news release

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Zi Management Change and Realignment of Operating Responsibilities

CALGARY, AB, May 12, 2003 - Zi Corporation (Nasdaq: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced that George Tai, its Chief Operating Officer, has resigned from Zi effective immediately to join a Calgary-based company in the oil and gas sector.

"George has been an effective member of our management team for more than three years and he built a solid organization which has strengthened our Company," said Michael Lobsinger, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "Our team based in Calgary and San Francisco will be taking over his operating responsibilities. His departure at this time coincides with our streamlining of corporate level costs. We wish George well in his new position."

About Zi Corporation

Zi Corporation (www.zicorp.com) is a technology company that delivers intelligent interface solutions to enhance the user experience of wireless and consumer technologies. The company's intelligent predictive text interfaces, eZiTap™ and eZiText®, simplify text entry to provide consumers with easy interaction within short messaging, e-mail, e-commerce, Web browsing and similar applications in almost any written language. eZiNet™, Zi's new client/network based data indexing and retrieval solution, increases the usability for data-centric devices by reducing the number of key strokes required to access multiple types of data resident on a device, a network or both. Zi supports its strategic partners and customers from offices in Asia, Europe and North America. A publicly traded company, Zi Corporation is listed on the Nasdaq National Market (ZICA) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ZIC).

Certain statements in this press release that involve expectations or intentions (such as those relating to future deployments or planned cooperation) may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The information in this press release is based on Zi Corporation's current expectations and assumptions, and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such risks include, among others, general business and economic conditions, competitive actions, continued acceptance of Zi Corporation's products and services and dependence on third party performance as well as the risks and uncertainties referred to in Zi Corporation's 20-F for the most recent calendar year that is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The reader should not place undue reliance on such forward looking statements. Zi Corporation does not assume any obligation to update such forward looking statements.

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For more information:

Investor Inquiries: Allen & Caron Inc Jill Bertotti Phone: (949) 474-4300 E-mail: jill@allencaron.com Media Inquiries: Allen & Caron Inc Len Hall Phone: (949) 474-4300 E-mail: len@allencaron.com

Zi Corporation Dale Kearns, Chief Financial Officer Phone: (403) 233-8875 E-mail: investor@zicorp.com

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