Think of a virtual sales meeting setup on Zoom.
A sales rep is pitching a client and, throughout the call, receives real-time alerts on the screen about the client’s mood; if the client seems disconnected, bored, or agitated when the sales rep reveals the price of the software or explains some key features.
This is precisely what Zoom’s upcoming (and controversial!) feature ‘Zoom IQ’ will add to the software’s capability.
Zoom IQ, powered by emotion AI, uses computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing to capture the behavioral cues from external expressions such as tone of voice, eye and facial movements, or other non-verbal body language.
Then it analyzes that data to assess emotional attitudes, feelings, and other internal emotions, providing indications of the person’s emotional state.
It brings a fantastic advantage for salespeople to make necessary corrections/changes in their sales pitch like improving the talking speed, client engagement, product understanding, and more.
Sounds super cool, isn’t it?
However, not everything about emotion AI has been well-received.
Because emotion AI works on detecting people’s emotions based on their external expressions, its accuracy and impact are in question.
Human emotions and behavior across the world carry so many intricacies that it’s not fair to rely on the assumption that what someone is feeling inside literally transmutes into their facial cues or other external expressions.
When such technology will be applied to a widely used tool like Zoom, it might add to the present inequality.
Another objection against emotion AI is why you need a machine to tell you if the person on the other side has lost interest in the conversion.
It’s a basic human skill, especially for salespeople, who are expected to have some level of emotional intelligence!
Though the technology of emotion-detecting AI has some ethical and logical barriers to cross, it might add significant value for businesses to make the virtual sales environment more productive, engaging, and decisive.
Till then, it’s out for a debate if this technology is worth exploring or not!
How does Zoom IQ work?
