Light years ahead of the days when meeting notes were scribbled frantically and everyone hoped that they were capturing at least most of what was going on, AI meeting transcribers can now auto-generate full written transcripts of any video meeting with extreme accuracy.

Even better, the best of the best-of-the-breed goes far beyond simply recording what’s being said, enabling users to add commentary, questions and other edits to a transcript as a meeting progresses.

Plus, these same apps can enhance the transcript after the close of the meeting, enabling users to quickly add slides, images and still more commentary to ensure all attendees get the most out of every meeting they attend.

Bottom line, it’s decidedly a buyer’s market in video meeting transcribers right now. In fact, competition among AI transcription companies is so intense, that most are scrambling to come up with ever-more-sophisticated features to set themselves apart from the pack.

AI Transcription Capabilities

Here’s a rundown of the goodies you can expect:

• Live Transcription On-the-Fly: Incredibly, many AI-powered meeting transcribers now stream a live text transcription of a meeting in progress. This voice-to-text feature is great for people who may have missed something, people who have arrived late to a meeting or people who are having a problem understanding the voice of a specific person.
• Live Transcription Editing, On-the-Fly: With live transcription often standard with today’s meeting transcribers, it makes sense that many offer real-time editing of a transcript of a meeting in progress.

With many solutions sporting this optimization, you can mark certain statements as ‘action items’ to follow up on, type in questions in response to what’s being said, or mark moments in the transcript you plan to revisit after the meeting’s over.

• Body Language Analysis On-The-Fly: Perfect for people who never attended meetings, this feature enables AI to study the gazes, body language and facial expressions of people attending a video meeting and then embed the meaning of those movements into the transcript.  A thumbs-up at a meeting, for example, translates to a thumbs-up emoji in the transcript. And a bored look translates into a bored-look emoji.

• Integration of Real-Time Human Translators: Some AI-driven transcribers are also designed to port picture-in-picture feeds of human translators or human sign language specialists into a meeting video. This feature enables you to broadcast a meeting in as many languages as you wish, in real-time.

• Bookmarking: No more trying to remember where in the video a salient point popped up during a meeting that you want to remember. With many solutions, you can simply create a timestamp bookmark of a moment in the meeting you want to revisit with a simple click.
• Meeting Summaries: Given that AI summary technology is already so well developed, it’s no surprise that many AI meeting transcribers offer text summaries of meetings within minutes of a meeting’s conclusion.
• After-Meeting-Transcript Editing: The same transcript editing actions you can perform while a meeting is in progress can also be used to enhance a transcript after the meeting’s over, including adding questions, commentary, marking action items and the like. 

The same keyword feature also enables you to auto-add a slide, screenshot or other images at any point in the transcript with a single click.

• Search-by-Keyword: AI can automatically generate a list of keywords you can use to search for statements and concepts discussed at the meeting, bringing you to specific points in the transcript where those search terms are discussed, and also enabling you to call up the corresponding audio that is generated those insights.

• Plug-nd-Play Integration: Many solutions are pre-configured to work seamlessly with popular software apps and platforms including Slack, Asana, Jira, Salesforce and Hubspot. With some solutions, distributing a meeting transcript on a Slack channel, for example, takes only a click or two.
• Auto-Sync With Popular Calendars: With many auto-transcribers, the transcription of a meeting will start automatically as long as you schedule the meeting using popular calendar software from Google or Microsoft.
• Query the Transcript for Info: On the horizon, some AI developers hope to embed additional tools in transcription software that will enable you to query the stored transcript of a meeting with specific questions you have about topics discussed.
• Free: In some cases, some high-powered AI transcription solutions are actually free. The app makers are looking to grow the popularity of their apps quickly by offering an exciting product, and then start charging users looking to add premium features.

Is an AI Transcription Service Right for You? 

As always, the easiest way to bring home an AI transcriber that’s a perfect fit for your business is to work with a trusted AI consultant who knows the market and can steer you toward solutions that make the most sense for your firm, and away from others that are not worth your consideration.