Zoho launches ‘Vani’, an AI-led collaboration platform
Features include whiteboards, flowcharts, mind maps, video calls, and data integration
New “Space and Zone” model enables parallel work with seamless collaboration
SaaS unicorn Zoho has launched a new sub-brand called ‘Vani’, which offers AI-powered “visual” workplace collaboration tools. The company, in an official statement, announced that Vani is equipped with tools like whiteboards, flowcharts, diagrams, mind-mapping, and video-conferencing.
In addition, it will also enable teams to work collaboratively by pulling in data from various sources like desktops, cloud drives, and Excel sheets.
“For small and medium-sized businesses, the ability to increase ease of collaboration, even a small percentage, can lead to extraordinary gains in productivity,” said Karthikeyan Jambulingam, Head of Product for Vani.
"Vani provides a comprehensive set of tools for all departments within one canvas, eliminating the need for app-switching, process building, or complicated onboarding, ensuring that SMBs can seamlessly ideate and execute across all departments”.
The new offering comes with a “Space and Zone” framework, which enables teams to operate independently while collaborating seamlessly when needed. The platform further integrates AI to assist users in generating content, structured visuals, and actionable insights from targeted sections.
It provides a ready-to-use library of templates and toolkits for planning, brainstorming, design diagrams, and social media creatives, streamlining project workflows. It has also rolled out the new offering globally for $5 per month for each user, while it is priced at ₹240 in India.
The platform includes a free tier that provides basic features along with the media uploads of up to 25 MB. The company also emphasised that its AI-driven service will neither store customer data nor pursue advertising or data monetisation.
The rollout comes at a time when interest in indigenous solutions is on the rise. IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has also voiced support for Zoho’s software suite, recommending it for official government use.
Recently, Zoho’s messaging app ‘Arattai’, which was first soft-launched in 2021, also came in the limelight as it clocked over 10 lakh downloads in the past week on Play Store. The app is trying to position itself as a “made-in-India” alternative to global chat giants. It allows all the features similar to any modern messenger. These include text messaging, voice and video calls, stories, channels, and media sharing.
Before this, Zoho launched its indigenously built AI suite, Zia LLM, which offers agentic AI tools for specific business use cases.
Zoho was founded by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in 1996. It offers more than 50 integrated online applications that support multiple business operations spanning sales and marketing, email and collaboration, among others.
