Systems and methods for virtual meeting background freeze may include determining that a background of a video stream of a first client device of a participant of a virtual meeting is to be modified, causing an image of the participant to be removed from an area of a first frame of the video stream, filling the first frame with a background image generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) model for the first frame with the removed image of the participant, and for each of one or more second frames of the video stream, generating a composite image by superimposing an image of a participant depicted in a respective second frame of the one or more second frames of the video stream on the background of the first frame using a location and a size of the image of the participant with respect to the respective second frame, and causing the composite image to be presented in a virtual meeting user interface (UI) on a second client device in place of the respective second frame.