Zoho expands AI capabilities with new automation solutions
Joy Agwunobi
Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, has expanded the capabilities of its artificial intelligence (AI) system, Zia, with the introduction of Zia Agents, Zia Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace.
These new solutions aim to empower businesses by enabling the creation, deployment, and management of intelligent digital agents across various functions within their organisations.
According to the company, it will begin previewing pre-built, task-specific Zia Agents within its extensive product portfolio, which spans over 100 applications. These agents are expected to be deployed gradually in the coming weeks through Zoho and its enterprise IT management division, ManageEngine.
Zia, which has been central to Zoho Corporation’s AI evolution since its launch in 2015, has transitioned from proactive and prescriptive intelligence to generative and agentic AI. The system has consistently been refined to enhance user experience and productivity across the company’s suite of applications.
In 2018, Zoho introduced Ask Zia, a conversational assistant designed to help employees work more efficiently by providing real-time insights and automating various tasks. The system is embedded across Zoho’s applications, leveraging a unified data platform to offer contextual responses and insights.
With the latest expansion, Zoho Corporation has previewed several Zia Agents tailored for specific roles, including Account Manager Agent, SDR Agent, HR Agent, Customer Support Agent, IT Help Desk Agent, and SalesCoach Agent. These AI-driven agents will assist businesses in streamlining their workflows by automating key tasks.
For organisations looking to customise their AI assistants, the firm noted that it is launching Zia Agent Studio, a platform that allows customers, partners, and developers to build and deploy agents with inherited skill sets. These agents can then be shared and distributed through the Zia Agent Marketplace.
The Zia Agent Studio, a key component of the new AI expansion, offers both no-code and low-code development environments. This feature allows businesses, partners, and developers to create and deploy AI agents with specialised skill sets. These agents can function within individual departments or operate across multiple business units, improving collaboration and efficiency.
According to the firm, the AI agents developed can function within a single department or operate cross-functionally, such as an RFP agent or a loan approval agent, which can be deployed within Zoho applications or external third-party platforms. Additionally, businesses can combine multiple Zia Agents with complementary capabilities to create more sophisticated, multi-functional agents.
Additionally, the Agent Marketplace, will serve as a platform where businesses can access and deploy AI agents developed through the Zia Agent Studio. The marketplace will feature a roster of pre-built AI agents from Zoho, alongside specialised AI solutions developed by the company’s partners and developers.
This announcement comes on the heels of significant growth for Zoho Corporation, which added 110,000 new customers globally in 2024. With over 850,000 businesses using Zoho and ManageEngine products, the company’s AI solutions benefit from a vast pool of functional data, positioning it as a leader in AI-driven business automation.
Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s Co-founder and chief scientist, emphasised the company’s focus on AI innovation, stating “The speed of disruption and quality of innovation we are seeing in our industry right now has encouraged me to focus on my passion area, technology.”
“I will devote more time to hands-on technical work for the company, spearheading several deep R&D initiatives, beginning with AI. Utilising Zoho’s deep engineering expertise, its own data centres, and shared data model, we will develop powerful and usable solutions that drive customer value while retaining our commitment to customer flexibility and data privacy,” Vembu added.