Zoho Adds Free AI Collaboration Tools to Simplify Work for Small Businesses

Artificial intelligence has often felt out of reach for many small businesses—too complex, too costly, and too disconnected from the tools they already use. Zoho Corporation is aiming to change that. The company announced a wave of new “agentic AI” features across its collaboration, customer experience, and human resources apps—tools designed to help businesses save time, work smarter, and make AI a practical part of daily operations.

The updates, which include Zoho’s workplace suite (Mail, Cliq, Sheet, and Tables), are available at no additional cost to current users. Zoho says the goal is to remove the “adoption friction” that has slowed small business AI use by embedding intelligence directly into the tools teams already rely on.

In Zoho Mail, new features like Ask Zia and the Lead Generation Agent take automation to the next level. Ask Zia allows users to issue natural-language prompts such as “Find emails from Zylker Travels, summarize them into a doc, and send it to Paula,” and the system will execute the entire task chain across Zoho apps. The Lead Generation Agent, meanwhile, can scan unread messages for sales inquiries and automatically create leads in Zoho CRM—something that could save small teams hours each week.

Other agents handle more routine yet critical functions: a Cleanup Agent that identifies large emails and suggests cleanup plans, a Threat Mitigation Agent that scans for and resolves security issues, and a Writing Agent that drafts responses, schedules follow-ups, and creates reminders. For smaller organizations that can’t afford full-time IT or admin staff, these automations could significantly lighten the workload.

In Zoho Cliq, the team chat app, agentic AI is being woven into nearly every workflow. Features like Unread Message Summaries, Meeting Transcripts and Action Items, and Automatic Thread Titles make it easier to stay on top of conversations. The system can even analyze tone, translate messages instantly, and summarize multimedia content—capabilities that could benefit remote teams and global collaborations.

Zoho also plans to add multi-vendor AI support, allowing teams to connect their preferred AI engines—such as OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Anthropic—alongside Zoho’s own Zia. The inclusion of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) will let users integrate external large language models like Claude or Visual Studio Code directly into Cliq conversations. That move may appeal to tech-savvy small businesses that want flexibility without additional infrastructure costs.

Meanwhile, Zoho Tables and Sheet received updates that focus on smarter data management. AI Base Creation can generate a complete database with sample data and linked fields from a short prompt. For businesses managing multilingual or customer feedback data, new fields like Language Detector, Sentiment Analysis, and Keyword Extraction automate tasks that previously required manual review.

In Zoho Sheet, features such as PatternFill, Translation from images, and AI Formulas will help users clean and analyze data faster. With these upgrades, even non-technical employees can automate repetitive data work, turning time once spent on spreadsheets into time focused on strategy or customer engagement.

The following table outlines each of the newly released AI-powered features across Zoho’s collaboration tools, along with their descriptions and current availability by region.

