Why Your Meeting Notes Are Slowing You Down — And What to Do About It

Meetings are meant to drive clarity, alignment, and progress. But too often, they end in vague action items, scattered notes, and missed follow-ups. If you’ve ever left a meeting wondering who was responsible for what—or found yourself writing the same notes twice—you’re not alone.

According to a report by Asana, employees spend up to 58% of their time on work coordination rather than the work itself. That includes attending meetings, taking notes, and chasing action items. The hidden cost? Reduced focus, slower decision-making, and duplicated effort across teams.

The notetaking problem most teams overlook

Note-taking seems like a small task—until it becomes a bottleneck. Manual notes are:

• Inconsistent: Everyone captures different information
• Distracting: You can’t fully listen while typing
• Disconnected: Notes often live in personal docs, not shared systems

These challenges compound when teams work remotely or across time zones. Suddenly, clarity isn’t just nice to have—it’s critical.

What if note-taking wasn’t your job?

This is where AI notetakers come in. These tools are designed to:

• Transcribe meetings in real time
• Identify key decisions and action items
• Send automated summaries to your team

AI notetakers are not just recording what was said—they’re interpreting it. That shift—from manual capture to intelligent understanding—is what makes them transformative.

If you’ve tried tools like Otter.ai notetaker but still feel gaps…

You’re not alone. Many teams start with transcription tools but quickly find they need more:

• Smarter action item tracking
• Seamless integration with project tools
• Support for multiple meeting formats (internal, external, hybrid)

That’s where modern AI meeting assistants go beyond basic transcription. Beyond AI notetaking, they use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to pull out what matters, not just what was said.

What to look for in an AI meeting assistant

When evaluating AI meeting assistant with a notetaker tool, consider:

• Accuracy of transcription and summarisation
• Ability to identify speakers, topics, and tasks
• Integration with your workflows (e.g. Slack, Notion, Trello)
• Data privacy and meeting permissions

Need a starting point? Here’s a checklist to help you evaluate top AI notetakers side-by-side. Here’s a practical, side-by-side evaluation checklist for AI notetakers—ideal for comparing tools like Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, and others to find the best fit for your team or workflow.

AI Notetaker Evaluation Checklist

AI Notetaker Meeting Capture Capabilities

Supports Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other platforms

Joins meetings automatically

Works for in-person or hybrid meetings (e.g. mic-based recording)

Real-time transcription available

Multilingual transcription supported

Note Quality and Summarization by AI Notetaker

Accurate transcription (low error rate in your language/industry)

Generates concise and structured summaries (e.g. bullet points, action items, key themes)

Highlights speaker names and timestamps

Customizable summary templates (e.g. sales notes, team syncs)

Supports sentiment or topic tagging

Collaboration and AI Notetaker Note Sharing

Allows easy note sharing with team

Offers real-time note collaboration

Includes comment or reaction features

Integrates with project management tools (e.g. Notion, Asana, Slack)

Note Search and Retrieval

Keyword-based search across transcripts

Smart filters (by speaker, topic, date, etc.)

Bookmarking or highlights for key moments

Ability to create shareable clips or snippets

AI Notetaker Integrations & Workflow Fit

Syncs with calendar apps (Google, Outlook)

CRM integrations (e.g. HubSpot, Salesforce)

Export options (PDF, DOCX, Google Docs, etc.)

Zapier or API access for custom workflows

AI Notetaker Security & Compliance

End-to-end encryption

SOC 2, ISO 27001, or GDPR compliance

Data residency options

Admin controls and role-based access

Clear policy on data ownership and usage

AI Notetaker Pricing and Scalability

Offers a free tier or trial

Transparent pricing plans

Pay-per-user vs. unlimited usage options

Volume discounts for teams

Scales well across departments or use cases

AI Note-Taker User Experience

Easy to onboard new users

Mobile-friendly experience

Customizable settings per user or team

Reliable customer support (live chat, email, help docs)

AI Notetaker Special Features

AI-generated action items or next steps

Speaker coaching or filler word analysis

Custom prompt support (e.g. “Summarize this call for a product manager”)

Ability to train AI on your specific knowledge base

Voice-to-slide syncing or automatic slide capture

AI Notetaker Performance & Accuracy Testing

Test with your real meetings (e.g. internal sync, sales call, client review)

Compare summary quality side-by-side

Evaluate latency or delays in output

Check for hallucinations or missed context

AI notetakers compared side by side: a table

​Evaluating current AI notetakers against our comprehensive checklist reveals a diverse landscape of features and capabilities. Here’s a comparative overview of some leading AI notetaking tools:​

Otter.ai is renowned for its real-time transcription and robust integration capabilities, making it a strong choice for teams seeking seamless workflow integration.

