The Future of Work with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and Reid Hoffman

Jan 8, 2026

Guest

Reid Hoffman

Guest

Eric Yuan

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom and AI communication innovator, teams up with Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and seasoned investor, to explore the future of work. They dive into fascinating topics like digital twins that can participate in meetings on your behalf. Reid adds insights on how startups can compete against big platforms by leveraging niche advantages. The duo addresses the importance of trust in selling AI to enterprises and the necessity for startups to embed customer feedback into their innovation process to ensure long-term success.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Digital Twins Replace Nonessential Attendance

Digital twins can attend ambiguous internal meetings and summarize what matters for you.
They can escalate only when human presence becomes critical, freeing attention for higher-value work.

INSIGHT

Agents Could Handle Early Negotiations

Digital twins may ultimately negotiate preliminary external deals and draft contracts autonomously.
Humans would then finalize and sign, shortening negotiation cycles.

ANECDOTE

Earnings Call Delivered By AI Avatar

Eric used an AI-generated avatar to deliver Zoom's Q2 earnings remarks instead of speaking live.
He recorded a short script and played back the generated video and audio for the call.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Eric Yuan is the founder and CEO of Zoom. Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn. Both are luminary LPs at Village Global. They joined Village GP Ben Casnocha to discuss the future of AI agents, digital twins in the workplace, selling AI to enterprise, and what it takes to build companies that endure.

Takeaways:

Digital twins will handle meetings you're unsure about attending. Your AI can join internal meetings, summarize key points, and alert you only when your presence becomes critical. This frees you to focus on what truly matters.
External AI interactions are coming too. Eventually, digital twins could negotiate contracts, discuss pricing, and handle preliminary conversations before humans finalize agreements.
Enterprise customers want partners, not just products. When selling AI to enterprise, become a trusted guide through anxiety-ridden territory. Trust matters as much as features, especially when customers feel behind.
Make customers part of your innovation cycle. Get enterprise customers deploying early, even partially. The unique data they generate becomes your moat that competitors can't replicate.
Focus on vertical markets with domain expertise. Generic horizontal AI products are vulnerable to big players who can give similar tools away for free. Build where deep domain knowledge creates defensibility.
Hypergrowth hides problems. Rapid revenue growth can mask fundamental issues in your product and operations. The best scenario is growing fast while proactively fixing hidden problems, but that's extremely hard.
Theory of the game matters more than current metrics. Companies aren't valuable in a year; they're valuable in ten years and beyond. Have a clear theory for how your initial traction compounds into long-term value.
Be honest with yourself about durability. Rapid early success doesn't automatically mean you have a long-term strategy. Understand what's driving growth and whether those factors will last.

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.com or get in touch with us on X @villageglobal.

Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We'll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.com/signup