“I found my own personal meeting minutes dropped by more than 40% when I switched from Zoom to Roam from 4.5 hours per day to 2.6 hours per day. My average meeting time in Roam is eight minutes, an astounding number when you think about the prescheduled world of 30- and 60-minute Zoom time blocks.”
We’re proud Roam is back as a 3x SaaStr London and Annual sponsor!
Here’s a scenario every remote team leader knows intimately: You’ve got a distributed workforce spread across time zones. Your team is productive individually, but you’ve lost something essential – the spontaneous conversations, the ability to see who’s available, the casual knowledge sharing that happens when people work in the same physical space. You’re drowning in scheduled meetings and Slack messages, spending more time coordinating work than actually doing it.
Sound familiar? Unless your team has cracked the code on remote spontaneity (and few have), classic remote work tools create silos instead of connections. While we’ve solved individual productivity, we’ve broken collaborative creativity and the organic flow of information that drives innovation.
Enter Roam’s AI-Powered Virtual HQ – not just another video calling tool, but a genuine reimagining of how distributed teams can work together with AI assistance.
Founded by former Yext CEO Howard Lerman, Roam emerged from stealth in 2022 with $40.6 million in funding from IVP. But here’s what makes their new AI integration game-changing: they’ve built AI coworkers directly into a platform that already solves the fundamental problem of remote work – visibility and spontaneous collaboration.
Roam’s AI Assistant Cuts Meeting Times Dramatically
Let’s talk about what moves the productivity needle. Lerman found his own personal meeting minutes dropped by more than 40% when he switched from Zoom to Roam – from 4.5 hours per day to 2.6 hours per day. His average meeting time in Roam is eight minutes, compared to the prescheduled world of 30- and 60-minute Zoom time blocks.
Now imagine that efficiency amplified by AI. Roam’s new “On-It” AI Assistant can set timers and reminders such as “Remind me at 11am ET to ping Howard” – but this is just the beginning of what happens when AI understands the context of your virtual office.
Companies utilizing Roam’s cloud HQ have recorded an average meeting time of merely 8 minutes and 30 seconds, a substantial reduction compared to the standard 30 or 60 minutes Zoom meetings. When you multiply that across a team of 50 people having 5 meetings per day, you’re looking at saving 21+ hours daily. That’s not incremental improvement – that’s transformational.
Why Smart Teams Are Making the Switch
The core problem with remote work isn’t technology – it’s visibility and context. Roam offers a shared view that makes your whole company feel as if everyone’s in one room, enhancing collaboration and connection among remote teams. Their platform includes company visualization, live presence, drop-in meetings, video conferencing, group chats, and scheduling.
But here’s where AI changes everything: instead of just seeing who’s available, AI coworkers can proactively surface relevant information, suggest connections, and automate routine coordination tasks. Think of it as having an extremely smart office manager who never sleeps.
The platform transforms how teams actually work:
- Spontaneous Collaboration: Teams can see who’s in the office, start quick audio or video meetings, and collaborate in real-time
- Theater Mode: Leaders can host engaging all-hands meetings with interactive presentations
- Lobby Feature: Sales teams can schedule meetings with clients seamlessly
- Drop-in Meetings: Developers can collaborate in real-time, speeding up decision-making
The AI Advantage
What sets Roam apart isn’t just the virtual office concept – it’s how AI enhances every interaction. Roam is “The Office of the Future: People & AIs collaborating in a Virtual HQ to get more done, at greater speeds, higher accuracy, and lower costs than ever seen before.”
The AI integration includes:
- AI Summaries: Automatic meeting and conversation summaries
- AI Agents: Task automation and workflow optimization
- Context-Aware Assistance: AI that understands your team’s work patterns
- Proactive Scheduling: Smart coordination based on availability and priorities
One user review captures the impact: “I’ve been using Roam for over a year—aside from the velocity at which this team releases high quality new features and makes overall improvements, the platform is hands down the most impactful piece of software i’ve ever bought for any company i have ever run.”
The Business Case That Actually Adds Up
Here’s the part that matters for the bottom line. One recent study found that unnecessary meetings waste about $25,000 per employee annually, translating to $101 million a year for any organization with over 5,000 staffers.
Roam’s pricing model aligns with value delivered: Organizations are charged a fixed amount per user, and if an employee doesn’t use the service, then the organization won’t be billed for that person. Current pricing is around $10-$10.25 per active user monthly.
But the real ROI comes from time savings. If Roam cuts meeting time by 40% and reduces coordination overhead, a company with 100 employees averaging $75k salaries could save over $500k annually just in recovered productive time. Add AI automation, and the savings multiply.
Market Validation and Traction
The numbers speak for themselves. Roam has more than 2,000 customers and ~40 corporate customers in its enterprise tier.
Meetings in Roam average 8.7 minutes, while the industry average is much closer to 50 minutes.
Technical Reality Meets User Experience
The platform combines familiar interface patterns with innovative AI capabilities. Meetings, messaging, and sharing all exist within “rooms” organized into “floors” that are navigated in an area called the “elevator.” Visible indicators show who is where and with whom they are meeting through simple avatars that provide workers with a sense of the action and flow in the office.
For integration, Cal.com users can add Roam as an integration within their calendar scheduling environment, enhancing workflows for distributed teams by making it easy for coworkers to communicate and brainstorm in real-time.
The Bottom Line
Roam’s AI-Powered Virtual HQ represents the convergence of three critical trends: remote work maturation, AI workplace integration, and the desperate need for better collaboration tools. While most companies are still trying to make Zoom and Slack work for distributed teams, Roam has reimagined the entire paradigm.
When your 8-minute conversations replace hour-long meetings, when AI handles routine coordination, and when distributed teams feel like they’re working in the same room, the compound productivity gains are extraordinary.
The future of work isn’t remote or in-person – it’s intelligent, adaptive, and human-centered. Roam is showing us what that looks like.
Ready to transform your distributed team’s collaboration? Visit ro.am to explore how AI-powered virtual headquarters can revolutionize your remote work experience.
Want to see Roam’s AI-powered virtual HQ in action? Come meet the team at SaaStr AI London on Dec 2-3!!
