The news: With businesses of all sizes navigating their return-to-work strategies, the reality is those that choose a remote-first or hybrid working policy need to wrestle with Zoom fatigue, which AI startup Headroom is aiming to solve.

How it works: Headroom, which was formed in 2020 by ex-Google and Magic Leap engineers and raised $5 million in seed funding in October, is a videoconferencing solution that adds layers of productivity features, per VentureBeat.

• Aside from managing video calls, Headroom adds computer vision, natural language processing, transcripts, summaries with highlights, gesture recognition, and replays.
• Headroom’s tools enable hands-free meetings, which means participants can concentrate on being present in meetings.
• Gestures like hand waves or thumbs up can get the group’s attention, and meeting highlights are recorded into short videos, easy enough to share—replacing lengthy emails.
• The AI component also makes it possible to search recorded meetings by attendees, shared notes, topics, or words.

The opportunity: Now that most of the world is familiar with videoconferencing solutions for remote work or education, it’s an ideal time for innovation and disruption by companies like Headroom.

• The videoconferencing space is ready for the next generation of solutions to remove various pain points and Zoom fatigue. 
• Headroom doesn’t require downloads or updates—it provides free video calls with no usage caps. Zoom has a 40-minute time limit for free users.
• Headroom can partner with companies that lack viable videoconferencing or set itself up to be acquired by one of the industry leaders.

The problem: Companies like Zoom, Google, and Cisco have the resources to quickly copy and implement many of Headroom’s features at scale. In addition, established videoconferencing solutions already have tens of millions of users who might be comfortable with a familiar solution, despite a lack of AI features.