Zoom Ventures, the investment arm of Zoom Communications, has announced a strategic investment in Suki, a technology startup that specializes in AI-driven speech recognition, note summarization and ambient documentation for healthcare. This announcement follows a recent product partnership between Zoom and Suki that aims to deliver AI-generated clinical notes to healthcare institutions. Suki has raised $168 million to date, but Zoom’s share of that total has not been disclosed. Other notable Suki investors include Venrock, First Round, Flare Capital Partners, March Capital and Breyer Capital.

Here I want to dig into what Suki does and explore the implications of this partnership for the future of AI in healthcare. I will also analyze some of the challenges clinicians face, AI’s potential to address those challenges and Zoom’s broader strategy in the healthcare sector.

Suki’s technology is integrated into various healthcare systems and telehealth companies, with a focus on electronic health records. It aims to serve as a versatile AI tool that enhances different aspects of a clinician’s workflow. For example, a clinician might use Suki as an AI assistant to capture detailed notes while examining a patient, while a nurse could use a Suki-powered communication badge to ambiently capture patient triage. The same clinic might also leverage Suki to do diagnostic coding during telehealth consultations and image-guided therapies such as MRIs and ultrasounds.

The thing tying this together is the platform’s AI-powered voice assistant, which is designed to reduce the time clinicians spend on documentation and allow them to concentrate more on patient care. Suki’s design allows it to capture and compile data and workflows across diverse healthcare settings. This should allow Suki to build a comprehensive view of the patient, the clinician and the overall healthcare delivery process. Users can accept, edit or reject all generated output.

“If you look at what’s happening in healthcare, there’s been a lot of burden because of administrative work, documentation, liability, regulation [and] compliance that has accrued over the years, and it’s led to a situation where clinicians are spending more time doing administrative work than clinical work,” said Suki founder and CEO Punit Soni. “The goal of Suki is to make healthcare tech-assistive and integrated so clinicians can focus on clinical care.”

This approach to AI made Suki an attractive operating partner and investment target for Zoom, as it aligns with Zoom’s overarching strategy to drive employee productivity and its healthcare focus of enhancing patient experiences. “Suki’s impressive growth and rapid adoption across healthcare systems underscore the tangible value they’re bringing to the industry,” Ricardo Anzaldua, head of corporate development and Zoom Ventures at Zoom, said. “Their ability to demonstrate clear, measurable benefits has resonated strongly with providers. This investment not only bolsters our position in healthcare tech but also supports a company that’s genuinely improving clinical efficiency and patient care quality.”

As touched on above, Zoom’s investment in Suki also aligns with its broader strategy of leveraging AI to enhance workplace solutions, particularly in healthcare. Although they are highly trained professionals, clinicians often get bogged down in repetitive tasks like documenting and coding patient interactions. This is a frustration for many doctors, who didn’t go to medical school to perform these administrative functions. According to recently published research, AI assistants can reduce a physician’s time devoted to documentation by up to 70%. They accomplish this by transcribing patient encounters, entering data into EHRs and processing information for orders and prescriptions. This allows physicians to focus more on direct patient care.

Soni explained that the AI can do this because it automates manual processes that are “further enabled by the fixed ontology of medical language and the sophisticated nature of healthcare users.” Just as we’ve seen high adoption of AI in the legal field, which also has highly educated, process-driven users and a fixed ontology, healthcare is poised for transformation by AI.

With its substantial market share in telehealth, Zoom’s backing could help accelerate Suki’s adoption across the industry. Zoom is the leading telehealth provider in the country, with more than 36% market share. Soni is hopeful that the partnership could open doors for Suki. Now that Zoom has a vested interest in the company, I see that becoming more likely.

In addition to its investment in Suki, Zoom has expanded its healthcare offerings in other ways. The company recently announced plans to launch Zoom Workplace for Healthcare in Q4 of 2025. Zoom has also said it will introduce Zoom Workplace for Clinicians and a custom AI Companion for Healthcare add-on in the first half of 2025.

The rise of telehealth in recent years has been significant, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic when telehealth visits surged. Since then, virtual care has become a key component of modern healthcare, and Zoom has played a central role. Although growth has slowed since the massive spike during the pandemic, the TAM remains large. The telehealth market is projected to grow from $162 billion in 2024 to $791 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 22%.

Zoom’s healthcare strategy is aided by the Zoom Contact Center, an AI-powered, cloud-based solution designed to enhance patient care and support operations. Its functionality allows healthcare providers to interact with patients through video, voice, web chat, and SMS. But it also integrates several AI tools designed to improve efficiency and patient outcomes. AI Expert Assist provides staff with quick access to relevant patient information such as medical records, while AI Companion generates conversation summaries for clinicians. Integration with healthcare systems aims to optimize workflows with automated routing, directing patients to appropriate healthcare professionals based on their needs.

Zoom’s healthcare initiatives align with broader industry trends as other major technology companies invest in AI-driven healthcare solutions. The competitive landscape is intensifying as unified communications competitors including Cisco (with 10.5% market share in telehealth) and RingCentral have made significant pushes. Other established enterprise software players including Google, Microsoft and Oracle are also formulating AI strategies alongside their existing healthcare offerings. However, it’s worth noting that these providers may face challenges integrating AI with their legacy systems.

In any case, paradigm-shifting functionality such as ambient documentation summarization implies a certain level of disruptive change, as existing tech vendors and healthcare providers must supersede their existing dictation systems to fully embrace the new technology. While this might be an advantage for newer companies such as Suki that are unencumbered by legacy systems, these upstarts also face challenges in terms of resources and market presence compared to giants such as Google and Microsoft.

Soni apparently doesn’t see that as a hindrance. “We started building Suki in 2017 with the thesis that language models and AI technology would increasingly automate administrative tasks in healthcare,” he told me. “Look at the mess, the low-margin setups [healthcare providers] have, the amount of money that’s actually being lost, the inefficiencies. It’s not just that healthcare is ripe for disruption. It’s actually that they’re desperate for something that can make things a little better. I think it's a perfect confluence of a firestorm or crisis combined with technology that can actually solve the problem. Now, through partnerships like this with Zoom, we’re making these capabilities even more accessible.”

This partnership also appears to highlight Zoom’s agility and commitment to AI. According to Soni, the collaboration moved from initial discussions to nearly ready for deployment in just a few months. He emphasized the unusual speed of this process, referring to Zoom as an “agile Silicon Valley company,” and pointed out that such partnerships typically take years to finalize. This rapid progress, he said, showcases Zoom’s inherent AI capabilities and its ability to act quickly and decisively. This speed and agility — what Zoom CEO Eric Yuan commonly calls “Zoom speed” — could distinguish it from companies that follow more traditional, slower partnership models; this might give the company an advantage in an environment where clinicians are desperate to realize the efficiencies AI promises to deliver.

With moves like the Suki partnership and investment, Zoom is strategically positioning itself as a healthcare technology leader while leveraging its expertise in videoconferencing, AI and unified communications. Although it is already a telehealth market share leader, Zoom faces stiff competition, along with the challenge of evolving beyond its core business — and well-established market identity — in videoconferencing.

Zoom’s investment in and partnership with Suki is key to this transformation. If all goes according to plan, this collaboration will enable joint innovation and enhance the combined offerings of the two companies to meet the evolving needs of healthcare providers. Zoom’s extensive customer base, distribution channels and strong brand recognition should accelerate Suki’s market penetration and impact at the same time that Suki’s technology makes Zoom’s offerings even more relevant for this market.