Application	Feature	Feature Description	Availability	Available Territories
Zoho Mail
	Ask Zia in Workplace	Ask Zia a prompt, Zia will handle across email, word processor, file manager, and chat at once	Available	Early Access, only in US, IN
	Zoho Mail + Zoho CRM: Lead Generation Agent	Looks into your unread messages when you login, recognizes Sales-queries using AI and converts them into a lead in Zoho CRM	Available	Early Access, only in US, IN
	Ask Zia in Mail	Converse to Zia over an email. Take actions over multiple Zoho apps, get additional details, or draft a reply—all based on your conversations with Zia	Available	Early Access, only in US, IN
	Cleanup Agent	Categorizes emails by size, suggests email cleanup plan	Available	Early Access, only in US, IN
	Threat Mitigation Agent	identifies security incidents, eliminates threats, creates mitigation plan for future threats	Available	Early Access, only in US, IN
	Writing Agent	Generate email drafts and replies automatically while also looking for scheduling conflicts and automatically creating reminders based on generated email content	Available	Early Access, only in US, IN
Zoho Tables
	AI Base Creation with Zia	Zia will create base with relevant tables, sample data and linked fields based on user prompts	Available	US, CA, IN
	Sentiment Analysis Field	Automatically analyzes customer sentiment based on context, tone and emotion in text	Available	US, CA, IN
	Language Detector Field	Automatically detects language of text data when multilingual data is involved	Available	US, CA, IN
	Keyword Extraction Field	Identifies and extracts essential words and phrases for quick summary in SEO, content analysis, and more	Available	US, CA, IN
Zoho Cliq
	Unread Message Summary	Get a crisp gist of all your unread messages at a glance, so you can stay updated without having to scroll through each conversation	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Meeting Transcript, Summary and Action Items	Provides a recorded transcript, a concise summary of the transcript, and highlights of key action items for every meeting	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Automatic Thread Title Generation	Automatically creates clear and relevant titles for threads to keep things organized and easy to follow	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Sentiment Analysis - Writing Assistant	Ensures every message you send is clear, polished, and perfectly tailored to your audience with automatic grammar and tone checks	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Automated Message Translation	Instantly translates messages into your preferred language for smooth, multilingual communication	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	OCR-Based Search	Quickly find your files using OCR-based search; text inside images is automatically recognized, making searching for files easier	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Virtual Background and Filters	Customize your meetings with fun/professional backgrounds and filters for a polished, distraction-free look	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Text Extraction	Easily extract text from images, PDFs, or documents, no need to type it out manually	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Whiteboard Content Generation	Automatic shape recognition turns rough sketches into clean shapes, making ideas easier to understand and share in real time	Available	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Multimedia Summaries	Automatically summarizes the content of attachments and voice messages shared in chats, so you can grasp the key details instantly	Q4 2025	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Live Transcription	Real time meeting transcription	Q4 2025	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Multi-vendor Support	Integrates Cliq with leading AI providers, including Zia (Zoho's native AI), OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic, Cohere, and Deepseek, giving teams the flexibility to choose and work with the AI that best suits their needs	Q4 2025	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Model Context Protocol (MCP)	Unlock AI in your chats with the Zoho Cliq Model Context Protocol (MCP), letting your AI agents and LLMs (Cursor, Claude, Windsurf, Visual Code Studio) access Cliq conversations, allowing automation, insights, and intelligent interactions across your team’s communication	Q4 2025	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
	Quick Replies	Save time in conversations with automatic, context-based reply options, making it easy to respond instantly without extra effort.	Q4 2025	US, EU, IN, AU, JP, CA, SA
Zoho Sheet
	Translation	Convert tabular data from pictures or hard copies into structured data in a sheet	Available	US, IN, EU, CA
	PatternFill	Automatically detects patterns in data and fills in the remaining values	Available	US, IN, EU, CA
	Sheet Assistance	Helps users analyze, visualize and manipulate data more efficiently.	Q4 2025	US, IN, EU, CA
	AI Template	Ready-made, customizable models allowing users to instantly create a template for a specific need	Q4 2025	US, IN, EU, CA
	AI Formulas	Specialized commands in spreadsheets that use AI to perform complex tasks	Q4 2025	US, IN, EU, CA

For small business owners, the practical upside is clear: AI can now assist in managing leads, emails, meetings, and data without requiring an additional budget or outside developer. The challenge, however, lies in understanding how to integrate these features effectively into existing processes. While Zoho’s interface aims to simplify adoption, the learning curve around prompt-based automation could still be steep for teams unfamiliar with AI tools.

Still, Zoho’s decision to include these capabilities at no extra cost marks a meaningful shift. As more AI vendors move toward premium pricing, Zoho’s all-inclusive approach may help level the playing field—giving small businesses access to the same intelligent systems that large enterprises use, but without the financial barrier.

The new agentic features are available now in early access across the U.S., India, and select international markets, with broader rollout planned by the end of the year. For businesses looking to experiment with practical, embedded AI, Zoho’s latest updates could offer an easy—and affordable—way to start.

This article, "Zoho Adds Free AI Collaboration Tools to Simplify Work for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends