Gains with a human connection remains consistent in age of AI: Zoom COO Aparna Bawa

Artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to alter how work gets done and may affect certain roles, but its impact will depend on how companies choose to deploy it, Zoom chief operating officer Aparna Bawa told Pranav Mukul in an exclusive interview.

Bawa joined the US-headquartered company in 2018, when it was a relatively little-known enterprise video conferencing startup competing against far larger rivals. The Eric Yuan-founded company subsequently went public, in April 2019, and its explosive expansion during the Covid-19 pandemic pushed its market capitalisation from about $9.2 billion at listing to a peak of $159 billion by October 2020. However, since the pandemic, it has seen modest revenue growth, with the market cap falling to $27 billion, as of early 2026, even as it remained profitable.