A.I.-powered voice transcription service Otter.ai needs to make it even simpler for its enterprise customers to report their meetings. The firm is at present introducing a new function, Otter Assistant, which can automatically be a part of the Zoom meetings on your calendar, transcribe the conversations, and share the notes with different individuals. Though Otter.ai is already built-in with Zoom, the assistant is designed to make utilizing transcription one thing you don’t need to continually bear in mind to allow on the assembly’s begin or cease on the finish, whereas additionally serving as a spot the place individuals can collaborate by asking questions, sharing pictures and extra, because the assembly is underway.
The function additionally works across the earlier limitation with Zoom, the place solely the assembly host might use the Otter.ai integration immediately.
The thought to automate assembly transcription is sensible for the distant work setting created by the pandemic, the place individuals have been splitting their time between work, parenting, homeschooling and different duties. This can usually result in meetings the place customers are pulled away and miss issues that had been mentioned. That’s one space the place Otter.ai can assist. But it can additionally assist with points like overlapping meetings, or bigger meetings have been just a few subjects are immediately related to your work — however the place you’d like to have the ability to overview the remainder of the assembly dialogue later, as a substitute of in real-time.
To use the new Otter Assistant, customers first synchronize their Google Calendar or Microsoft Calendar with Otter’s service. The assistant will then automatically be a part of all Zoom meetings going ahead, the place it seems as a further assembly participant, for transparency’s sake.
The assistant additionally posts a hyperlink to the transcription within the Zoom chat for everybody to entry. In different phrases, this isn’t a function to make use of to skip meetings with out your boss understanding — it’s designed for these occasions when everybody has already agreed the assembly can be transcribed.
As the assembly continues, attendees can use Otter’s dwell transcript to focus on key elements, add pictures, and make notes. They can additionally ask questions by way of the commenting function, versus talking up — which can be useful for those who’re in a loud place on the time of the assembly.
Once the assistant is enabled, you don’t have to recollect to activate Otter.ai for every assembly, and also you can even use your headphones to take heed to the assembly in progress. The Otter Assistant will nonetheless have the ability to report either side of the dialog.
However, you’ll be able to flip Otter Assistant off on a per-meeting foundation by way of the “My Agenda” part on the Otter web site, which can embrace new toggles subsequent to every assembly you might have scheduled.
When meetings wrap, you can even have Otter.ai configured to automatically share the assembly notes with all of the attendees.
The Otter Assistant is obtainable to Otter.ai Business customers, that are upgraded plans that begin at $20 per thirty days, and embrace options like two-factor authentication, SOC2 compliance, superior search, export, customized vocabulary, shared speaker identification, centralized information and billing, and extra.
To date, Otter.ai says it has transcribed over 150 million meetings, up from 100 million in the beginning of 2021 . The firm doesn’t present particulars on its complete subscriber base, however did be aware earlier it noticed a large 8x enhance in revenues in 2020, main as much as its $50 million Series B, announced in February.