AI meeting note-takers: Otter product analysis
- Divya Sharma
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
You're in a meeting with your dream client, juggling notes and trying to stay focused so you don’t miss anything important. Sounds hectic and overwhelming, right? That’s where an AI meeting notetaker comes in!
AI note-taking tools like Otter.ai utilize artificial intelligence to record your meetings, transcribe the audio, and store it for later use. Then it summarizes key insights, captures action items, labels speakers—who said what—and tracks other important details.
There are many AI tools like Fireflies.ai, Notta, Fathom, and Sembly AI, so you can choose based on your business or team requirements. For example, a business owner uses AI notes to capture action items during client calls for follow-ups and sends proposals so nothing slips through their hands. Similarly, a person conducting SME interviews uses AI notes to ensure no important insight is missed when they focus on asking questions, especially when the conversation is faster or deeper.
In this article, I’m breaking down how AI meeting notetakers work, what they can do to ease your work, and how one of the most popular tools, Otter.ai, performs in real use.
TL;DR
AI Meeting note takers are becoming a must-have to make sure you do not miss any important points during meetings, interviews, or client calls.
Otter is commonly used by freelancers, founders, marketers, and remote teams who attend many meetings and share follow-ups. Its main features are live transcription, labeling speakers, searchable notes, and summaries.
While Otter is not perfect, as it struggles with multiple accents or overlapping voices, it saves time and effort overall.
Why do AI meeting notes matter to you?
In back-to-back meetings or client calls, it is hard to focus on listening and taking notes to avoid missing any important information. That’s where AI meeting notes come in. They make attending meetings simpler and smoother by capturing everything for you. Here's why they matter more than you think:
It helps you take accurate notes of all the important insights during a client call.
It transcribes your back-to-back calls/meetings to summarize them, extracts key information, and actionable items.
It allows you to check and listen to the recording again whenever you need
It labels speakers to help you identify who said what.
It lets you focus on the meeting so you do not struggle with jotting notes
It helps you with assigned tasks, deadlines, and follow-ups to increase productivity and save time.
What meeting notes AI actually does
AI meeting note takers do more than record and transcribe the call. They listen to what matters and capture key points, action items, and next steps in an organised way, so you don't have to rely on messy notes.
I used
Auto-join meeting
Tools like Otter join your meeting as a participant, start recording, and capture everything for later usage.
Real-time transcription
You see them live convert audio to text, and distinguish voices.
Smart summaries
They transcribe audio and summarise to provide key insights, action items, assigned tasks, and important notes to share with your team later.
Easy speaker identification
They identify and label speakers to distinguish who said what.
Screenshots of screen sharing
They capture a snapshot of your screen when sharing. It helps when your client discusses design and strategy, or shares anything live, you can check again later.
Search with keywords or questions.
They allow you to search for a specific keyword or question to extract details when you get stuck. For example– "What is the deadline decided or "What tasks are assigned and to whom?" etc.
Easy sharing and privacy control
These note-taking tools let you choose who can access your notes.
Works in person, too
You will see them transcribe conversations live so you can focus on the meeting without worrying about important notes.
Comparison table: Otter vs Fathom (based on user feedback)
Before I went deeper into Otter, I also spoke to a few people who use the AI meeting notetaker Fathom every day to understand the difference clearly and give a genuine take. And it helped me a lot to compare them.
Anwesha Mishra, a freelance B2B SaaS Writer who uses Otter, shared: "My client shifted to AI + Reddit marketing, and when their explanation felt unclear, AI helped me understand their exact focus perfectly."
Shruti Bhatt, Founder of Linkingwordz, who has used Otter for her client calls, shared: "Otter is great for personal note-taking, while Fathom is better for discovery calls, providing automated recording, summaries, questions, and next steps."
Here's a detailed comparison of Otter and Fathom based on the feedback shared (including mine):
Feature | Otter | Fathom |
Recording | Doesn't offer recording on all plans, mainly focused on transcription and other things like summaries, key insights, etc | Has both recording and transcription, which many users liked |
Accuracy | Far more accurate, but the transcription needs manual editing at times | Quite accurate and no need to edit later manually |
Editing Required? | Yes, at times when the conversation was fast or had some background noise | Most users told me that it required hardly any edits |
Beginner-Friendly | Best for beginners or someone who has never used an AI meeting note taker, simple, smooth, and easy to use | Best for freelancers, founders, or solopreneurs who prefer full recording of their back-to-back client or discovery calls |
Navigation | Easy to search through notes with keywords or a specific question | Users shared that navigating long calls or meetings is smooth, quick, and easy here |
Best For | It is quick, gives real-time notes, and clear summaries without doing any extra steps | Long calls, discovery or client calls, and detailed conversations |
User Feedbacks | Fast, easy to use, and beginner-friendly, it just requires some improvements in recording and accuracy. | Users loved it for its accuracy, recording, and lack of editing features. |
My real case: using Otter AI (free trial)
As someone who has never used these AI note-taking tools, I want to understand and experience what it looks like to work with AI assistance as a freelancer. I used the Otter free trial to go deeper and share my honest feedback. Here's what I analyzed.
Join the meeting automatically (without doing anything manually)
Connect this AI notetaker to your calendar, and it will join the meeting automatically as a participant. There is no need for extra manual efforts. You can also connect it with other apps, Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, to join any call effortlessly.
