Best AI Meeting Assistants
Never take meeting notes again—AI captures everything so you can focus on the conversation
TL;DR
Otter.ai offers the best transcription accuracy with good free tier. Fireflies.ai provides excellent CRM integration for sales teams. Grain excels at creating shareable highlight clips. Fathom is excellent and free for individuals. Choose based on whether you need simple transcription or team-wide meeting intelligence.
AI meeting assistants have transformed how teams capture conversations. Instead of someone scrambling to take notes, AI joins your call, transcribes everything, identifies key points, and creates searchable records. The technology has matured rapidly—transcription accuracy rivals human note-takers. Here's how to choose the right tool for your meeting workflow.
What are AI Meeting Assistants?
AI meeting assistants record, transcribe, and analyze meetings automatically. They join video calls (Zoom, Meet, Teams) as a participant or integrate directly, capture audio, generate real-time transcripts, identify speakers, and increasingly use AI to extract action items, summaries, and key moments. Some integrate with CRMs to log sales calls automatically.
Why AI Meeting Assistants Matter
Meetings are information-dense but poorly captured. Manual notes miss details. Memory fades. Important decisions get lost. AI assistants create perfect records: searchable transcripts, automatic summaries, and the ability to review exactly what was said. For sales teams, this means every call can be analyzed for coaching and CRM data capture.
Key Features to Look For
Automatic Recording
essentialJoin and record meetings without manual intervention
Accurate Transcription
essentialHigh-quality speech-to-text with speaker identification
AI Summaries
importantAutomatic extraction of key points and action items
Search & Clips
importantSearch across meetings and create shareable highlights
CRM Integration
importantPush meeting notes and data to Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.
Team Sharing
importantShare and collaborate on meeting notes with teammates
Multi-language
nice-to-haveSupport for languages beyond English
Custom Vocabulary
nice-to-haveTeach the AI your company's specific terminology
Key Factors to Consider
- Use case: personal productivity vs. sales call analysis vs. team-wide
- Integration needs: CRM, calendar, video platform compatibility
- Privacy requirements: where is data stored? Who can access?
- Meeting volume: pricing often scales with hours recorded
- Accuracy needs: medical, legal, and technical contexts may need higher accuracy
Pricing Overview
Pricing typically scales with transcription minutes. Many offer generous free tiers.
Free
$0
Individual use, limited minutes
Professional
$10-$30/user/month
Regular users, full features
Team/Enterprise
$30-$50+/user/month
Team features, integrations, compliance
Top Picks
Based on features, user feedback, and value for money.
Otter.ai
Top PickBest-in-class transcription with generous free tier
Best for: Individual professionals and teams wanting accurate transcription
Pros
- Excellent accuracy
- Good free tier
- Real-time transcription
- Solid integrations
Cons
- AI summaries less sophisticated
- Team features need higher tiers
- Can be slow on long recordings
- Limited CRM depth
Fireflies.ai
Meeting intelligence with strong CRM integration
Best for: Sales teams wanting meeting insights flowing to CRM automatically
Pros
- Excellent CRM integration
- Good AI analysis
- Team-oriented features
- Action item tracking
Cons
- Transcription slightly less accurate
- Interface can be busy
- Bot presence can feel intrusive
- Pricing adds up for teams
Grain
Create and share meeting highlight clips
Best for: Teams wanting to share specific meeting moments easily
Pros
- Excellent clip creation
- Easy sharing workflow
- Good for customer voice
- Clean interface
Cons
- Less focused on full transcription
- Smaller feature set
- Pricing per seat
- Limited integrations
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Recording without consent—always inform participants
- Not reviewing AI summaries—they miss context and nuance
- Over-relying on transcripts—human review matters for important meetings
- Ignoring privacy concerns—where is your meeting data stored?
- Recording everything—not every meeting needs a permanent record
Expert Tips
- Review AI-generated summaries for accuracy before sharing
- Use transcripts for follow-up emails—quote exactly what was discussed
- Create clips of customer feedback for product and marketing teams
- Integrate with CRM to reduce manual data entry after sales calls
- Set up automatic recording by calendar rules, not manual triggers
The Bottom Line
Otter.ai offers the best transcription accuracy with a solid free tier for getting started. Fireflies.ai is ideal for sales teams wanting CRM integration. Grain excels when you need to share specific meeting moments. Try Fathom (free) if you want personal meeting intelligence without team overhead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it legal to record meetings with AI?
Recording laws vary by location—some require all-party consent, others single-party. Most platforms can announce themselves when joining. Always inform participants that recording is happening, both for legal compliance and professional courtesy.
How accurate are AI transcriptions?
Modern tools achieve 85-95% accuracy for clear audio in English. Accuracy drops with: multiple speakers talking over each other, heavy accents, poor audio quality, and technical jargon. Always review important transcripts.
Do the bots joining calls annoy participants?
They can—especially in external meetings. Most tools let you record without a visible bot (through calendar integration), though this varies by video platform. For important external calls, consider using integrated recording instead of bot-based.
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