Transcriptions are the new TL;DR of meetings. No one has the time to listen to an hour-long conversation when they can read the key points in 5 minutes.
But who is going to write these? 91% are already daydreaming during meetings. Let the rest focus on the real conversation.
Enter AI transcription platforms. No one has to manually take notes. AI will do that for you. With some, you get real-time transcripts and auto meeting recording. With others, access smart revenue dashboards.
The real question is which software is right for you. In this post, we’ll look at the must-have features, a list of popular AI transcription software, and how to choose the best one.
Must-have features of AI transcription software
Every AI transcription software has a different use case. Understand the gaps in your workflow before you start searching for one. Irrespective, all AI transcription tools should have some basic features like:
- Accuracy: Aim for 95-99% accuracy. No unclear sentences left midway, wrong, or misspelled words despite heavy accents, industry-specific jargon, muffled voice, and background noise.
- Quick transcription: Most AI transcription tools transcribe in real-time.
- Integrations: The AI transcriber should connect with the web conferencing, project management, CRM, and collaboration tools you use.
- Collaboration: Transcription is just words unless others carve insights from it. Look for AI transcription platforms with a collaborative editor to tag your teammates and share audio clips easily.
These features ensure a perfect handoff from Sales to Account Executives to Customer Success.
The 9 best AI transcription software
Let’s take a look at the most popular AI transcription software to streamline your workflows.
1. Avoma
Avoma is an AI meeting assistant that manages your entire meeting workflow on one platform. It summarizes conversations that you can edit manually or link to the AI-generated transcripts and add to your notes.
If you’re a small or medium-sized business, Avoma is the AI transcription software your team needs.
Key features:
- AI-generated transcripts: Get real-time transcription and human-like AI notes. Further, it auto-detects topics like pain points and the next steps to organize them into time-stamped smart categories.
- Knowledge base: A single source of truth for all your conversations with features like speaker identification and keyword tracking. Co-edit, find trends, share snippets, and tag your teammates.
- Live bookmarking: One click and Avoma notes the next few minutes of the call under the selected smart category
- CRM integration: Avoma auto-syncs the smart categories to related tabs in your CRM so you get exact information
- Playlists: Add the best moments of your calls to one playlist and coach your team to handle similar situations
Bonus features:
- Conversation intelligence: Analyze your team’s activity dashboard, identify common problems, and review your coaching initiatives while Avoma scores every conversation
- Revenue intelligence: Get deal alerts based on seller inactivity, buyer disengagement, and more. Track multiple pipelines to forecast revenue accurately
- Competitor intelligence: Know how often customers mention your competitors and the deals you’re losing out to them
Pros:
- Not limited to sales, useful for every team
- Multiple purposes: meeting scheduling, lead routing, coaching
- Highly accurate transcriptions
Cons:
- Not ideal if you want a simple AI transcriber
Pricing:
- Free
- Starter: $19/user/month
- Plus: $49/user/month
- Business: $79/user/month
- Enterprise: $129/user/month
2. Otter.ai
Otter.ai is an AI note-taker that transcribes audio, videos, and meeting slides. It is popular among students, freelancers, and small businesses.
Its smart meeting assistant, OtterPilot for Sales, automatically joins and records calls even when you’re away.
Key features:
- Live summary: Otter.ai summarizes the key points in real-time and emails them to the participants
- Otter Chat: Ask Otter.ai about the meeting, important topics, speakers, or other questions on the call
- Sales insights: OtterPilot extracts sales insights like budget, authority, need, timeline, and action items
Pros:
- Keyword-based search throughout the transcription
Cons:
- Doesn’t record video footage
Pricing:
- Free
- Pro: $10/user/month
- Business: $20/user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
3. Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai records, transcribes, and summarizes conversations and is ideal for recruiting, marketing, and media teams.
It integrates with popular project management, note-taking, and collaboration apps like Slack, ClickUp, and Notion.
Key features:
- AskFred: ChatGPT-like meeting assistant that answers your questions related to the call and whips up blog posts and emails from the discussion
- Smart search: Identify important topics, action items, timelines, and sentiments of the participants
- Super summaries: Get time-stamped meeting outlines, bullet points, and most-used keywords–all in one place
Pros:
- Easy to set up and integrate with other tools
Cons:
- Transcribes in only one language per meeting
Pricing:
- Free
- Pro: $10/seat/month
- Business: $19/seat/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
4. Gong
Gong is a sales-driven revenue intelligence platform that captures customer interactions and helps coach sales reps. It records, transcribes and analyses calls to identify deals that are at risk, evaluate new call tracks, and replicate the winning call tactics.
Gong works well for large enterprises with big budgets.
Key features:
- CRM integration: Gong automatically uploads data like call transcripts, participants, and dates to popular CRMs
- Smart Tracker: Beyond keywords, Gong AI identifies concepts your customers mention to address risks beforehand
- Recommended actions: Gong generates call briefs, personalized emails, and other action items based on the previous discussion
Pros:
- Supports 70+ languages
Cons:
- Can’t be scaled beyond the sales team
- Too expensive for small and medium-sized businesses
Pricing:
- Not transparent
5. Salesken
Salesken is an AI sales assistant that transcribes and analyzes customer conversations. It helps you find gaps in the sales script, coach reps, and forecast revenue with AI.
