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Top 13 AI Note Taking Tools for Busy Managers [2024]

By
Melissa Malec
September 2, 2024
7 minute read
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Ever feel like your whole working week is spent jumping from call to call, without even the opportunity to cement the discussion, the decisions, and the action items that come from them?

You could take notes during the meeting but that would make you less present and distracted, causing you to play catch up when the conversation has moved on.

It’s for this reason that managers and team leads rely so heavily on AI note taking tools.

They free them up to be in the moment, take comprehensive notes they can look through later, and in some cases help you improve the meetings themselves so that they’re not a waste of time. 

Thing is, there’s dozens of these tools on the market—some better than others. 

So we’ve spent time scouring the internet to bring you a curated list of the top AI note taking tools that are built to streamline your meetings and make your job easier.

We’ve listed them all below along with the unique reason they stood out to us. 

Transparency time ⏳: This list includes our own product, Waggle. We may be biased but we’ve also seen firsthand how Waggle helps managers lead more effective meetings because they don’t need to worry about taking notes, documenting action items, or wondering if their meeting was effective.

At a glance: The top 13 AI note taking tools on the market

  1. Waggle | Best AI note taking tool for managers who want to lead high-performing teams
  2. Otter.ai |Best AI note taking tool for extracting insights and generating content from meetings
  3. Fathom|Best AI note taking tool for individuals without a budget to spend
  4. Gong |Best AI note taking tool for sales coaching on Zoom calls
  5. Notion AI |Best AI note taking tool for personal note taking
  6. Notta | Best AI note taking tool for transcriptions you can share
  7. Fellow | Best AI note-taking tool for extensive integrations
  8. ClickUp | Best AI note-taking tool for project management integration
  9. Reflect | Best AI note-taking tool for personal reflection and insights
  10. Avoma | Best AI note-taking tool for customer success teams
  11. Rewatch| Best AI note taking tool for internal comms
  12. Nyota | Best AI note taking tool for freelancers
  13. Lark Minutes | Best AI note taking tool for translation of transcripts

Below we’ll explain what you should look for in each one before we explain each tool and why it’s made the list.

What to look for in your AI note taking tool: 3 key considerations

Here are the three considerations you should make when selecting an AI note taking tool for your business.

Consideration 1: Does it take accurate notes and generate summaries (so you don’t have to)?

While transcription is an important feature of an AI note taking tool, how often are you really going to read through a conversation line by line? 

AI summaries of your meetings and topically organized notes ensures you have all the essential information without the mental burden of note taking.

It’s the bare minimum of any AI note taking tool on the market. 

Consideration 2: Can it identify and assign action items discussed on the call (so nothing goes missed)?

Important action items and decisions often get lost in the shuffle of busy meetings, leading to missed deadlines and incomplete tasks.

A top-tier AI note-taking tool should detect tasks as they're mentioned and assign them to team members.

Look for features that timestamp these moments, allowing easy review and playback. This ensures accountability and prevents important tasks from slipping through the cracks.

Consideration 3: Will it give you feedback on the skills you demonstrated or could improve upon (so that you’re better next time)? 

It's difficult to objectively assess and improve your own meeting performance and communication skills without external feedback. But you can’t always count on your team members to be unbiased, objective, or forthcoming. 

AI note-taking tools can analyze your participation, communication style, and overall meeting effectiveness. By providing constructive feedback on aspects like engagement levels, clarity of expression, and time management, these tools turn every meeting into a learning opportunity. 

Some tools can even give YOU feedback on how you led the call which is something especially useful for managers and team leads.

This feature helps you continually refine your skills, leading to more productive and impactful meetings and teams over time.

Practice, measure and track your skills in the flow of work

Get feedback on your skills now. Try it free for 15 days.

Try Waggle for free

The 13 best AI note taking tools (and why they’re the best)

In this section, I’ll explain how Waggle, our AI note taking tool and manager coaching software, meets those three considerations above and excels as the best—especially for managers who want to cut down time spent managing meetings and actively improve their leadership skills.

I’ll also outline the pros, cons, and reviews of 13 other meeting agenda tools focusing on unique use cases they can support best. 

1. Waggle | Best AI note taking tool for managers who want to lead high-performing teams

Document and assign action items within minutes

With Waggle you can access notes, agenda, action items and summaries where your meeting happens (integrated with your conferencing tools)

Try Waggle for free

Waggle is an AI note taking tool that helps managers lead better meetings and higher performing teams. 

How? By:

  • documenting and assigning action items on your behalf
  • summarizing and tracking calls for future reference
  • assessing meeting effectiveness so you can improve calls and eliminate ones you don’t need
  • coaching you to improve the skills you need to be a better leader to your team

Not only that, it streamlines time consuming tasks such as agenda creation.

Waggle works as both coach and assistant, something no other AI note taker does and it's for this reason that it stands out as the tool for managers who want to be the best leader they can be while removing administrative burden.

Let’s quickly run through how Waggle addresses each of the three considerations we discussed earlier:

How Waggle takes accurate notes and summarizes your meeting for you

Waggle’s AI, powered by GPT-4o, silently sits in on your meetings, accurately transcribing the call and identifying speakers as you go. 

Once the meeting is over, it will summarize what you discussed:

It will also organize the content into coherent, topic-based notes. Take this example below:

And if you do want to watch the call back or dig into the weeds of the transcript, you’re able to. 

This comprehensive approach ensures that you can fully engage in discussions without the distraction of note-taking, knowing that Waggle will provide you with an accurate, well-structured record of the meeting afterwards.

