Zoholics 2025: Driving the next chapter of Zoho adoption
Zoholics has always been more than a conference – it’s the place where Zoho users, partners, and product experts come together to shape what’s next.
At Zoholics 2025 UK, I joined Muhammad Hamza and John Kakkasseri to explore the innovations, AI enhancements, and product roadmaps that will define how businesses adopt and scale Zoho in the year ahead.
This year, the spotlight wasn’t just on what’s coming — it was on how quickly businesses can start putting these to work. From Embedded AI to Agent Studio and beyond, Zoho is giving organisations tools that don’t just add efficiency — they transform how work gets done.
At Goldstar IT, we love to work with the early releases of these technologies, test them in real business environments, and report back with clear, practical insights into how they can help you launch your business to the next level.
Zoholics 2025 wasn’t about abstract futures — it was about momentum, community, and the confidence that Zoho is ready to help businesses thrive in this new chapter.
Embedded AI – changing the way you work, forever
The biggest shift I saw at Zoholics is how AI is no longer a separate tool — it’s becoming part of every Zoho application.
This isn’t about experimenting with chatbots or dabbling in automation. Embedded AI means that across Sales, Finance, HR, and Support, your systems will:
- Take action automatically — from flagging at-risk customers in CRM to reconciling transactions in Books.
- Surface insights instantly — giving your teams real-time intelligence without needing to build reports.
- Continuously learn — adapting to your processes so it gets smarter the longer you use it.
In practice, this transforms how organisations operate:
- Sales managers act on daily forecasts powered by AI, not just end-of-month reports.
- Finance teams aren’t buried in reconciliation — they’re alerted only when human judgment is needed.
- Customer support becomes proactive — AI predicts issues before they escalate, reducing churn.
This is why embedded AI is so transformative: it doesn’t just make processes faster — it redefines the way work gets done. And we’re here to help businesses harness that shift from day one.
Want to see what AI in action could look like for your organisation?
“For me, the standout was Zoho Inventory and its new updates, along with Zoho Analytics and its enhanced capabilities, which really changed the way I think about what a BI platform can do. The idea of making insights accessible to everyone.John, Certified Zoho Product Specialist @ Goldstar IT
Overall Zoholics gave me a clear picture of how Zoho is scaling its platforms to meet real-world business needs.”
Collaboration – innovation shaped by an ecosystem
One of the strongest impressions I took from Zoholics is that collaboration sits at the heart of Zoho’s progress.
It’s not just Zoho setting the direction. Innovation here is shaped by three groups working together:
- Users – organisations applying Zoho day to day, sharing their challenges and ideas.
- Product teams – people inside Zoho listening closely, iterating, and shaping features to meet real needs.
- Partners – Colloborating, sharing best practices, surfacing patterns across industries, and feeding insight back into the platform.
This ecosystem approach is what makes Zoho different. It’s not innovation dictated from the top, but innovation shaped collectively — by the people who use, build, and deliver the platform every day.
Zoho MCP – connecting context across your business
One of the biggest announcements at Zoholics was Zoho’s adoption of MCP (Model Context Protocol).
In plain terms, MCP gives AI a shared language to work across your Zoho apps. Instead of being trapped in a single tool, AI can draw on the full range of business data and workflows that matter most. That means your agents don’t just “know” CRM, or Finance, or Support — they understand how those pieces connect.
For businesses, this unlocks practical benefits like:
- Forecast with confidence – sales projections that automatically factor in stock levels, supplier delays, or overdue invoices.
- Deliver smarter service – support agents that adapt responses based on payment history, contract terms, or open orders.
- Streamline finance – AI that reconciles across systems and flags exceptions without human trawling.
- Run sharper campaigns – marketing driven by lifetime value and behaviour across multiple touchpoints, not just clicks.
- Strengthen decision-making – leaders get insights that reflect the whole business picture, not just one department’s data.
Why does this matter? Because context is everything. MCP means your AI can act with the same joined-up awareness your people bring to decisions — seeing the bigger picture, not just one data stream.
For decision-makers, the signal is clear: Zoho is building an ecosystem where AI isn’t isolated or abstract, but embedded, on-makers, it signals Zoho’s direction of travel: towards AI that’s contextual, connected, and ready to adapt to the complexities of real business.
“My biggest highlight was seeing how Zoho is bringing practical AI into its ecosystem, especially with the next wave of Zia and the new agent marketplace.Hamza, Certified Zoho Developer @ Goldstar IT
For me, all this and the comments from colleagues, users and other Partners shows that Zoho’s roadmap is closely aligned with the challenges our clients face around automation, compliance, and making better decisions.”
Agent Studio – building AI that reflects your business
At Zoholics, the unveiling of Agent Studio stood out because it changes who gets to build AI. Instead of AI being delivered as a fixed product, Agent Studio empowers organisations to design, deploy, and refine their own agents inside Zoho.
That’s a profound shift. It means:
- Custom intelligence – agents that understand your terminology, workflows, and regulatory requirements.
- Deep integration – AI that isn’t bolted on, but woven directly into your Zoho environment.
- Scalable learning – the ability to iterate and evolve agents as your business changes.
Consider what that unlocks:
- An onboarding agent that trains new staff in the exact way your business operates.
- A customer service agent that reflects your sector knowledge, not just generic FAQs.
- A finance agent that enforces your policies while reconciling at speed.
This is where AI stops being “tools you use” and becomes capabilities you create. Businesses are no longer constrained by centrally designed features — they can craft AI that mirrors their identity, priorities, and strategy.
For me, Agent Studio is one of the clearest signs yet that Zoho’s AI vision is practical, flexible, and grounded in real adoption. It isn’t about abstract potential; it’s about giving organisations the means to build the future of their own work.
Final Thoughts
Zoholics 2025 made it clear that the future of Zoho adoption is about three things:
- AI is here to stay – no longer an add-on, but part of your day-to-day work.
- Custom AI is within reach – tools like Agent Studio let you design agents that fit your business, not the other way around.
- The Zoho ecosystem thrives on collaboration – innovation shaped by users, partners, and product teams working together.
At Goldstar IT, we’re excited to help businesses put these shifts into action — making 2025 the year AI and collaboration drive the next chapter of growth.
If you left Zoholics inspired and ready to act, I’d love to talk about how to bring these features to life in your organisation. Book a discovery session with Goldstar today — and see how adopting some of these releases will set you up as industry leading businesses tomorrow.