By 2025, teams have moved beyond wanting transcripts. They want actionable workflows. This shift reflects a deeper trend: meetings are not about documentation, they are about accountability and execution.
Here are the must-have criteria teams now look for in meeting note takers:
Accurate transcription across platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex
AI-powered summaries that highlight decisions and next steps
Automatic detection of action items with owner assignment and deadlines
Team collaboration features: real-time editing, comments, shared dashboards
Deep integrations with Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and calendars
Search and recall across multiple meetings for long-term knowledge management
Otter.ai: Mature Transcripts with Growing Features
Otter remains one of the best-known names in AI meeting notes. It built its reputation on accurate transcription and continues to refine its features for team collaboration.
Strengths:
Live transcription and summaries: Otter automatically generates summaries and action items after meetings.
AI Chat: You can ask questions about past meetings, though results are mostly scoped to single meetings.
Integrations: Connects to Slack, Notion, Dropbox, and calendars to auto-join meetings.
Enterprise features: Admin controls, analytics, team folders, and usage management.
Weaknesses:
Action item execution: While Otter captures action items, ownership and deadlines are often missing, leaving managers to assign them manually.
Search: Strong within one meeting but weaker when it comes to finding context across multiple meetings.
Adoption hurdles: Teams sometimes find that without workflow depth, Otter ends up being used as a reference tool instead of a daily driver.
Fireflies is known for its conversation intelligence and its wide set of integrations. Many teams adopt it because of its searchable transcripts and call analytics.
Strengths:
Wide integrations: Works with Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more than 60 tools.
Searchable transcripts: Teams can keyword search across meetings and review highlights.
Analytics: Speaker talk time, sentiment, and keyword spotting provide insights into how meetings are run.
Weaknesses:
Query limitations: Its assistant features focus on individual meetings rather than cross-meeting insights.
Interface: Some teams find the dashboard cluttered.
Feature gating: Many of the more powerful features are behind higher pricing tiers.
Fathom started as a free Zoom add-on and is popular with freelancers and small teams. In 2025, it has expanded with CRM connections and AI follow-up features.
Strengths:
Free plan: Easy entry point for small teams or individuals.
Zoom integration: Simple to set up, minimal training needed.
AI follow-ups: Generates summaries and follow-up emails automatically.
Weaknesses:
Zoom-first focus: Teams using Google Meet or Microsoft Teams do not have parity.
Scaling issues: Teams that grow quickly need more integrations, automation, and compliance options than Fathom provides.
CRM depth: Basic syncing exists, but ownership and workflow control are limited.
Granola: Clean Design, but Gaps for Enterprise Teams
Granola focuses on design and usability. It provides clean summaries and bot-free capture but has limitations for enterprise teams.
Strengths:
Bot-free capture: Transcribes system audio without a bot joining meetings.
Note and transcript hybrid: Lets users type notes alongside transcripts.
Integrations: Works with Slack, Notion, and CRM tools like Attio or Affinity through Zapier.
Weaknesses:
Google Calendar first: Outlook support is weaker.
No raw audio storage: Limits verification and speaker tracking for some industries.
Limited governance: Permissions and sharing controls have caused concern for enterprise adoption.
Where Klu Sets Itself Apart
While Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, and Granola all offer strong transcription and summaries, Klu focuses on turning meetings into team workflows.
Key Differentiators for Teams:
Action items with ownership: Klu detects follow-ups, assigns them to owners with deadlines, and pushes them into Slack or Notion automatically.
CRM-grade sync: Logs outcomes to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive on the right record, so deals and accounts stay updated.
Cross-meeting recall: With Deep Dive, teams can ask questions like “What did we commit to with ACME last quarter?” and get a single answer across multiple meetings.
Email context: When integrated with Gmail or Outlook, Klu surfaces AI-summarized email history with sentiment analysis in each contact’s record.
Security and compliance: SOC 2, GDPR, encryption, and role-based permissions make it safe for enterprise teams.
Ease of adoption: Instead of just storing transcripts, Klu ensures follow-ups appear in the tools teams already use every day.
Real-World Team Scenarios
Sales Team Example: After a discovery call, Klu pushes three key action items into the sales Slack channel and logs the meeting summary directly into the HubSpot deal record. This ensures the rep and manager have visibility without manual updates.
Sales teams never lose track of next steps when action items appear in Slack automatically
Project Management Example: During sprint planning, Klu detects blockers and creates tasks in Notion assigned to specific engineers. This reduces delays and manual task entry.
Project managers save hours by letting Klu handle meeting task creation.
Leadership Example: A VP preparing for a client renewal asks Klu’s Deep Dive “What commitments did we make about Q4 rollout?” Klu pulls answers across several meetings, providing instant context.
Leaders prepare faster with multi-meeting recall
Security and Compliance Comparison
Security is a growing priority for teams in 2025. Here is how the main players position themselves:
Otter: Offers enterprise admin controls and SSO, but less emphasis on compliance certifications.
Fireflies: Encrypts data and offers team controls, but some enterprises find governance weaker.
Fathom: Lighter on compliance features. Best for smaller organizations.
Granola: Bot-free design appeals to IT, but the 2025 AssemblyAI key incident raised concerns.
Klu: SOC 2 certified, GDPR compliant, with role-based permissions, encrypted storage, and audit logs.
This makes Klu more suitable for enterprise buyers who must satisfy compliance standards.
Final thoughts
The best AI meeting note takers for teams in 2025 are not just about transcription. Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, and Granola all have strong features and are improving quickly. However, the edge belongs to the platform that ensures tasks are not just captured but executed.
Klu focuses on workflow automation, accountability, CRM integration, and recall across all meetings. For teams that want meetings to translate into action automatically, Klu is the clear choice.
Sami AZ
