Question 1

What is an AI meeting bot?

Accepted Answer

An AI meeting bot is a software participant that joins a video call the way a person does, records the audio (and often the screen), transcribes the conversation with a speech-recognition model, and then generates notes, summaries, or deeper analysis. Most are cloud services; privately hosted bots like Donna run on your own server instead.

Question 2

How do AI notetakers join Google Meet?

Accepted Answer

An AI notetaker joins Google Meet by opening the meeting link in an automated real browser, entering a bot name, and requesting to join — the host then admits it like any guest. Once inside, it captures the call’s audio (and optionally the screen) until the meeting ends, then processes the recording.

Question 3

Are AI meeting notetakers private?

Accepted Answer

Mostly, no — not in the sense people assume. Cloud notetakers (Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, tl;dv) upload, process, and store your meetings on their servers under their retention and security policies. A notetaker is only truly private when recording, transcription, and storage happen on infrastructure you control — which is what privately hosted tools like Donna do.

Question 4

Can I run an AI notetaker on my own server?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A standard server can run the full pipeline: an automated browser joins the meeting, server-side capture records it, Flocci Speech Recognition transcribes the audio, and an LLM writes the report. Donna packages exactly this stack — Playwright, server-side capture, Flocci Speech Recognition, Flocci Intelligence, and your own database — as one privately hosted product.

Question 5

Do AI meeting bots record video?

Accepted Answer

It varies. Audio is universal, because transcription needs it; video capture differs by tool and plan tier — some record the meeting screen including shared slides and demos, others skip video entirely. Donna records both: meeting audio and the screen, compressed after the call and stored on your own server.

Question 6

How accurate is AI meeting transcription?

Accepted Answer

Flocci Speech Recognition is a benchmark-standard speech-recognition model for transcription accuracy across accents, domains, and dozens of languages. For clear meeting audio it produces reliably quotable transcripts; accuracy degrades in the ways all ASR does — crosstalk, poor microphones, heavy jargon.

Question 7

Does Google Meet block AI notetaker bots?

Accepted Answer

Google Meet does not ban notetaker bots, but since early 2026 it screens them: third-party bots are flagged as a potential risk in the waiting room and a host has to admit them deliberately, every time. Workspace admins can also restrict third-party apps entirely. Bots still work — they simply cannot sneak in.

Question 8

How do I stop AI notetakers from joining my meetings?

Accepted Answer

Turn off automatic admission so every guest waits in the lobby, admit participants yourself, and ask your Workspace or IT admin to restrict which third-party apps can connect to your meeting and calendar. If a bot is already in the call, name it out loud and ask its inviter to remove it — every legitimate notetaker appears in the participant list.

Question 9

Bot or bot-free AI notetaker — which is better?

Accepted Answer

Bot notetakers join the meeting as a visible participant, so they capture the call whether or not you attend, including shared screens. Bot-free tools record your own device’s audio, so they avoid admission friction but only cover meetings you personally attend, usually without video. Coverage versus discretion is the whole trade-off.

Question 10

What is meeting intelligence?

Accepted Answer

Meeting intelligence is the analysis layer above transcription: instead of recording what was said, it reports what the meeting meant — which decisions were made and against which trade-offs, who committed to what in their exact words, where the disagreement was, who changed position, and what the room avoided.

Question 11

Can AI transcribe Hindi and Hinglish meetings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Current multilingual speech models transcribe Hindi and code-switched Hindi-English meetings well enough to quote, since they were trained on mixed-language speech rather than one language at a time. Donna transcribes what was actually spoken and can write the report in Hindi while keeping every quote in its original language.

Question 12

How much does an AI notetaker cost?

Accepted Answer

Most AI notetakers charge per user per month, with published 2026 plans commonly landing between roughly $9 and $30 per seat on paid tiers and free tiers capped by minutes or lifetime notes. Usage-priced and self-hosted alternatives cost by meeting hours instead, which changes the maths as headcount grows.

Question 13

Where do AI notetakers store your recordings?

Accepted Answer

Cloud notetakers store recordings, transcripts and derived summaries on the vendor’s own infrastructure, typically in the region their plan specifies, under retention rules tied to your tier. Some enterprise plans add region choice or on-premise storage. A self-hosted bot stores everything on your server instead — no vendor copy exists.

Question 14

Is it legal to record a meeting with an AI notetaker?

Accepted Answer

Recording a meeting with an AI notetaker is legal in the same circumstances as any other recording: the rules depend on the participants’ jurisdictions, and range from one-party consent to all-party consent. A bot does not create a new legal category — but because it is visible in the participant list, disclosure is easier to evidence.

Question 15

Can an AI notetaker attend a meeting without me?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if it is a bot rather than a device recorder. A bot joins from its own browser with the meeting link, so it can attend a call you skip entirely — typically triggered by a calendar feed or a manual start. The host still admits it, and bot-free tools cannot do this at all.

Question 16

How do I catch up on a meeting I missed?

Accepted Answer

Read the outcome, then search the transcript. A one-hour recording takes an hour; a structured read takes three minutes and tells you what was decided, who committed to what, and which questions stayed open. Use the searchable transcript only for the exchanges you actually need to hear.

Question 17

What is the best AI notetaker for Google Meet?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the requirement you cannot compromise on. For live captions during the call, Otter. For the most generous free tier, Fathom. For bot-free capture on your own laptop, Granola or Jamie. For a record that stays on your own infrastructure with analysis beyond summaries, Donna.

Question 18

Can AI track who committed to what in a meeting?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and the useful version keeps four things per commitment: who said it, their exact words, the deadline, and the timestamp. Generic action-item lists drop all four and flatten “I’ll try to look at it” into a task. Keeping the wording is what makes a soft promise visible as soft.

Question 19

Do AI notetakers work with Zoom and Microsoft Teams?

Accepted Answer

Most major notetakers support Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, and several add Webex or browser-based calls. Coverage is not uniform, though: features like screen capture, live captions and admin permissions differ per platform. Donna attends Google Meet live, and analyses uploaded recordings from any platform.

Question 20

How long does AI meeting transcription take?

Accepted Answer

Minutes, not hours. Hosted speech-recognition APIs transcribe far faster than real time, so a one-hour meeting is usually transcribed within a few minutes of ending. Analysis adds a little more, so a full report typically lands within minutes of the bot leaving the call.

Question 21

Can two AI notetakers join the same meeting?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Each participant can bring their own, so a five-person call can contain three notetakers from three vendors, each recording to a different cloud. The practical side effects are duplicate recordings under different retention policies, inflated participant counts, and bots that stay after the humans leave.

Asked plainly, answered plainly