Zoho unveils Zia Hubs to enhance AI business data analysis

Zoho has introduced Zia Hubs, a new feature in its WorkDrive platform designed to extract intelligence from unstructured business data and enhance data usability across its suite of business applications.

Zia Hubs integrates with Zoho WorkDrive as a dedicated content intelligence tool, allowing organisations to consolidate and manage diverse types of unstructured content within defined hubs. Through this approach, businesses can present a wide range of data—such as text documents, emails, audio and video files, and images—to Zoho's AI services for comprehensive analysis and search, independent of the file's original format or structure.

Unlocking business data

Chandrashekar LSP, Managing Director, Zoho Canada, highlighted the scope and challenge of unstructured business data. According to Chandrashekar LSP, "According to IDC, 80 percent of business data is unstructured. Most unstructured data is text-based, meaning pertinent information lives within email conversations, social media posts, word processor documents, or audio and video transcripts. With Zia Hubs built into the full product suite, Zoho is able to provide customers with a deeper integration than any comparable software platform and nearly limitless potential uses for their data."

Zia Hubs aims to address these challenges by enabling users to organise content based on tasks or projects, giving them control over which files and information the AI can access. Each hub operates as a focused workspace where Zoho's AI engine, Zia, can interpret and interact with the stored materials. The tool supports a variety of formats, from standard office files like PDFs and spreadsheets to rich media including video and audio.

Automated content structuring

The feature automatically categorises the uploaded content by grouping related sections, supportive text, and visuals, in order to preserve context for later retrieval or analysis. For video and audio content, Zia generates transcripts and connects highlighted moments to relevant topics, allowing users to locate specific discussions or data points with greater ease.

Using Zia Hubs, users can ask questions across all stored content types and the system retrieves answers containing clear citations linking back to the source material, whether it is a document, spreadsheet, or a time-stamped segment of audio or video. This supports both cross-format search and auditability of the results.

Workflow automation and integration

Another capability of Zia Hubs involves workflow automation via Zoho Flow, which can automate document storage processes based on project teams or specific organisational requirements. Notably, the AI's access can be configured so that only the most current documents are included. The solution is also compatible with content from third-party business software, such as DocuSign PDFs, RingCentral call logs, and Zoom video files. Workflows can route these external files directly into relevant hubs.

Future developments

Zoho states that Zia Hubs represents the first step in its larger AI strategy. The company plans for future enhancements that will enable Zia Hubs to recognise structured data within unstructured files, and trigger automated workflows or specialist agents tailored to different business scenarios. According to the company, these capabilities leverage Zoho's vertically integrated technology stack covering more than 55 business software products.

Updates to Zia Hubs will look to extend contextual understanding, employing the AI as a central layer to activate intelligent workflows across the Zoho ecosystem.

Early access and international release

Zia Hubs is now available in early access for select users of Zoho WorkDrive in the United States. Zoho plans a broader release, including international availability, towards the end of the third quarter of 2025.

Commitment to privacy and usability

Zoho has signalled that its artificial intelligence offerings are developed according to internal principles that emphasise privacy and practical value. The company states that its AI models are not trained using customers' data and do not retain user information.

"Zoho is committed to designing and incorporating artificial intelligence guided by the principles of customer privacy and value. Our generic AI models across contextual, assistive, and agentic AI, are not trained on consumer data and do not retain customer information. Zoho builds AI tools with usefulness in mind, striking a balance between providing AI technology that assists workers while right-sizing models that don't require burdening consumers with additional costs."

Zoho maintains that these principles ensure the responsible use of AI technology, striving to offer tools that support business productivity without adding cost or risk to users.