclose revenue separately for individual products, Sankarlingam said, when asked which of its enterprise offerings was generating the most revenue.The company reported Enterprise revenue of $787.5 million for the quarter ended July 31, an increase of 7.8% from a year earlier. Enterprise revenue accounted for roughly 62% of Zoom’s total revenue of $1.28 billion. Online revenue stood at $489.7 million, up 0.6% year-on-year.Zoom reported GAAP net profit of $1.54 billion for the quarter, boosted by a $1.61 billion gain from strategic investments. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $464 million.AI reshapes customer supportSankarlingam said Zoom is also using its own Contact Center and AI capabilities internally, particularly in customer support.The company is targeting a 40% reduction in support tickets, while AI and virtual agents currently handle more than 95% of incoming support tickets, he said.According to Sankarlingam, the objective is not merely to automate customer interactions. Data generated through support conversations is being analysed to identify the root causes of customer problems and feed those insights back to product teams.This allows Zoom to address underlying product issues before they result in additional customer complaints, while enabling human support agents to focus on more complex cases.Demand shifts towards AI and business skillsThe growing use of AI is also changing the type of talent Zoom is seeking.Sankarlingam said the industry initially focused heavily on hiring professionals with deep artificial intelligence and machine-learning expertise. The requirement is now gradually shifting towards employees who can combine AI capabilities with an understanding of business processes.However, he said the majority of Zoom’s current hiring continues to be concentrated in core AI capabilities.To a query whether enterprises are primarily adopting AI-driven solutions to reduce headcount, Sankarlingam said companies are more focused on improving productivity and moving employees away from repetitive tasks towards more complex work, while creating new roles and skills.Multi-model AI strategyZoom is taking a multi-model approach to AI, using a combination of its own models, open-source models and foundation models from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.Sankarlingam said the strategy enables Zoom to select models based on factors such as accuracy, performance and cost. A new capability could initially rely on a foundation model and later migrate to a Zoom-developed model as the company’s own technology improves.The approach also helps the company manage token costs by selecting models that can deliver the required quality with fewer tokens, he said.Hybrid infrastructureZoom operates a combination of public cloud infrastructure and co-located data centres. Its real-time audio, video, phone and Contact Center services generally run through its data-centre and global network infrastructure.The company does not build or own its own data centres. Instead, it uses public cloud services and co-location partners, with approximately 18-20 co-located facilities globally, according to Sankarlingam.In India, Zoom serves customers ranging from multinational corporations operating in the country to domestic businesses. The company has also modified some of its products to meet Indian regulatory and compliance requirements.