An AI tool that joins virtual meetings to transcribe the conversation, identify key decisions and action items, and generate a concise summary afterward.
Managers and project leads spend much of the week in meetings, and the real cost is often what happens afterwards. Someone has to write up the notes, nobody is sure who agreed to what, and action items live in a notebook or someone's memory. When the next meeting starts, half the time goes into recapping last week, and decisions get revisited because nobody recorded the reasoning.
AI meeting notes tools such as Otter.ai, Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Zoom AI Companion and Microsoft Teams Copilot join or listen to calls, transcribe them and produce a summary with decisions and action items. The summary lands in attendees' inboxes shortly after the call and can be pushed into a project management tool. For busy teams it replaces manual minute-taking and gives everyone a searchable record of what was said.
The team connects the meeting assistant to their calendar and video platform, and decides which meetings it should join automatically.
At the start of each call, attendees are notified that the meeting is being recorded and transcribed, and anyone can object.
Speech recognition produces a transcript with speaker labels, and an AI model identifies topics, decisions, questions and action items with suggested owners.
After the call, the organiser reviews the summary, corrects owners or wording and shares it by email or into Slack or Teams.
Action items are sent to Asana, Jira, Trello or ClickUp, and transcripts become searchable for future reference.
A project manager uses Otter.ai for a weekly sync meeting. After the call, the AI automatically emails a summary with a list of action items and their assigned owners, ready to be imported into a PM tool.
Otter.ai, Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Zoom AI Companion, Microsoft Teams Copilot
Recording conversations is governed by state and territory surveillance and listening devices laws, which differ; some require consent from all parties, so announce recording and get agreement from everyone on the call, including external guests. Transcripts can contain personal and confidential information, so your Privacy Act 1988 obligations and client confidentiality terms apply to where they are stored and who can access them. Check whether the vendor offers Australian data hosting and how long recordings are kept. Avoid recording sensitive HR discussions, legal advice meetings or health conversations unless there is a clear reason and consent.
This solution requires careful evaluation of cost-benefit ratio. Consider implementation only after thorough analysis and risk assessment.
Generally yes, with the right consent, but the rules vary by state and territory under surveillance and listening devices laws. The safest approach is to tell everyone at the start that the meeting is being recorded and transcribed, and stop recording if anyone objects. Include external participants, and keep a written policy on when recording is used.
If you already use Microsoft 365 or Zoom, their built-in AI features keep data within an existing contract and are simple to switch on. Otter.ai, Fathom and Fireflies.ai work across platforms and offer stronger search and integrations. Compare data hosting location, retention controls and project management integrations rather than summary quality alone.
Most teams are running within a week. Setup involves connecting calendars, choosing default recording rules, agreeing a consent announcement and connecting the project management tool. The first few weeks are useful for checking summaries closely and adjusting settings, such as which meetings are excluded.
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