Whether you need a quick overview or detailed notes, Waggle has you covered, allowing you to focus on what truly matters—the conversation.

Using Waggle helps me make the most of my meetings with my team and actually drive value! I can't tell you the headspace it saves to have it running along side me each day." KRISTEN, CEO at Highlighner Technology

How Waggle identifies important action items and delegates them to the right participant

With Waggle, you’ll never lose track of action items after a call because it documents them for you.

As your meeting progresses, Waggle's AI actively listens for potential action items. It accurately identifies these tasks and attributes them to the correct team members. After the meeting, Waggle presents a clear summary of all action items, specifying who is responsible for each.

From there you can instantly convert these identified items into documented tasks within its platform.

This seamless integration ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

Waggle also provides a timestamp for each action item, linking it to the exact moment in the meeting when it was discussed. With a simple click, you can replay that segment, providing crucial context and clarity for team members as they tackle their tasks. 

All you have to do is click the play button next to the task, close out the pop up, and press play on the video.

"Before Waggle, I was drowning in admin tasks and struggling to find time to prepare for meetings. The automated action items and custom agendas save me hours each week.” GUILLAUME, Engineering Manager at GoCardless

How Waggle gives you feedback on your leadership skills and the meeting as a whole

As Waggle's AI observes your meetings, it evaluates various aspects of your leadership skills and the overall meeting effectiveness. 

Then, after the meeting, it provides you with a detailed feedback report, assessing factors such as your communication style, engagement levels, time management, and how well you facilitate discussions.

This report highlights your strengths, pinpoints areas for improvement, and offers specific suggestions for enhancing your leadership skills. For example, it might commend your clear articulation of goals while suggesting ways to encourage more balanced participation from all team members.

Overtime, Waggle tracks the development of your leadership skills, identifying areas that need more attention and highlighting one’s you’ve successfully improved:

It even takes your team’s needs into consideration:

By turning every meeting into a learning opportunity, Waggle empowers you to continuously refine your leadership skills and run more effective meetings over time. 

This ongoing feedback loop ensures that you're always growing as a leader, ultimately leading to more productive, engaging, and impactful meetings for your entire team. And when you perform at your best, so does your team. 

“Waggle's dashboard is where I go at the beginning or the end of the day to check on how I am doing in terms of my skills practice, what I can improve and what actions have been agreed. Very helpful to follow up and refresh." CHLOÉ, People Director at Manual

Waggle also provides an overall assessment of the meeting's effectiveness, including metrics on participant engagement, adherence to the agenda, and decision-making efficiency. 

You’ll get a general score:

And a break down of why it got that score:

These insights can be used to improve for next time, or if the meeting is ineffective and needs to be restructured or eliminated altogether.

📚Interested in becoming a better leader with the assistance of tech? Check out our list of the best leadership development software on the market. 

Waggle pricing

At Waggle, we charge $30 per month, per manager. Their direct reports can be added to the platform for free. 

If you want to get your company on the Waggle platform, we’ll come up with a custom offering.

We also offer a 15-day free trial so you can see the value for yourself before committing long-term. 

Check out our pricing page for more information.

Are you a manager who wants Waggle but aren’t sure how you’ll pay for it? Get your company to cover the cost with our free email template

Blend skill-building into your workday

Waggle offers real-time context based guidance and feedback on how to improve after every interaction. See where you stand on over 100 skills.

Try Waggle free for 15 days

2. Otter.ai | Best AI note taking tool for extracting insights and generating content from meetings

Otter AI is an AI note taking tool that goes beyond just converting speech to text. 

With Otter AI Chat, users can ask questions and gain insights from their weekly meetings, making it ideal for busy professionals who need to stay on top of their discussions. 

This feature also enables users to generate content such as emails and status updates based on their meeting transcriptions.

Otter AI also has standard meeting transcription features and can transcribe speech accurately and differentiate between speakers, making it an excellent choice for professionals who need detailed and searchable meeting records. 

Pros

  • Provides insights and generates content from meetings.
  • Accurate real-time transcription.
  • Easy sharing and collaboration features.
  • Accessible on multiple devices.

Cons

  • Limited free tier with restricted transcription minutes.
  • Occasional accuracy issues with accents or technical jargon.

Pricing: Otter AI offers a free tier with basic features. Otter Pro is $8.33 per month, providing additional transcription minutes and advanced functionalities. There’s also an Otter Business option at $20 per month.

We do want to highlight that Otter AI's free tier offers limited transcription minutes, which might not suffice for heavy users, so they’ll need to pay for an advanced account.

3. Fathom | Best AI note taking tool for individuals without a budget to spend 

Fathom is a great option for businesses who want meeting summaries and insights but don’t have a budget to invest in an AI note taking tool.

By recording and analyzing meetings, Fathom generates concise summaries, highlights key points, and offers valuable insights, ensuring important details are captured.

This tool transforms lengthy meeting recordings into easy-to-digest summaries, which can be easily shared with team members. This capability saves time and enhances productivity by allowing users to focus on actionable insights rather than reviewing entire recordings.

There are even templates you can use to organize the transcribed meeting notes.

Pros

  • Automated meeting summaries and insights.
  • Saves time by condensing lengthy recordings.
  • Easy sharing and collaboration features.
  • Enhances productivity with quick overviews.
  • Robust free tier with essential features.

Cons

  • May require initial setup and training.
  • Accuracy can vary with complex discussions.

Pricing: Fathom offers a comprehensive free tier. