I Tested Best AI Note Takers: Fellow, Otter, and TL;DV ['25]

After using Fellow, Otter, and TL;DV for transcription, recording, and summarization of online meetings, I evaluated features, pros, and cons of these popular AI note takers. Here are my takeaways:

AI note taker benchmark results

Methodology for evaluating AI note taking tools:

To evaluate the effectiveness of AI-powered note-taking tools, I tested ai note takers during a brief strategy session focused on improving rural market sales,

1. Test setup

• Participants: 2 business leaders involved in rural market strategy discussions.
• Duration: 6-minute strategy meeting.
• Focus: Key challenges, sales strategies, and actionable insights for rural market expansion.

2. Data collection

• Audio recordings of the meeting were processed by the AI tools, and output summaries were reviewed by Levenshtein distance calculator to measure the number of edits (insertions, deletions, substitutions) required to match the AI transcription.¹

3. Evaluation criteria

Transcription accuracy: To assess accuracy, we used Levenshtein distance between original text-based video conferencing content vs the AI note taker’s result.

Best AI meeting assistants

Do I need an AI note taker?

Consider using an AI note taker if:

• You attend meetings across various platforms and need a centralized recorder.
• You require features like meeting templates or conversation analytics.
• You prefer a free or low-cost solution for automated note-taking.

However, if your video conferencing software already includes transcription, and summaries, using an AI note taker might be unnecessary. Some leading conferencing tools already offer AI capabilities:

• Zoom offers transcription and smart chapters in its basic paid plan.
• Whereby: Provides real-time transcription and AI-generated meeting summaries in its free plan.
• Cisco Webex offers AI-powered transcription, smart summaries, and action item tracking with its premium plans.

Key features of AI note takers

• Transcription and summaries: Automatically transcribes meetings and summarizes key points, decisions, and action items.
• Action Item Tracking: Identifies and tracks action items, converting them into tasks and scheduling them.
• Smart scheduling: Automatically schedules meetings based on availability and priority.
• Integrations: Works with video conferencing tools like Zoom.

Fellow 

Fellow is best for meeting management and collaboration, especially for teams requiring speaker tracking and customizable action items. It’s particularly effective for recurring meetings, 1:1s, and strategic planning sessions, where follow-ups matter.

It works with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, and it goes beyond just taking notes by enabling structured, AI meeting planning, automatic note capture, and task follow-up. It offers (50+) video conferencing platform integrations.

My experience with Fellow

When I tested Fellow during a brief strategy session focused on improving rural market sales, it captured the core points of the discussion. It also accurately noted the speaker’s suggestions.

However, when I held a meeting under five minutes, Fellow didn’t generate any topics or decisions, since decisions are only generated for meeting recordings longer than 5 minutes. 

Key features:

• Action item tracking
• Meeting templates for recurring formats
• Google & Outlook calendar integration
• AI copilot to assist in real-time
  

Pros ✅

• Accurate speaker identification 
• Accurate calendar syncing
• Automatically captures key takeaways and tasks
• Ready-to-use meeting templates 

Cons ❌

• Action item filtering and sorting could be smoother
• No timestamps
• Not much room to personalize the interface

Otter

Otter.ai is a strong choice for those prioritizing live transcription and searchable archives. It is a good fit for users who frequently need to search past discussions.

My experience with Otter

• When I set up and scheduled a Google meeting with Otter, the bot successfully joined my sessions and began transcribing without any manual input.
  
• One of the most practical features was Otter’s ability to highlight any line in the transcript and play the corresponding audio with timestamps. This capability significantly reduced the time I spent locating and extracting quotes.
  
• Otter’s transcript search functionality allowed me to search all transcripts using keywords. Instead of manually scrubbing through audio files or scanning documents, I could quickly locate key moments by searching for keywords.
  
• The live transcription was accurate enough for drafting scripts (94%). I had to go in and make some manual corrections.

Key features:

• Auto-join feature
• Live transcription on Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams
• AI-generated summaries of meetings
• Automatic task detection and tracking
• Speaker identification 
• Otter AI Chat for searching across transcripts
• Slack, Salesforce, and HubSpot integrations

Pros ✅

• Transcriptions in real time were mostly accurate 
• Accurate summaries of reviewing long meetings
• Timestamps allowed smooth discussion tracking

Cons ❌

• No offline support 
• Requires editing transcripts for 100% accuracy
• Only three supported languages (English, French, Spanish)

TL;DV

TL;DV is good fit for individuals requiring a free plan with features like AI-generated reports and HubSpot integration.

While TL;DV offers a free plan, some capabilities are limited. For example, features like speaker insights and key action item tracking are locked behind the paid business plan. 

Additionally, the lack of a mobile version limits access for those needing to use the tool on the go.

My experience with TL;DV

• AI-powered meeting transcription works smoothly, automatically transcribing meetings with high accuracy (84%). It provides a speaker ID for easy identification of each participant.
  
• Meeting folders were particularly useful. I organized my past meetings by topics.
  
• Customizable templates allowed me to structure meeting summaries based on meeting type, like sales or personal interviews.

Key features:

• Transcription of online meetings (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams)
  
• AI meeting notes with customizable templates
  
• AI coaching hub for meeting insights like speaker time, filler words, and longest monologues (only available in the business plan)
  
• Meeting folders for organizing past meetings
  
• Clips and reels to highlight key moments in meetings
  
• AI reports to track action items and next steps
  
• Integrations with 5000+ apps, including popular collaboration platforms
  
• Recording meetings with the option to adjust playback speed
  

Pros ✅

• Feature-rich free plan includes transcriptions, AI meeting notes, and meeting templates.
  
• Manual notes with timestamps allow users to add notes to the transcript, complete with timestamps, making it easy to reference specific parts of the meeting.
  
• Clips and reels for highlighting transcripts and creating short video clips to share important moments with your team or integrate with tools like Slack.

Cons ❌

• No mobile version.
  
• The AI coaching feature is locked behind the business plan, limiting access for smaller teams.

Video conferencing content

Further reading

• 100 AI Use Cases with Real-Life Examples
• Compare Top 20 Project Management AI Tools by Price [’25]
• Enterprise Generative AI: 10+ Use Cases & Best Practices

External Links

• 1. https://planetcalc.com/1721/