Zoom Plugs Into Amazon Q as AI Shifts From Chat to Plumbing

By wiring Zoom AI Companion into Amazon Q, the enterprise value moves to the data and identity layer.

Zoom and AWS just took a concrete step toward making AI part of enterprise infrastructure rather than a novelty feature. On August 12, 2025, the AWS Partner Network Blog outlined a new integration between Zoom AI Companion and the Amazon Q index. It is available through the Custom AI Companion add on and lets verified independent software vendors such as Zoom securely tap an enterprise’s Amazon Q index to power context aware responses inside existing Zoom experiences.

For founders and operators, the message is clear. The value in AI is shifting upstream from model choice to controlling the context that models can safely and reliably use.

How Amazon Q Index Works

At its core, Amazon Q index is an enterprise data index that aggregates and synchronizes information from systems such as Amazon S3 and applications including Atlassian Jira, Google Drive, and Microsoft 365.

Through Amazon Q connectors, administrators select which data sources to enable. The setup runs inside Amazon Q Business where AWS IAM Identity Center handles identity and access control. Crucially, the integration preserves user level permissions across all connected sources so end users only see content they are authorized to access.

Before this kind of aggregation, a typical user might have needed to juggle up to eight different applications to complete a single task. The index reduces that swivel chair work by providing a single, governed substrate that AI systems can query in real time.

Zoom’s Integration Strategy

Zoom’s move leans into that substrate. Zoom AI Companion uses agentic AI and a mix of Zoom’s small language models, large language models, and third party LLMs. Now it can ground its responses in an enterprise’s Amazon Q index.

During Zoom Meetings, users can pull authorized content from connected tools such as Jira without leaving Zoom. Rather than copying snippets between apps, the AI Companion retrieves relevant source documents across multiple systems through Amazon’s Search Relevant Content API.

The integration is designed to enhance the accuracy of responses while retaining Zoom’s existing UI and AI features. In other words, the AI does not need a new interface. It becomes a better coworker inside the tools people already use.

Security, Governance, and Enterprise Value

Security and governance details underscore why this is infrastructure, not a bolt on. Amazon Q Business allows enterprises to share data with verified ISVs via the data accessors feature. Administrators control which connectors are enabled and which users and groups can access specific data.

The technical handshake is explicit. Customers provide parameters such as the Amazon Q Business app ID, the app region, a retriever ID, a data accessor app Amazon Resource Name, and the IAM Identity Center region. The ISV then makes authenticated calls to the Search Relevant Content API for secure, real time search across the enterprise index.

This approach keeps authorization centralized and consistent while letting product teams raise the quality of their AI features by grounding them in governed data.

The integration also shows how the AI stack is consolidating around context rather than models. Zoom can orchestrate its own models and third party LLMs, but the differentiator here is not the model menu. It is access to clean, synchronized enterprise data through Amazon Q and the ability to respect permissions across sources such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence, SharePoint, Box, and more.

That is what turns generative outputs into usable work product. For ISVs, AWS emphasizes that this pattern increases the usefulness of existing AI features and protects prior investment in UI and UX. For administrators, it keeps data governance intact. For users, it reduces the friction of bouncing among apps.

A Repeatable Playbook for Enterprise AI

Strategically, this is the playbook. Embed AI into the workflow pipes, not as a standalone bot. Let the identity system and connectors do the heavy lifting.

With Zoom identified as an AWS Advanced Technology Partner and Competency Partner, the announcement signals a path for other enterprise apps that live in communications platforms such as Zoom Team Chat or bridge into ecosystems such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.

The integration pattern is repeatable. Create an Amazon Q Business application in the AWS console, wire IAM Identity Center, turn on the right connectors, and allow a verified ISV to query via Search Relevant Content. The result is context aware assistance wherever work already happens.

Conclusion

The center of gravity in enterprise AI is moving to the index and the identity layer. Zoom’s integration with Amazon Q shows that control of context is becoming the value layer. Models matter, but the winners will be the products that can see the right documents at the right time, with the right permissions, inside the tools people already use.

Sources
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/transform-workplace-intelligence-with-zoom-ai-companion-and-amazon-q-index/