Zoho Corporation, a leading global technology company, today announced its cutting-edge AI offerings – Zia Agents, Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace, which will soon be rolled out across all MENA markets, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. These new solutions represent a significant advancement in Zoho’s AI virtual assistant, Zia, utilising Agentic AI. This specialised subset of AI enables digital agents to make decisions, pursue complex tasks, and take autonomous actions with minimal human intervention.
Zoho is introducing Agent Studio, an innovative platform that enables customers, partners, and developers in the MENA region to create their own custom agents, that can be localised to suit the needs of specific industry verticals or to automate custom processes such as VAT filings using AI agents. Zia Agent Studio provides a no-code and low-code environment, allowing partners and customers to design and deploy tailored agents with inherited skill sets, which can then be distributed via Zoho’s Agent Marketplace, where Zoho offers a selection of pre-built agents for instant deployment by organisations.
“The speed of disruption and quality of innovation we’re seeing in our industry right now has encouraged me to focus on my passion area, technology. I will devote more time to hands on technical work for the company, spearheading several deep R&D initiatives, beginning with AI,” said Sridhar Vembu, Zoho Corporation’s Co-founder and Chief Scientist. “Utilising Zoho’s deep engineering expertise, its own data centres, and shared data model, we will develop powerful and usable solutions that drive customer value while retaining our commitment to customer flexibility and data privacy.”
“Across the MENA region, there is a collective and strong drive to advance AI initiatives and position the region as a global leader in innovation. Governments and businesses alike are focused on leveraging AI to boost economic growth, enhance productivity, and improve quality of life. Zoho is committed to supporting these ambitious goals by providing intelligent, autonomous AI solutions that enable organisations to stay ahead of the curve and lead in a rapidly evolving technological landscape,” said Hyther Nizam, President Middle East and Africa (MEA), Zoho.
Zoho and ManageEngine will preview pre-built, task-specific Zia Agents, designed to deploy across Zoho’s extensive portfolio of over 100 products in the coming weeks. These intelligent agents are crafted to optimise key business functions, with initial offerings including solutions for Account Management, Sales Development, HR, Customer Support, IT Help Desk, and Sales Coaching.
Zoho’s Zia Agent Studio provides a flexible platform for building custom, autonomous agents that meet specific business needs. Users can leverage a wide range of pre-built Zia Skills, tools from Zoho’s ecosystem, unified data platform access, and various language models to create agents for specific functions (such as Sales Development or email support) or cross-functional agents (like RFP or loan approval agents). These agents can be deployed across any Zoho application and accessed through Ask Zia, with plans for integration into third-party applications in the future. Zia Agent Studio also supports combining complementary skill sets to create a single agent capable of handling multiple business tasks.
This launch marks a major leap forward in Zoho’s commitment to providing businesses with the tools they need to enhance productivity through customisable, AI-powered solutions. Zoho’s in-house AI technology has evolved over the past decade, from proactive and prescriptive AI to generative and now agentic AI. In 2015, Zoho introduced its first AI offering, Zia, which enabled intelligent, contextual actions across the company’s suite of applications. In 2018, Zoho expanded this offering with Ask Zia, a system-wide conversational assistant designed to help employees work smarter and accomplish tasks more efficiently. Ask Zia is powered by Zoho’s unified data platform and is contextually embedded across all Zoho applications. With these innovations, Zoho is redefining how businesses can leverage AI to enhance efficiency, decision-making, and overall productivity.
This announcement follows record growth for Zoho Corporation, which onboarded 110,000 new customers globally in 2024. With over 850,000 customers globally in diverse industries, using a range of tools across Zoho and ManageEngine, Zoho Corporation’s AI solutions are informed by a vast range of functional data. This is a core differentiator for the company, putting it in a unique position to serve businesses with cutting-edge technology. MENA region remains one of Zoho’s fastest-growing region worldwide.