MORE: How Do You Block Otter AI

Fireflies.ai offers comprehensive transcription and summarization features, with extensive integrations across various platforms, enhancing its adaptability in diverse environments.

Fathom provides real-time transcription and summarization, focusing on delivering concise meeting insights, which is beneficial for quick reviews and follow-ups.

Krisp stands out with its noise cancellation technology, ensuring clear audio recordings, and offers transcription services, though it has limited integration options compared to others.

Circleback excels in generating accurate summaries and action items, with a user-friendly interface and robust integration capabilities, making it a valuable tool for professionals seeking detailed meeting documentation.

Each of these AI notetakers brings unique strengths to the table, and the optimal choice depends on specific organizational needs, such as integration requirements, collaboration features, and budget considerations.

But hey, aren’t all AI notetakers the same?

You’re right to question that — on paper, many AI notetakers claim similar features, but actual performance and depth of functionality vary a lot. The checkboxes don’t always capture how well something works or whether it’s truly usable at scale. Here’s a more realistic breakdown to surface the nuances based on recent reviews, user feedback, and platform capabilities:

Meeting capture:

• Otter.ai: Great for Zoom and Google Meet, but Teams integration is less seamless. Doesn’t join meetings automatically in some setups.

• Fireflies.ai: Joins meetings automatically, broad calendar integration. Best-in-class here.

• Fathom: Joins Zoom calls only. No support for Google Meet or Teams yet.

• Krisp: Not a meeting bot — records your mic/audio. Great for in-person or hybrid, not traditional online meetings.

• Circleback: Joins meetings across platforms, with fast setup.

➡️ Winner: Fireflies for flexibility. Fathom is limited by Zoom-only support.

AI notetaker note quality & summarization:

• Otter.ai: Accurate transcription, but summary quality is basic.

• Fireflies.ai: Custom summaries and action items, though often need editing.

• Fathom: Excels at structured notes and sales-style summaries. Very concise.

• Krisp: Limited summaries, focused more on transcription and clarity.

• Circleback: Best for executive summaries and highlights, with optional call coaching.

➡️ Winner: Fathom for clean summaries. Circleback if you want action items and context.

Collaboration & integrations:

• Otter.ai: Exports to Docs, supports comments, but limited third-party tool automation.

• Fireflies.ai: Deep integrations with CRMs, Slack, Notion. Zapier support is strong.

• Fathom: Sends notes to Notion, Salesforce, and HubSpot. Good sharing UX.

• Krisp: Minimal integrations – it’s more of a utility.

• Circleback: Good sharing options, integrations still growing.

➡️ Winner: Fireflies. Otter is decent, but workflow support is weaker.

Security & compliance:

• Otter.ai: SOC 2 compliance, but data storage practices could be clearer.

• Fireflies.ai: SOC 2 Type II, GDPR-compliant, offers data deletion tools.

• Fathom: Compliant, but no public audit reports.

• Krisp: Known for privacy; doesn’t store audio unless enabled.

• Circleback: Claims compliance, but less transparency.

➡️ Winner: Fireflies and Krisp.

Pricing & scalability:

• Otter.ai: Reasonable for solo users; team plans can get expensive.

• Fireflies.ai: Flexible per-user pricing. Free plan available with limitations.

• Fathom: Surprisingly free for individuals, not yet monetized.

• Krisp: Free plan for noise canceling; transcription in paid tiers.

• Circleback: Pricing still evolving, aimed at professional teams.

➡️ Winner: Fathom for solo users. Fireflies for teams.

Key takeaway:

Your meetings aren’t broken—but your notes might be. By offloading capture and follow-up to AI notetakers, you free up your team to focus on strategy, problem-solving, and collaboration.

Ready to see how an AI assistant could work for you? Try Eyre for free – no credit card required.

Your Secure AI Meeting Platform — Made for Europe

Eyre is built from the ground up for security-conscious teams in Europe and globally — with autonomous hosting, encryption, and AI summaries all in one. With Eyre, your meetings happen on a platform designed for control, compliance, and clarity — not layered on top of Zoom or Meet.

Try it free – no credit card, full autonomy

Author Profile

Julie Gabriel

Julie Gabriel wears many hats—founder of Eyre.ai, product marketing veteran, and, most importantly, mom of two. At Eyre.ai, she’s on a mission to make communication smarter and more seamless with AI-powered tools that actually work for people (and not the other way around). With over 20 years in product marketing, Julie knows how to build solutions that not only solve problems but also resonate with users. Balancing the chaos of entrepreneurship and family life is her superpower—and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

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