Live notes and snapshots (To concentrate on the call)
You will see Otter generate live notes, label speakers, and capture snapshots during the call. It allows you to revisit those snapshots for any doubt when they were shared live. This is helpful when you've discussed some strategies, designs, etc, so you can always check them as many times as you want.
Like, if you take back-to-back client calls, it is not possible to remember the details of each of them. You could, but not the exact words, so it helps us to check those notes in case of any questions.
Smart summary with key details (so you do not miss anything important)
This meeting note AI will then send you an email with a summary, also known as the minutes of the meeting, that includes key insights, actionable items, bullet-point notes, and labels for speakers – who said what - along with deadlines and tasks assigned (if applicable). I liked this feature because it means you don't have to walk through the entire transcription; you can simply check the highlights and be good to go. And you know the best part– it also drafts an email for follow-ups if you want.
Organize all meetings in one place
Otter organizes everything in its channel to keep all your clients and projects in one place. You can create a separate folder for each project/client for later use. It means you don't need to create a separate folder in your system to keep this data safe; Otter will do that for you.
Can be used for person meetings
I went to meet my friend, so I tested the app out of curiosity, as it can also record in-person meetings. So I gave it a try. It worked well, but not that accurately. Otter captured my voice, whatever I said, but it wasn't that accurate when it came to my friend. But with the mic, it worked quite well.
For an in-person meeting, a microphone will be required for a clear, accurate voice.
What are Otter's best features? (pros)
Otter lags in certain areas, but these are the features I noticed most while using the free trial:
Live transcription: It transcribes the conversation during the call; however, it is ideal for in-person meetings, so you can catch up later if you missed something.
Take notes to summarise and polish ideas: You can use this AI notetaker app to save notes via audio or by writing manually—whatever you have in your mind. It summarises your thoughts and ideas, polishes them, and suggests ways to use them. The feature is ideal for writers or anyone who gets random ideas, wants to save them, and use them in a post or in a preferred format.
Edit transcript manually: Although the transcription is much accurate in Otter, you can make corrections when required. It allows you to edit the conversation to make corrections.
Otter AI Chat: The AI is used smartly here. It allows searching for any questions about the call or with a specific keyword, and clears any doubts about the call. The feature works great when you don't want to walk through the whole conversation and are just looking for a specific question, like what the deadline is. Or what tasks have been assigned? Or even what my client meant here?
Where Otter needs improvement (based on testing & user feedback)
While Otter works well in many areas, there are certain limitations where it needs improvement– based on my testing and feedback from a few freelancers and founders who have used it daily. Here's what I come across:
No recording: Many people shared that they switched to Fathom or other tools because Otter gives transcription, summaries, key insights, but not recording. Sadly, this is one of the biggest reasons why many people switched to other AI tools.
Accuracy lacks at times: I spoke to a founder who shared that she switched to Fathom because, at times, she had to manually edit transcripts, which led her to switch from the tool. For someone who takes SMEs interviews and relies on transcripts, this could be a major loophole.
Limited language support: Otter only supports English, French, and Spanish, which is a limitation already, but the worst part is manually selecting the language to transcribe the content.
Is an AI meeting notetaker really worth it? Do I really need it?
A question that came to my mind, and also to users with whom I spoke about it—you must be wondering the same, right?
Like, why do I need it? Is it really worth using, or what are the benefits of using AI tools? Well, these questions are obvious because I have been there (and the other users, too) before using these AI tools.
So, let’s quickly walk you through why you need AI notetaker tools and how they are worth using:
They save time by instantly generating a summary of important notes, key highlights, actionable tasks, deadlines, and other details.
They provide a transcription of the recording, which is helpful for SME interviews.
They allow you to ask questions through the notes they have shared, either by keyword or by question.
They join the meeting effortlessly, so no extra manual effort is required.
They allow you to share these notes with your team or workplace.
They give you control over who can access your notes; privacy is much needed.
They help you focus on the meeting and ask relevant questions without panicking about jotting down notes.
Who should use AI note-taking tools?
These tools are used to attend frequent meetings. So, you should use them if you’re:
Freelancers who handle back-to-back client calls and can’t afford to miss details.
Solopreneurs who do everything themselves and need clean notes to stay organised.
Founders who jump between team meetings, demos, and client calls all day.
Remote teams that want everyone on the same page after every call.
Content writers or researchers who conduct interviews need accurate transcripts.
Salespeople who rely on call summaries for follow-ups and pitching.
Recruiters who conduct multiple interviews need clear candidate notes.
Students or learners attending online classes, webinars, or workshops.
Anyone who forgets things easily and wants a tool that remembers everything for them.
If you are in any of the above, use an AI meeting notetaker to save time and make attending meetings easier than ever before. Since time is money, save it and use it for other priority tasks. Using this meeting notes app will not only boost your productivity but also help you manage your work more easily. You can focus where it is required by using AI smartly, just like here.
FAQs
Are AI meeting notes accurate?
Yes, the AI meeting notetakers are much accurate for transcribing summaries, but might require manual edits at times.
Is my data safe?
Absolutely, these meeting notes AI let you choose who can access your notes. So, yes, your data is completely secure and safe.
Can these tools work without recordings?
Yes, Otter lets you upload any audio or video to get instant summaries, key insights, and tasks assigned with labeled speakers during the call.
Do I need to invite the bot manually?
No, the AI notetaker automatically joins as a participant without any manual efforts. You connect it with your calendar and other meeting apps like Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams to sync events.
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