Hyther Nizam, President for MEA and VP of Products at Zoho, highlights Zoho’s focus on localizing AI agents through Agent Studio for VAT filings in the MENA region. This initiative ensures adherence to evolving regulations by leveraging local laws, privacy policies, and seamless integration to support businesses effectively.
Zoho emphasises the localization of AI agents through Agent Studio, particularly for regional needs like VAT filings. How will Zoho ensure these localized AI solutions remain compliant with the rapidly evolving regulatory environments across the diverse markets within MENA?
Zoho is committed to ensuring that its AI agents, particularly those focused on regional needs like VAT filings, remain compliant with the evolving regulatory environments across MENA. Specifically, in the case of VAT compliance in Zoho Books and ZATCA compliance in Saudi Arabia, Zoho integrates these regulatory requirements directly into Zoho Books. As new regulations and compliance needs emerge, Zoho continuously updates and integrates them within Zoho Books to ensure users are always in alignment with local laws. Moreover, all work done in Zoho Books, including VAT-related tasks, will seamlessly integrate with the AI agents, allowing users to leverage this data in the VAT filing process. By reusing the work already completed in Zoho Books, these AI agents can streamline and automate VAT filing, making compliance even easier for businesses operating across MENA.
The Agent Marketplace aims to offer pre-built Zia Agents for various business functions. What criteria will Zoho use to curate and ensure the quality and security of agents offered on this marketplace, especially given the sensitive nature of enterprise data?
Zoho has maintained an unwavering privacy policy where it pledges to keep data only in the hands of its owners. Our focus is on providing a secure, trustworthy environment for businesses to access and deploy AI agents while maintaining the integrity of their data. To ensure the quality and security of the agents offered on the Agent Marketplace, Zoho employs a rigorous vetting and moderation process. Any third-party agents published in the marketplace will be thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure that no customer data from enterprises is exposed to larger language models (LLMs). On the other hand, any agents published by Zoho will meet the highest standards of security and privacy compliance, ensuring full alignment with stringent industry regulations.
Zoho highlights its commitment to data privacy. With the increasing autonomy of Agentic AI, how will Zoho guarantee that user data remains protected and that AI agents operate within ethical boundaries, particularly when interacting with sensitive customer information?
Zoho is deeply committed to data privacy, and with the increasing autonomy of Agentic AI, we ensure that AI agents operate within well-defined ethical boundaries. We have set clear limits on the decision-making capabilities of AI agents to prevent any unintended overreach. We provide fine-grained control over the data within the context of an organisation, ensuring that AI agents operate only with the relevant information necessary for their tasks. For example, a support agent or salesperson will have access to only the data they need, based on their role and permissions. This means agents are context-aware and operate under strict access controls, preventing them from accessing unrelated data across the organisation. Additionally, we prioritze compliance with auditing standards, ensuring that the AI agents respect the privacy and security of organisational data. This approach guarantees that no sensitive customer information is mishandled, and it aligns with enterprise data structures and privacy regulations, keeping user data protected at all times.
Zoho has a large portfolio of over 100 products. What are the key strategies for integrating Zia Agents seamlessly across this diverse ecosystem, and how will Zoho ensure a consistent user experience?
We are introducing Agent Studio, which will act as a central hub where key functionalities from various products, such as VAT filing agents, chat agents for Zoho Desk, or HR agents for internal employees, can be accessed as pre-built agents. These agents will be integrated into their respective applications, ensuring that they enhance existing workflows. In addition to the pre-built agents, Agent Studio will provide customers with the flexibility to build their own custom agents tailored to specific needs, enabling them to perform multiple tasks efficiently. The key to ensuring a consistent user experience across all products is that these agents will all be built on the same interface and design principles within AgentStudio. This ensures a unified experience, regardless of which agent is being used across Zoho’s ecosystem, while maintaining interoperability with existing functionalities.
You mentioned that the MENA region is one of Zoho’s fastest-growing markets. What specific factors do you attribute to this growth, and how will the launch of Zia Agents further accelerate Zoho’s expansion in the region?
The MENA region has been one of Zoho’s fastest-growing markets, both in 2024 and over the past four years. A significant factor behind this success is our focus on localised products and our local presence in key markets, particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We have established local offices and data centres in Saudi Arabia, which has enabled us to offer solutions that comply with local laws and regulations. This localised approach has played a pivotal role in our rapid growth in the region. Looking ahead, the launch of Agentic AI and Agent Studio will further accelerate Zoho’s expansion in MENA. These new offerings allow customers to build custom agents for specific purposes, which will provide businesses with powerful tools tailored to their unique needs. Moreover, these agents will be designed to respect privacy and security concerns, particularly for enterprise customers, ensuring compliance with local privacy laws. By integrating seamlessly with many of Zoho’s products and functions, these AI agents will enhance workflows and create more value for businesses in the region, helping Zoho to solidify and expand its presence in MENA.
How does Zoho balance the development of cutting-edge AI technologies with the need to provide practical, immediately valuable solutions to its customers in the Middle East?
Zoho believes that AI should be context-aware and designed to solve real, tangible problems within the enterprise environment. We recognise that AI cannot operate in isolation, like a generic chat interface, especially for enterprise customers. Instead, it should be integrated seamlessly with key business functions and workflows within the products customers are already using. In line with this, we focus on Agentic AI, which is deeply embedded into Zoho’s suite of products to address specific business challenges. This approach ensures that our AI solutions are not just cutting-edge but also immediately valuable, providing practical, context-based assistance where it’s needed most.
With the launch of Agent Studio and the Agent Marketplace, how will Zoho empower its partners in the Middle East to build, deploy, and support these AI solutions for their clients, and what support structures will be in place?
With the launch of Agent Studio and the Agent Marketplace, Zoho is empowering its partners in the Middle East to not only build and deploy AI solutions but also to monetise these solutions. Partners will have the ability to create custom agents tailored to specific needs and publish them on the marketplace, providing them with an opportunity to reach a wider audience. To support our partners and customers in this journey, Zoho will offer specialised support. We will have a dedicated team of specialists within our support structure who are focused specifically on agents. This team will assist partners and customers in building the right agents for their unique requirements and help them navigate the process of publishing their agents in the marketplace.
