Why you must start using AI Meeting Assistants (and how I use mine)?
\Welcome to 2025!
Generative AI that I see taking off more than any other, it’s AI meeting assistants. If you’re not using one yet, you probably should.
In this newsletter, I’ll show you how they work, the one I use, and how to choose the right one for you.
How AI Meeting Assistants Work
AI meeting assistants join your online meetings, just like any other participant on platforms like Zoom or Teams. They:
Listen in and transcribe everything anyone says.
Capture visuals, like slides or diagrams, when screens are shared.
Some even record videos of the meeting.
For me, the most valuable feature is having the transcript as text. With a text transcript, you can use generative AI for a wide range of tasks.
The Tool I Use: Fireflies
I use an AI assistant called Fireflies, which integrates seamlessly with my calendar. Here’s what it does:
Joins meetings automatically based on links in my calendar (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet.).
Provides summaries, transcripts, and analyses of past meetings.
Integrates with tools like Asana and ClickUp for recording action items, HubSpot and Close for recording meeting notes against contacts, and Make.com and Zapier to include the meeting assistant in workflows and automations.
My one is set up to automatically save every transcript into a OneDrive folder.
This way, I am building a knowledge base of all my past meetings that I can inquire and reuse later with AI. Being on OneDrive, it is also accessible to my team and discoverable by Microsoft Copilot.
More than just summaries and action items
While meeting summaries and action items are basics, I use my AI assistant for much more:
Timelines: When dates are discussed, I ask it to create a timeline.
Sales Proposals: It populates proposal templates after sales meetings.
Objections Analysis: It highlights objections that were raised and how they were handled.
Multiple sets of notes: Creates detailed client notes and internal bullet points for easy reference.
Blog Posts: Generates blogs or training materials from transcripts.
Meeting Feedback: Coaches me on how I facilitated meetings.
Big Idea Organisation: Helps structure ideas recorded while brainstorming.
This also builds a searchable knowledge base for all meetings, making it easy to:
Find past discussions about specific scenarios.
Generate reports or summarise updates on clients or projects.
Reuse knowledge that was spoken into written format.
Choosing Your AI Meeting Assistant
Popular options include Fireflies, Otter, Fathom, and built-in capabilities in Zoom and Teams.
Consider the following when choosing:
AI capabilities in meeting platform: Use built-in AI capabilities if all your meetings are on one platform (Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet).
Multiple meeting platforms: If, like me, you attend meetings across multiple platforms and you also want to capture in-person meetings, consider an external assistant that comes with you to all your meetings. That's what I do.
Integrations: Check if it connects with your calendar, CRM, automation tools.
Privacy and Security: Verify the privacy and security options are suitable for your industry.
Industry-Specific Tools: Look out for AI assistants tailored to your field. We are seeing medical scribe apps suited for handling patient data and generating structured notes and referral letters, and meeting assistants specific to accounting professionals which integrate with the leading accounting practice tools.
This area is still evolving, so you may end up trying out several apps before you choose your forever one.
If you make sure to save every transcript into your own environment (like I do with OneDrive), you will be able to move easily without losing any data.
Getting Started
Don’t let decision-making hold you back. Pick any tool that is compliant in your industry and get started.
You can always switch to another tool later, especially if you managed to save all your transcripts outside the tool.
If you are still a bit unsure, begin using it in internal meetings until you get the hang of it, before you introduce it to client interactions.
AI meeting assistants are a low risk, high gain option—give it a go!
Inbal Rodnay
Guiding Firms in Adopting AI and Automation
Keynote speaker | AI Workshops | Executive briefings | Consulting CIO
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