More than a mere AI transcriber, the platform has a suite of sales-specific products like Sales 360° Activity Management, Smart Sales Report, and Pitch Score.
Key features:
- Real-time cueing: Prompt your sales rep live and help them improve their pitch without shadowing the call
- Pitch intelligence: Analyze the performance of your reps on 13+ aspects like product knowledge and urgency creation
- Customer intelligence: Get a list of actionable steps to close the deal based on your lead’s key objections, pricing negotiations, and competitor comparisons
Pros:
- AI reports marking rep’s and customer's sentiments
Cons:
- Time-consuming onboarding
Pricing:
- Custom pricing
6. MeetGeek
MeetGeek is a meeting automation platform that maximizes the productivity of your customer calls, interviews, and online classes. It’s used by students, freelancers, and agencies.
With its AI note-taking feature, you can share highlights, find information, and uncover weaknesses based on 40+ KPIs.
Key features:
- Branded summary emails: Align the meeting summary email with your brand guidelines before sending it to the customer
- Voice commands: Create tasks during calls and push them to different tools without lifting a finger
- Meeting templates: Use predefined templates to never skip an important point
Pros:
- Set up custom words and industry-specific terms
Cons:
- Note-taking is limited to the English language
Pricing:
- Free
- Pro: $15/user/month
- Business: $29/user/month
- Enterprise: $59/user/month
7. Transkriptor
Transkriptor is an affordable run-off-the-mill AI transcriber for individuals or small teams. It simply records, transcribes, and translates lectures, meetings, and podcasts. It has a neat UI that runs on the Web, iOS, and Android.
Key features:
- Transkriptor AI Assistant: Chat and ask anything about your conversations, meetings, and videos
- Multiple languages: Interpret, transcribe, and translate in 100+ languages
- Pre-recorded transcription: Upload links or files of videos/audio and download the notes in your preferred file format
Pros:
- Transcribes heavy-accented voice well
Cons:
- No conversation intelligence other than speaker identification
Pricing:
- For individuals:
- Lite: $4.99/month
- Premium: $12.49/month
- For small teams:
- $30 monthly (50% discount on yearly payments)
- For Enterprises:
- Custom Pricing
8. Notta
Notta is an all-in-one AI notetaker that transcribes and translates audio/video recordings, face-to-face meetings, and presentation demos. You can also schedule meetings and record your screen.
Notta is a helpful AI transcriber for those in education, consulting, media, and health.
Key features:
- Structured meeting summary: Get AI summaries featuring action items, TL;DR, recorded decisions, and smart chapters
- User-friendly editor: Insert pictures, add notes, co-edit, and share with your team
- Wide compatibility: Use the web app, download it on mobile(Android, iOS), or install the Chrome extension
Pros:
- Share transcripts to Salesforce directly
Cons:
- Doesn’t recognize different speakers
Pricing:
- Free
- Pro: $8.25/month
- Business: $44/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
9. Sonix
Used by big names like Microsoft, GAP, and Stanford University, Sonix is an AI transcription software with notable editing capabilities. It can identify different speakers, timestamp transcripts, and add subtitles to videos despite thick accents.
It integrates with most research, productivity, web conferencing, and multimedia apps like Adobe Premiere, Atlas.ti, and Salesforce.
Key features:
- Custom dictionary: Get rid of the annoying red line. Add industry-specific words and create your dictionary.
- Multitrack uploads: Get audio from different tracks in one transcript
- Shareable clips: Instantly share parts of your video in one URL
Pros:
- Transcribes in 35+ languages
Cons:
- No mobile app
Pricing:
- Standard: $10/hour
- Premium: $5/hour + $22/month/user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
How to choose the right AI transcriber?
There are many AI transcription tools but not all will solve your use case. So which one is right for you? Answer the following and narrow down your search:
- Who is the AI transcriber for?
Is it only for your sales team, or will it be used company-wide? If it’s the former, go for a sales-specific AI transcriber like Salesken. Avoma is the obvious choice if it’s for every team, including sales.
- What do you want from the AI transcription software?
Does your budget and workflow allow for just an AI transcriber? Or are you looking for revenue or sales intelligence, too? Oh, you want something in the middle? Go for AI transcription platforms like Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai.
- What’s the ROI?
The ultimate question is “Is it worth investing in?” AI transcription software can’t have a direct impact on revenue. Figure out the closest leading metrics.
Example: Deal alerts when a lead inclines towards a competitor.
Of course, this takes time. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. But there is a one-size-fits-all tool: AVOMA. It’s for all the teams and has many use cases! An AI meeting assistant, conversation, and revenue intelligence–all packed into one.
Avoma can be a game-changer. Book a demo today.
