Eric Yuan, the chief executive of Zoom, says he doesn’t dwell on the past.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when work, school and social events shifted online, Zoom prospered. It became a household name, and investors flocked to its stock. In October 2020, Zoom’s market value reached about $160 billion, worth more than Exxon Mobil, IBM and many other blue-chip companies at the time.

Mr. Yuan says he knew those times wouldn’t last. “During Covid, a lot of unsustainable new use cases were created,” he said.

The company’s stock has fallen more than 80 percent from its peak, back to around where it was before the pandemic. Workers are back in the office, and students are back in classrooms. The company’s brand recognition remains high, but in some ways it has started to lose meaning: People say “Let’s Zoom” and then send a link to Microsoft Teams or Google Meet.

Mr. Yuan, who founded the company in 2011 and became a billionaire as it rose to prominence, is now trying to get people to consider Zoom as more than a videoconference platform. Like most firms in Silicon Valley, it is all in on artificial intelligence, which Mr. Yuan believes one day will allow humans to work just three or four days a week.

“We need to reinvent ourselves and think forward,” Mr. Yuan, 55, said. “I really do not look back anymore.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

During the pandemic, Zoom reached heights that other companies could only dream of. What do you make of that period when you look back on it?

I sincerely wish it never happened. Not good for society. Except that Zoom became a word, everything else was not sustainable.

Prior to Covid, we had a great culture. During Covid, because our traffic grew, we had to hire more than 6,000 people within an 18-month window. Company culture was broken.

But one thing we feel very proud of is we did not let the world down.

How to scale your business in a very short period of time is a huge challenge. We needed to add data centers here and there, hire so many people and quickly build a product. It was like a test: Could your company survive?

Do you think you could have stayed at the heights the company reached during the pandemic?

I don’t think so. At that time, a lot of friends and family had a paid license, right? After Covid, why did you need to pay for the license?

A lot of online paid subscribers — even business customers — bought a license for every employee, including their front desk staff.

You are trying to shift people’s perception of Zoom. How hard is it to do that?

It is so hard.

It took us a lot of time and effort to tell the market, to tell the end user, that Zoom is beyond videoconferencing. The brand was too strong.

You’ve described Zoom as an A.I.-first company. Other companies also say that. What does that look like for Zoom?

There are so many low-hanging fruits. For very important meetings, it used to be my executive assistant who might join a meeting to take notes, but now we have the A.I. note-taking feature.

There are some other functionalities. You can talk to the A.I. companion: “Please share my screen.” For the document used in a meeting last week, you just tell the A.I. companion and it will automatically find it and share it with others. You want to mute? Today, you find the mute button and click it. With A.I.-first, you tell the A.I. companion, “Please mute,” and it will automatically mute.

And in the future for some of the meetings, if I just want to listen in on a meeting I can send a digital version of myself.

Your digital avatar?

Yeah. Let’s say it’s a webinar for learning some new technology. I can send my digital avatar to join that meeting. After the meeting’s over, the digital avatar can summarize the webinar and take some action. That’s also A.I.-first.

What’s the point of going to a meeting if so much is being offloaded on technology?

In-person meetings still have huge value. But with augmented-reality technology, with intelligent sensors, no matter where you are, when you and I have a Zoom meeting it will feel like we’re sitting together here in person.

In your last earnings call, you used an avatar for your prepared remarks. Why was that a good use case?

One thing I don’t like that much is the first portion of the earnings call. I just read a script.

It’s pretty boring. Seriously.

Now, when I join the call, they play the A.I.-generated video avatar. The I.T. team uses the avatar and a script to generate the video.

I’m off the hook.

What else are you using your digital avatar for?

Yesterday, our marketing team wanted me to record something. I said, “Hey, why not use a script?” Frees up a lot of work. They can just write a script. One click to generate the video and send to employees. It is not exactly the same if I record video by myself, but it’s getting closer and closer.

C.E.O.s are becoming more vocal about how A.I. may result in hiring fewer people and eliminating some jobs. Where do you stand on that?

Whenever there’s a technology paradigm shift, some job opportunities are gone, but it will create some new opportunities, right?

For some jobs, like entry-level engineers, we can use A.I. to write code. However, you still need to manage that code. You also create a lot of digital agents, and you need someone to manage those agents.

In other words, I feel like if A.I. can make all of our lives better, why do we need to work for five days a week? Every company will support three days, four days a week. I think this ultimately frees up everyone’s time.

Talk to me about Zoom’s hybrid schedule. I feel like if any company has figured out how hybrid works, it would be Zoom. Why not go completely virtual?

We need to have a firsthand experience. We need to eat our own dog food. That’s the rationale behind our hybrid work. It’s not because we really want employees to come back to the office.

Let’s zoom out a bit. You grew up in China, in Taian. Tell me about your childhood and your parents.

Both of my parents were geology engineers.

Luckily, they did not put a lot of pressure on me. I liked to hang out with friends, and as long as I could pass the tests, why did I need to work so hard to go to the best college? Looking back, I don’t think that’s right. But my parents supported me.

When I was a kid, I really liked reading about what was happening in Silicon Valley. I was so fascinated by stories about HP and Apple.

How did you jump from reading about those tech companies to joining the industry?

I went to Japan in 1995, when I was 25, for a few months. Bill Gates gave a keynote speech for an industry event. He talked about the internet revolution.

Everyone got a chance to play around on a Netscape Navigator. It was so cool.

I think that was the moment I decided to come to Silicon Valley.

What was it like when you actually got there?

After I landed at San Francisco Airport — August of 1997 — I stopped by the Netscape office, the Yahoo campus. Took pictures. It felt like a dream coming true.

Every weekend I called my parents. At that time, they didn’t have email, and still sent letters. I did not see them for a long time.

Later on, when I had kids, I realized that’s pretty tough. When you pursue your career and dream, you need to sacrifice something.

You worked for WebEx, then Cisco, before founding Zoom. What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

Don’t wait. Just start. You can learn way more than when you work for somebody else.

Do you think you should have started Zoom sooner?

When I started in 2011, in just a few weeks, I realized, “Gee, why did I not start earlier?”

When I started at 41 years old, I was still very energetic. But every five years I feel like my energy level is not as good as before.

The older you start a company, the less energy you have.

It’s time for the lightning round. What makes a good meeting?

Highly interactive.

What makes a bad meeting?

Not being engaged.

What are your tips for making meetings more productive?

No. 1, you need to prepare: who to invite, who not to invite and a very clear agenda. The second thing, make sure everyone can be themselves. Don’t be too nice, too polite. In a Zoom call, people tend to be so nice. It’s becoming too formal. It’s OK to interrupt a little bit. And after the meeting, you need to have some follow-up.

How long is too long for a Zoom meeting?

Our e-staff meeting every Monday morning is from 10:30 to 1:30 — three hours.

Wow.

More than three hours might be too long.

Do you use backgrounds in your Zoom meetings?

Yes, I do. I used to change every time. For now, I just live with my office background.

How do you sign off from Zoom meetings? Are you a waver?

Sometimes I just to send a channel message: “Sorry, I got to do something.” I use the chat a lot before I leave.

How do you sign off to your emails?

Very simple: just “Eric.” Sometimes I put a Zoom meeting link for people who want to schedule a meeting with me.

Best advice for jet lag?

Don’t travel.