How to Record and Summarize Meetings with AI

An AI note taker joins your calls, writes a transcript and produces a summary with action items. Fathom, Otter and Fireflies all do this, and each has a free plan to try. The part that needs the most care is consent, because people on the call must know they are being recorded.

This guide covers choosing a tool, setting it up, getting consent and sharing the summaries. It is general information and not legal advice. Recording rules differ by state and country, so ask a lawyer if your calls involve clients in several places.

Choose a note taker

All three tools work with common video call apps, so the choice often comes down to price and how much control you get. The table uses each vendor’s own pricing page.

Tool	Plans listed	Notes from the vendor
Fathom	Free, Premium, Team, Business, Enterprise	Free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions. Team is $19 per user per month, or $15 billed annually, with a 2-user minimum
Otter	Basic (free), Pro, Business, Enterprise	Free plan has 300 monthly transcription minutes and 30 minutes per conversation
Fireflies	Free, Pro, Business, Enterprise	Prices were not shown in the text we could read, so check the page

Prices can change, so confirm them before you buy. Try the free plan with one person for a week first.

Set up the tool

The exact screens vary by tool. The steps below are the common path.

1. Create an account with your work email.
2. Connect your calendar so the tool can see upcoming meetings.
3. Connect your video call app if the tool asks for it.
4. Choose how the tool joins calls. Use manual invites at first, not automatic joining.
5. Run a test call with a coworker and check the transcript and summary.

Control when the bot joins

Auto-join is the setting that causes most trouble. Fireflies lets you pick from “All meetings with web-conf link”, “Only meetings that I own”, “Only meetings with teammates” and “Only when I invite [email protected]”, as its help article lists them. The last option gives you the most control. Otter’s help center describes similar choices, including joining only events where you are the organizer or events you turn on yourself. Fathom puts its consent option, Auto Request Recording Consent, on its Settings page, as its help article explains.

Notes on each tool

Each vendor documents the basics a little differently.

• Fireflies: its troubleshooting guide says to connect your Google or Microsoft calendar in Settings, then either invite [email protected] or turn on auto-join. The invite must go out before the meeting starts and must contain a valid Zoom, Teams or Meet link.
• Otter: the free Basic plan caps each conversation at 30 minutes, so longer calls need a paid plan.
• Fathom: the free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, which makes it a low-cost way to test the idea.

Pick the first calls to record with care. Internal team check-ins and routine sales calls are easier places to start than sensitive client conversations.

Get consent before you record

Recording a call without telling people can break the law and damages trust. The federal wiretap statute allows a person who is part of a call to record it, or to record it when one participant has agreed, unless the recording is made to commit a crime or civil wrong. State laws can add stricter rules, and this is where a lawyer helps.

Fathom’s help center says there is no way to record silently with its product. For meetings with outside guests, Fathom can email consent requests. Its article explains that these go out 24 hours before the meeting and that a declined request turns off auto-record for that meeting. The host can still get verbal consent during the call.

Use this simple routine for every call, whichever tool you use.

1. Add a line to the meeting invite saying an AI note taker will record and summarize.
2. Say it out loud at the start, for example “This call is being recorded and summarized by an AI note taker. Is everyone okay with that?”
3. If anyone says no, stop the recording or turn off the bot.
4. Keep the calls that need privacy off the tool. Examples are HR matters, legal advice and medical details.

Share summaries safely

A summary can contain names, prices and decisions that not everyone should see. Decide who gets each one before the first call.

Otter’s auto-share help article lists four audiences: All event guests, Same domain guests, Workspace members and Don’t share. Choosing Don’t share keeps notes private by default, and you can share each one by hand after you review it. In every tool, review the summary before it goes to people outside your company.

Here is a safe approach.

• Share with your own team by default.
• Review the summary before sending it to a client.
• Delete recordings you do not need to keep.
• Check the tool’s settings for how long it stores your data.

Check the output

Read the first summaries closely and compare them to what you remember. Look for action items that have no owner, dates that are wrong and decisions that were only ideas. Ask the people on the call to reply if something looks off. This habit teaches you how much to trust the tool and what to double check.

AI summaries can miss points, get names wrong or turn a maybe into a yes. Skim every summary against your own notes for the first few weeks. If a summary will drive a decision, a payment or a promise to a client, read the transcript for that part. Our guide to writing an AI use policy explains how to set review rules for the whole team.