My colleague Margarita Gracheva and I just returned from Zoholics 2025, the biggest and most important Zoho event. For two days, the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX was packed with Zoho employees, users, speakers, and Zoho Partners. No, it wasn’t a pure marketing event but rather a summit for the people involved in the Zoho ecosystem, who give it life and use it daily. The United Parts team was enjoying the event, and we’d like to share our thoughts and express our gratitude to the organizers. Oh, and we definitely suggest that our valued customers attend the next Zoholics, wherever you are! You’ll see why you made the right move when choosing Zoho, and you’ll be waiting for the upcoming releases the same way we do.
It was great to see so many people attending Zoholics this year. Zoholics 2025 attracted many users; I did not expect to see so many yellow lanyards around. For the visitor’s convenience, the Zoho employees wore badges with black lanyards, users were given the yellow ones, and Zoho Partners sported the green ones.
Zoholics is all about roadmaps, future releases, and information. Of course, it was impossible to attend all the sessions, so my colleague Margarita Gracheva and I split in an attempt to listen to the sessions that were most relevant to our focus as a Partner: AI, Zoho Finance, Zoho FSM, Zoho Analytics, and Zoho CRM. Zoho announced quite a lot of new releases, so I’d like to go over the most noteworthy ones.
AI is the Next Big Thing for Zoho, and it shows. Zoho USA’s CEO, Tony Thomas, gave the attendees a detailed keynote (watch the recorded stream on YouTube), focusing on the various aspects of AI applicability, followed by Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s Chief Evangelist. Raju gave a nice roadmap presentation that included the AI-based visual report creation in Zoho CRM and the upcoming Zia Hubs for Zoho WorkDrive; for me, these two were the most interesting sessions of the first day.
Zoho’s overall view on AI is that, quote-unquote, the best AI is the AI that the user does not recognize. With that ultimate goal in mind, Zoho plans to release the Zia Agents—self-sufficient, super-smart bots powered by artificial intelligence that deliver human experiences. The Zia Agents are planned to be released in July 2025.
Zakya, a long-awaited full-scale retail POS solution, finally came to the U.S. market. It might tremendously impact B2C users running brick-and-mortar stores and service shops, especially if they already use Zoho Inventory and Zoho Books. The Zakya team gave us an on-site demo, which looked great and worked well. As a Zoho Advanced Partner, we’ll start offering Zakya to our customers this June.
Zakya is a division of Zoho Corporation, so Zakya POS it is not included into Zoho One applications or any other existing Zoho software bundles or subscription models.
Another interesting release is Ulaa Enterprise, a rare example of a browser oriented for corporate use. In case you don’t know, Ulaa is a Chromium-based browser that emphasizes security and privacy and has four independent work modes.
Sessions, Workshops, and Meetings at Zoholics 2025
When it comes to what to anticipate at Zoholics, there are plenty of opportunities to connect with the Zoho team and share what matters most to you as a customer or a Zoho Partner. Before we took off from Chicago, we received inquiries from customers who were unable to attend and had questions about Zoho. As a Zoho Partner, we took the initiative to bridge the gap between these customers and Zoho, bringing up crucial questions that the regular Zoho support teams are unable to address. For example, we talked about managing 1099 contractor payments in Zoho FSM, a feature that’s currently not available, as well as shipping concerns related to third-party carrier accounts in Zoho Inventory.
Besides that, Zoholics always offer user-oriented workshops, typically scheduled for the pre-event day (see the Zoholics 2025 agenda). We weren’t attending them, but many users did, and we certainly recommend that the end users utilize these workshops to learn from the prime source and get first-hand experience.
George R. Brown Convention Center
George R. Brown Convention Center is in downtown Houston, Texas, at 1001 Avenida De Las Americas, near Discovery Green and major hotels. We recommend Marriott Marquis Houston, Hilton Americas, or Embassy Suites by Hilton.
An Inevitable Shot
with the Giant Zoho Logo!
Dmitry Skylark and Margarita Gracheva
Houston at Night
Top floor rooms are the best.
The Bottom Line: Zoholics 2025 Was Impressive!
To summarize, Zoholics 2025 was a valuable experience. The event featured actual users sharing their real-world challenges, Zoho Partners from across the country, and insightful speakers discussing the future of the Zoho ecosystem. If you’re considering investing in the Zoho platform, attending these three days—along with the associated costs—will be worthwhile. Additionally, you will enjoy delicious food both at the event and at various eateries in downtown Houston, along with excellent hotel options near the GRB Convention Center and the warm Texan hospitality. You won’t be disappointed. See you at the next Zoho event!
