Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, today expands the scope of Zia with the announcement of Zia Agents, Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace. Together, these solutions empower enterprises to access, build, and distribute intelligent, autonomous digital agents across their organizations. Beginning today, Zoho and ManageEngine will be previewing pre-built, task-specific Zia Agents, which will deploy across Zoho Corporation’s combined portfolio of 100+ products in the coming weeks.
Zoho Corporation’s in-house AI has evolved over the past decade from proactive to prescriptive to generative to agentic:
Zia: Launched in 2015, Zia is Zoho Corporation’s foundational AI, facilitating all intelligent and contextual actions across the company’s ecosystem of apps. Zia possesses a vast and diverse skillset. New skills are being implemented regularly to boost customer experience and drive productivity.
Ask Zia: Launched in 2018, Ask Zia has developed into a system-wide conversational assistant that helps employees work smarter and accomplish tasks more effectively. For example, an account manager can review a report of customers at risk of churn, summarize the outcomes of each customer’s recent interactions, filter and summarize helpdesk tickets, analyze trends in their industry, and reach out to that customer for a meeting based on the employee’s upcoming travel schedule, without leaving the Ask Zia interface. Ask Zia is powered by Zoho’s unified data platform and will be contextually embedded across all applications.
Zia Agents: Today, Zoho Corporation has previewed some of the several dozens of pre-built Zia Agents that will be rolled out in the coming months, including an Account Manager Agent, SDR Agent, HR Agent, Customer Support Agent, IT Help Desk Agent, and a SalesCoach Agent. For customers, partners, and developers looking to create their own agents, Zoho is launching Zia Agent Studio, allowing them to build and deploy customized agents with inherited skillsets, which can then be distributed through Zoho’s Agent Marketplace.
- Zia Agent Studio: Offering no-code and low-code experiences, Zia Agent Studio enables users to build autonomous agents with skills relevant to their specific needs. Zia Agent Studio users can also access a wide range of pre-existing Zia Skills, tools from across the Zoho ecosystem, data from a unified data platform, and a range of language models. These can be agents within a function (like an SDR agent or email support agent) or natively cross-functional agents (like an RFP agent or loan approval agent). They can be deployed on any Zoho application and summoned using Ask Zia. Moving forward, Zia Agents will be deployable in any third-party application as well. Additionally, Zia Agents with complementary skillsets can be combined using Zia Agent Studio, creating a single agent capable of cross-functional work.
- Agent Marketplace: Agents created using Zia Agent Studio can be published in the Agent Marketplace. Zoho Corporation will offer a pre-built roster of agents, while the company’s ecosystem of partners and developers can build and distribute specialized AI agents through the marketplace, which can be reused and instantly deployed by organizations.
Organizational Differentiation
Today’s announcement follows record growth for Zoho Corporation, which onboarded 110,000 new customers globally in 2024. With over 850,000 customers globally in diverse industries, using a range of tools across Zoho and ManageEngine, Zoho Corporation’s AI solutions are informed by a vast range of functional data. This is a core differentiator for the company, putting it in a unique position to serve businesses with cutting-edge technology.
Technological Differentiation
Zoho Corporation’s distinct technological breadth and depth is a fundamental differentiator, particularly in AI development and deployment. Leveraging its shared data model, owned and managed tech stack, including global data centers, and a broad application portfolio, Zoho Corporation’s highly secure, privacy-compliant, usable, capable, and deeply knowledgeable AI agents deliver superior technology at a high value to its growing customer base.
Availability
These capabilities will begin to roll out to a limited set of customers, which will expand monthly.
Canada’s Digital Workplace Maturity Trails Global Peers, Raising Security and Productivity Concerns Says Zoho
Posted in Commentary with tags Zoho on March 6, 2025 by itnerdZoho Corporation today announced the findings of its “Trends in Digital Workplace Transformation” study, which surveyed 4,900 employees globally to assess their businesses’ digital workplace transformation (DX) maturity. The survey also included 300 Canadian respondents.
The Zoho Workplace team developed a comprehensive digital workplace transformation maturity model as part of the survey methodology that measured two key areas: workplace indicators (digital tools and processes) and employee performance indicators (productivity, collaboration, and security preparedness).
The study reveals that Canadian businesses are falling behind globally, with productivity weaknesses and slow tool adoption hindering progress. The report, based on survey data across multiple industries and company sizes, finds that 40% of Canadian organizations are stuck at an early transformation stage, while top-performing global counterparts move ahead.
Process Inefficiencies Bring Down Canadian Digital Transformation Maturity
The study ranks Canadian digital transformation maturity at 59.9%, below the global average of 62.2% and second-to-last when compared to other regions including India (64.6%) and Asia (63.2%) which have the highest maturity levels. The U.S. average score is 61%.
Despite access to digital tools, limited integration, weak security protocols, and inefficient workflows are preventing companies from reaching higher digital workplace transformation maturity.
Key Security Gaps Fuel Vulnerabilities
Many Canadian businesses remain vulnerable due to weak security measures and lack of awareness, according to the study. While larger enterprises and tech firms have made strides in security adoption, small businesses, remote teams, and customer-facing roles continue to face high risks.
Many employees remain untrained and unprepared for cyber threats, increasing the likelihood of breaches:
A Path Forward: Integration, Automation & Security Overhauls
With reference to Zoho’s maturity model, to advance from Level 2 (Standardization) to Level 3 (Structured Operations), companies need to adopt integrated digital suites, automate workflows, and enforce stronger security measures. The study estimates:
The full results of the “Trends in Digital Workplace Transformation” study are available for download here.
Survey Methodology
The questionnaire was designed to evaluate key performance indicators (productivity, collaboration, security preparedness) and workplace indicators (tools, processes, employee experience, and change). It aimed to assess the alignment of workplace tools and processes with organizational goals and employee expectations. 4,900 employees globally, including 300 Canadians, were surveyed to assess their businesses’ digital workplace transformation (DX) maturity.
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