Zoho Corporation has launched Vani, a new visual-first, all-in-one intelligent platform designed to enhance workplace collaboration and creativity. Vani aims to provide teams with interactive and dynamic workspaces, allowing them to brainstorm, plan, and innovate using tools such as whiteboards, flowcharts, diagrams, mind mapping, and video conferencing.
Vani allows teams to consolidate data from various sources, including desktops, drives, and spreadsheets, into a single, shared canvas. The platform’s "Space and Zone" model brings structure to collaboration by enabling stakeholders to work in parallel while maintaining visibility of the overall project. A "Space" serves as the project's overall canvas, while "Zones" are sub-canvases used to segment work by contributor, function, or phase. This approach allows ideas to develop independently while enabling users to collaborate when needed. Users can also utilize a library of templates and kits to expedite workflows.
According to Karthikeyan Jambulingam, Head of Product for Vani, the platform offers a comprehensive set of tools within one canvas, eliminating the need for app-switching, process building, and complicated onboarding. He asserts that this ease of collaboration can lead to significant productivity gains for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Vani also includes AI-powered capabilities, such as instant content generation, structured visuals like flowcharts and mind maps, and summary tools for quickly gaining insights across Zones or specific elements. Native video meeting features enable teams to start video calls and align within the canvas without needing a third-party application; meetings can be recorded to facilitate asynchronous collaboration.
Zoho designed Vani to address the communication gaps that often arise in modern workplaces, where ideas can remain abstract or scattered across different tools. Research indicates that a majority of Gen X and Millennials collaborate more effectively through visuals. Vani seeks to bridge this gap by transforming thoughts into clear, shared visuals, thus improving teamwork efficiency and reducing cognitive overload.
Vani differentiates itself by unifying brainstorming, collaboration, and execution in one flow. Zoho emphasizes a new rhythm for teamwork: "Visualize. Collaborate. Execute,". The company believes this approach can transform how global, hybrid teams communicate and create together.
Vani is now available globally and offers a free plan with unlimited user onboarding. The Team plan is priced at $5 per user per month. Zoho is committed to incorporating AI in a way that prioritizes customer privacy and value. Their generic AI models are not trained on consumer data and do not retain customer information.
