Which tool to choose
You need two steps, and you can use two tools or just one.
- You want everything automatic, even live: Otter connects to Zoom, Meet, or Teams, transcribes during the meeting, and already generates a summary with the salient points. Convenient for recurring meetings.
- You already have the recording and prefer to control every step: transcribe with a Whisper-based tool (more accurate and with a local option for confidential content), then summarize with the AI assistant you usually use. You have more control over how the minutes are cut.
- The meeting is confidential: local transcription with Whisper on your computer, so the audio doesn't go up to external servers, and an AI assistant with which you have a privacy agreement for the summary.
How to do it
From browser or app, the path doesn't change.
Transcribe the recording. Upload the file, set Italian, get the text. If the tool separates the speakers, keep it: knowing who said what is needed to assign the actions.
Reread the critical points. Before summarizing, correct the people's names and the wrong terms in the text: if the AI summarizes on wrong names, the minutes assign the actions to the wrong person.
Ask for the structured summary. Paste the transcription into the assistant with a precise instruction about what you want.
The operational syntax:
This is the transcription of a meeting. Produce minutes in English with these sections: 1. Decisions made (bulleted list, short sentences) 2. Actions assigned (for each one: what, who is responsible, by when if stated) 3. Open points remaining Use only what's in the text. If a deadline or an owner wasn't indicated, write "not specified". Don't invent anything.Verify the actions one by one. Check that each owner and each date match what was actually said. It's the point where a mistake costs the most.
Distribute. Send the minutes to the participants, ideally the same day: an assigned action gets done if it arrives while it's still fresh.
A concrete example
Marco coordinates a team of six. He records the weekly meeting on Meet and has Otter transcribe it. At the end he has forty minutes of text. He pastes it into the assistant with the minutes instruction. The AI extracts five decisions, eight actions with an owner, and three open points. Marco notices that one action was attributed to the wrong person (the AI confused two similar names), corrects it, and sends the minutes to the team in twenty minutes. Before, he spent an hour rewriting the notes, and often forgot half the actions.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If the AI assigns the actions to the wrong person
It happens when the transcription confuses similar names or doesn't separate the speakers well. Fix: correct the names in the transcription before summarizing, and always reread the actions section by hand. You don't delegate the check on who has to do what.
If the summary invents decisions never made
The AI tends to "complete" the discussion. Fix: in the instruction impose "use only what's in the text, don't invent," and then verify that every decision in the minutes has a match in the transcription. If you can't find it, it was invented: delete it.
If the meeting is long and the AI cuts the second half
With very long texts some assistants lose the final parts. Fix: split the transcription into two parts, summarize each, then merge the two sets of minutes. Or first ask for a summary of each time block (first half hour, second half hour).
If several people were talking at once
Overlaps make the text confusing and the minutes uncertain. Fix: in the meetings you'll transcribe, establish that people speak one at a time, and use the platform's recording (which often keeps separate tracks) rather than a single ambient microphone.
A tip from someone who actually uses it
The minutes are about the actions, not the summary. Someone reading minutes is looking for one thing: what do I have to do and by when. Put the actions section at the top, written as a list of tasks with a name and a date, not as prose. Three lines of minutes that say who-does-what are more useful than two pages recounting the whole discussion. And sending it the same day doubles the probability that the actions get done.
Frequently asked questions
Can I record the meeting without telling the participants?
No. Recording people without their consent can be illegal and is in any case unfair. Announce at the start that you're recording for the minutes: it's one sentence, and it keeps you safe.
How reliable is the automatic summary?
The structure is excellent, the facts need to be verified. The AI extracts the topics well, but it can get an owner or a date wrong or "remember" a decision never made. The summary saves you 90% of the work; the remaining 10% of checking is yours and isn't skipped.
Does it work even if the meeting was in several languages?
The tools handle multilingual content with variable results. If there was constant switching from one language to another, the accuracy drops. It's best to transcribe and then ask the AI to translate everything into one language in a second pass.
Can the AI attend the meeting in my place and tell me only what matters?
It can transcribe and summarize, not replace your presence. A summary captures the words, not the tone, the pauses, who was opposed without saying so openly. For decisive meetings, the automatic minutes are the memory, but the judgment on what really happened stays yours: read it as a basis, not as the complete truth of what happened in the room.