Maybe you noticed the little sparkly icon at the top of your meeting. Or perhaps you got a summary email you never asked for, detailing every awkward pause in your Monday morning sync. Zoom’s AI Companion is everywhere now. It’s a powerful tool, sure, but it can also feel like an uninvited guest taking notes in the corner of the room. Honestly, sometimes you just want a private conversation without an algorithm "optimizing" your thoughts.
Knowing how to turn off zoom ai companion isn't just about clicking a single button and walking away. It’s about understanding the hierarchy of permissions that Zoom uses to keep this feature running across different account types. If you're a basic user, it's easy. If you're part of a massive corporate structure where IT calls the shots, it’s a bit of a headache.
Most people start digging through their meeting settings while the call is already live. That’s usually too late to change the global behavior of your account. You've got to go to the web portal. That’s where the real power lies.
The Web Portal: Where Settings Actually Live
Stop looking at the desktop app. Seriously. The Zoom app on your Mac or PC is basically just a remote control; the actual engine is in the Zoom web portal.
Log in to your account via a browser. Navigate to the "Settings" tab on the left-hand sidebar. You’ll see a specific tab labeled "AI Companion" right at the top. This is the central hub. If you want to kill the feature entirely, this is where you flip the master switches.
There isn't just one switch. Zoom broke the AI Companion into several different sub-features:
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- Meeting Summary
- Meeting Questions
- Smart Recording
- Whiteboard Content Generation
You can keep the summaries but kill the "Ask AI" feature if that's what's bothering you. Or, you can just toggle everything to "Off." If those toggles are grayed out and you see a little lock icon, I have bad news. That means your account admin has locked the setting at the group or account level. You’re stuck with it unless you can convince IT that the AI is a privacy risk for your specific department.
Privacy Concerns and the "Opt-In" Debate
Last year, Zoom faced a massive PR firestorm regarding its terms of service. People were convinced Zoom was using private meeting data to train its underlying AI models without permission. Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, had to go on a bit of a damage control tour.
The company eventually clarified that they do not use audio, video, or chat content to train their AI models without customer consent. But "consent" is a tricky word in a corporate environment. If your boss turns it on for the whole company, did you really consent?
Many legal firms and healthcare providers are strictly disabling these features because of HIPAA compliance and attorney-client privilege. If you work in a sensitive field, how to turn off zoom ai companion is a question of professional ethics, not just personal preference. Even if Zoom says they aren't "training" the model on your data, the data is still being processed by a third party. For some, that’s a non-starter.
Handling the In-Meeting Awkwardness
Let’s say you’re in a meeting and someone else turns the AI Companion on. You'll see a notification. It’s hard to miss.
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As a participant, you have rights. You can actually request that the host turn it off. Zoom added a feature where participants can anonymously (or publicly, depending on settings) ask the host to stop the AI summary.
If you are the host, look at the bottom toolbar. Click the "AI Companion" icon—it looks like a little cluster of stars. From there, you can stop the current session's AI processing. It won't disable it for future meetings, but it provides immediate relief for the current one.
Why It Keeps Turning Back On
It’s annoying. You turn it off, and then three days later, it’s back.
This usually happens because of "Recurring Meeting" settings. If you created a series of meetings back in February when the AI was enabled, those specific calendar invites might have the AI Companion "hardcoded" into the meeting ID settings. You might have to go into the "Meetings" tab in the web portal, find the recurring series, and edit the settings for the entire series to ensure the AI remains disabled.
The Administrator's Perspective
If you're the one running the show—the IT admin or the small business owner—you have the "Account Management" view. This is the "God Mode" of Zoom.
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Go to "Account Management" and then "Account Settings." Under the AI Companion tab, you can disable these features for every single person in your organization. If you want to be a hero to your employees who hate being summarized, this is how you do it.
You can also set it so that the AI Companion is "Off" by default but allows users to turn it on if they really want it. This is usually the best middle ground. It respects privacy while keeping the tool available for those who actually find the automated notes helpful.
Common Misconceptions About Zoom's AI
People often think that if they don't see the icon, the AI isn't working. That’s not always true. "Smart Recording" can happen in the background. This feature takes a cloud recording and automatically chops it into chapters and highlights. Even if the "Companion" isn't "talking" to you in the chat, the AI is still processing the file after the meeting ends.
To truly be "off-grid," you need to disable "Smart Recording" in the Recording tab of your settings as well.
Another weird quirk: The AI Companion requires the host to be on a paid version of Zoom. If you’re on the free tier, you generally don't have to worry about this. But if you join a meeting hosted by a Pro, Business, or Enterprise account, the host's settings govern the room. You are a guest in their digital house.
Practical Next Steps to Reclaim Your Privacy
If you want to ensure your meetings remain AI-free starting right now, follow these steps in order. Don't skip the browser login, as it's the only way to make the changes stick.
- Log into the Zoom Web Portal: Go to zoom.us/signin.
- Navigate to Settings: Hit the "Settings" link in the left nav bar.
- Find the AI Companion Tab: It’s usually the fourth or fifth tab at the top.
- Toggle Everything Off: Switch off "Meeting Summary" and "Meeting Questions."
- Check the Recording Tab: Switch over to the "Recording" tab and ensure "Smart Recording" is toggled off.
- Update Recurring Meetings: If you have ongoing meetings, go to the "Meetings" tab and manually check the settings for your recurring series.
- Check for "Locked" Settings: If you see a lock icon, send a screenshot to your IT department and request they unlock the feature for your user profile or group.
By following this sequence, you effectively strip the AI's permissions at the root level. No more surprise summaries. No more "AI is listening" notifications for your clients. Just a standard, old-school video call where what you say stays between the people on the screen.