Morning Consult study inspires Zoom’s “Hard Stop Burger Shop” pop-up in NYC, highlighting how AI automation can reduce meeting overload and restore balance to the workday
NEW YORK, March 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Zoom Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) enters the next phase of its Zoom Ahead campaign with Take Back Lunch, a cultural movement designed to help workers reclaim time in their day, starting with lunch. The initiative brings together new research in partnership with Morning Consult, product innovation powered by Zoom AI Companion 3.0, and an experiential activation in New York City to show productivity gains in action.
A new national study conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Zoom found that 60% of U.S. knowledge workers squeeze in a short lunch between meetings or tasks, 35% skip lunch at least once per week, and three in four regularly eat at their desks while actively working. Heavy workloads (63%) and meetings scheduled over lunch (54%) are the biggest contributors to lost lunch time. And in the era of video-first work, nearly three in four workers (72%) say they would rather skip lunch than eat on camera during a meeting.
Making Productivity Tangible
“While much of the conversation around AI focuses on future potential, most teams are still dealing with a very present challenge: time lost to fragmented tools and manual follow-through,” said Kimberly Storin, Chief Marketing Officer at Zoom. “Zoom’s AI Companion 3.0 automates what happens before, during, and after meetings so teams can reclaim time in their day. ‘Take Back Lunch' is designed to make a broader shift visible. When AI is embedded into the flow of work, time isn’t just saved, it’s returned to people.”
Zoom AI Companion is an agentic AI assistant that automates tasks, connects workflows, and helps teams move from conversation to execution across Zoom Workplace. Key capabilities include:
- Automated meeting summaries and decision capture: Instantly generates notes, highlights, and action items so teams can stay aligned without manual follow-up.
- Cross-platform context unification: Connects to data from meetings, messages, files, and third-party apps to provide a single, intelligent view of work.
- Proactive task management and follow-up generation: Identifies next steps, assigns tasks, and keeps projects moving with less manual coordination.
- Real-time insights and intelligent assistance across Zoom Workplace: Embedded across Zoom Workplace, including meetings, chat, and phone, and available on the web at ai.zoom.us for easy access to AI insights throughout the workday.
The Morning Consult study underscores the opportunity for workers when they use AI tools:
- 76% of workers who use AI tools report saving at least 30 minutes per day, including 43% who save an hour or more.
- Nearly 3 in 4 (73%) say they would use time saved by AI to take a dedicated lunch break.
- 66% are open to using AI-powered meeting tools, such as automated notes and smart recaps, to skip meetings that conflict with lunch.
- 70% believe AI tools can help restore their work-life balance.
Introducing the Hard Stop Burger Shop
To bring the movement to life, Zoom will open the Hard Stop Burger Shop, a speakeasy style burger pop-up inside a Manhattan office building, from March 25 - March 27.
Time slot reservations open to the public can be made at takebacklunch.nyc.
Beyond the days of the activation, workers can join the movement to “Take Back Lunch” at zoomahead.com/lunch. The goal: Reclaim 1 million lunches by encouraging workers to commit to protecting their break time, demonstrating how AI-powered productivity can translate into meaningful human outcomes.
A Cultural Signal Within Zoom Ahead
Take Back Lunch builds on Zoom Ahead, Zoom’s largest brand campaign to date, which reflects a broader truth about work today: there are more tools than ever, yet work often feels more fragmented and less human. Zoom Ahead positions Zoom as an AI-first workplace platform built to connect people to progress. What started as the best way to meet has evolved into a system of action for modern work, reducing friction, unifying workflows, and embedding agentic AI directly into the daily flow of collaboration.
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online by Morning Consult on behalf of Zoom between February 17 – March 3, 2026, among a national sample of 1,047 U.S. knowledge workers. Oversamples were collected in New York City (276), San Francisco (166), Chicago (224), Dallas (217), Atlanta (202), and Denver (105). Results from national data have a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points; oversample data have margins of error of +/- 6–10 percentage points.
About Zoom
Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM) is a system of action for modern work, turning live collaboration into completed results. From entrepreneurs to global enterprises, customers choose Zoom to seamlessly collaborate, communicate, and drive outcomes across meetings, phone, contact center, and more — all with the built-in assistance of Zoom AI Companion. Founded in 2011, Zoom is headquartered in San Jose, CA. For more information, visit zoom.com.
Media Contact
Rebecca Bernhard
rebecca.bernhard@zoom.com
press@zoom.us