Collaboration was the topic of the day at Zoho’s SMZ 2025 event. But Zoho gave that idea a whole new meaning with this idea: barneyAn intelligent visual collaboration platform. i sat together Regards Arti ElizabethJoin Zoho’s Product Marketing Manager to learn how Vani reimagines teamwork for small and medium-sized businesses across multiple tools, tasks, and time zones.
where knowledge begins
When asked about the name, Aarthi smiled. “There is an Indian goddess named Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning.” she explained. “So Vani is another name for her. That’s why Vani, because this is where knowledge begins, this is where brainstorming begins.”
Its origins fit perfectly with the purpose of the platform. Vani is designed to: Intelligent and visual collaboration space — A shared digital whiteboard of sorts that lets teams brainstorm, draw mind maps, plan projects, and host video meetings without switching between multiple apps.
Why visual collaboration is important
Aarthi described Vani with a vivid analogy. “Imagine a soccer coach trying to plan a game without a formation board,” she said. “Everyone would have to imagine it in their head. And it’s complicated.”
The same goes for teams, especially small teams, who want to plan projects or manage workflows through tools like Slack, Zoom, and email. “Imagine a team trying to plan an entire project from start to finish without a Kanban board or Gantt chart,” she said. “It will increase the cognitive load on your head and slow down the whole process.”
This is where Vani comes into play. This is for small to medium sized teams. shared visual space Brainstorm, plan, and execute. Literally everyone can be on the same page. “A small company, a young team, works well visually,” says Aarthi. “Teams move forward when ideas are visual.”
One infinite canvas for everything
For small businesses that use multiple apps for meetings, email, and planning, Vani One-stop visual workspace.
“With Vani, we don’t have to have five different applications,” explains Aarthi. “It brings everything to a limitless canvas. Whether you’re building a product roadmap, planning a social media campaign, or diagramming your network architecture, you can do it all in one place.”
Vani’s built-in video capabilities eliminate the need for third-party conferencing tools. “There is no need to integrate with Zoom or leave the application,” said Aarthi. “Simply start a meeting and everyone will be notified. They can decide whether to join the meeting or not, and choose exactly where to join.”
Canvas also supports asynchronous communication. This is a huge advantage for distributed or flexible teams. “You can leave comments for your team, add voice notes, and react to different elements,” she said. “It’s a fun way to work and gets the job done faster.”
Templates and Kits: Ready-to-use and customizable
One of Vani’s most practical features for small and medium-sized businesses is Template and Kit Libraries — Pre-built settings for common workflows such as project planning, sales follow-up, and marketing strategy.
Aarthi said, “Vani has two things.” “One is a ready-to-use template. My favorite is to put together social media posts or brainstorming templates to create a mind map so other team members can get started.”
AI also plays a role. “You can simply say, ‘Vani, please create a flowchart for me with this, this, and this,’ and it will automatically create the flowchart,” she said.
If you have more specialized requirements, kits are available to customize your workspace. “Let’s say you’re a designer and you want to draw a diagram of a network architecture,” she explained. “When you add the AWS kit, all the tools are included. Just drag and drop to start building.”
This approach gives small teams both. Flexibility and Structure — Pre-built templates for a quick start and customizations for your own business processes.
Integration for a smooth day
No modern tool exists in isolation, and Zoho knows that small businesses live in a multi-app world. Vani integrates with key Zoho products such as WorkDrive, Mail, Projects, and Show, as well as external platforms such as: Microsoft Teams.
“I think most small teams use Microsoft Teams,” says Aarthi. “You can bring up Vani and start a discussion or draw a mind map without ever leaving Vani within Teams. Having a centralized space where everyone can do the same work is a huge advantage.”
And that’s just the beginning. “This is the first of many,” she added. “We want to be able to drive the visual part of collaboration across apps, regions, and languages, so we’re integrating with Google and all of our communication apps.”
Making collaboration more human
In addition to technical capabilities, Vani brings personality to collaborations. The platform includes: Voice notes, comments, pins, mentions, real-time cursor and reactionsIt makes teamwork more interactive and even fun.
“Vani allows everyone to see what everyone else is doing,” said Aarthi. “Of course, you have full control. As an administrator, you can set roles and permissions and decide who can view, edit, and organize your space.”
A balance of openness and control helps small teams maintain transparency without confusion. “If you want to monitor and control it, you can do that,” she explained. “But if you don’t and you want everyone to have equal space, you can do that too.”
These real-time reactions and real-time cursors provide your team with immediate visual feedback. “Just before today, I was testing Vani in India with a team of about 35 people,” Aarthi recalled. “Everyone was saying different things and it was really fun. No one was interfering. It was a good experience.”
For small businesses without a dedicated project manager, these types of Built-in Visibility It serves as a simple audit trail that shows who did what, when, and where within the same workspace.
Rethinking meetings through catch-up
Vani also introduces a new type of meeting. More precisely against the meeting — It’s called «catch up.» Designed to reduce context transitions and meeting overload, catchups are short, flexible, and spontaneous.
“It’s not like a regular meeting,” Aarthi explained. «You don’t have to create invitations or meeting links or make sure everyone comes at a certain time. If you’re working on something and want someone else’s input, start a catchup.»
Anyone can jump in or out as needed. “There is no set way to meet,” she added. «If you want to discuss something, you jump in. If you don’t, you jump in. It helps with asynchronous communication because not everyone can be in touch at the same time.»
Catch-up is a natural fit into the way small businesses operate: flexible, fast-moving, and focused on results. “We are also working on chat as part of Vani,” said Aarthi. “It’s on our roadmap.”
Designed for the way small and medium-sized businesses work today
For many small teams, the biggest challenge is not the lack of tools, but the lack of them. Too many tools. Information is often scattered between video calls, project trackers, email threads, and shared drives.
To solve this, Vani offers one of the following: Centralized visual hub This is where everything connects: brainstorming, work planning, documentation, and real-time conversations.
This holistic approach is what Aarthi calls “shared visual intelligence.” The idea is that teams can work smarter when they think and see together. “We thought there had to be a product like Vani,” she said. “We need to leverage the concept of shared visual intelligence and apply it to everything we do.”
Small business owners can experience fewer meetings, faster decisions, and greater team alignment without having to invest in complex or expensive project management tools.
From initial access to everyday use
Vani is currently available on: early access to vaniHQ.com. Small business owners can sign up to explore the infinite canvas, ready-to-use templates, and AI-powered tools for themselves.
“Vani is providing early access,” Aarthi said. “You can try the product by simply signing up.”
As Zoho continues to expand its suite of AI-driven business applications, Vani adds a new human-centric layer to the ecosystem that focuses on how people actually work together, not just data or automation.
Why Vani Matters to Small Businesses
In an age where small teams are spread across multiple locations, devices, and schedules, Clear, connected collaboration It has never been bigger. Tools like Vani The visual flexibility of whiteboards, Structure of the project plannerand Communication skills through video and chat — all in one integrated space.
For entrepreneurs and small business owners who want their teams to stay organized without being bogged down by an endless barrage of emails or meetings, Vani offers a refreshing and practical alternative.
Aarthi said: “It’s a fun way to work and gets the job done faster.”
Key takeaways:
For small business teams looking to streamline communication, brainstorming, and project management, Vani by Zoho provides an all-in-one visual collaboration platform that simplifies work from first idea to final delivery and brings knowledge, creativity, and teamwork together on one limitless canvas.
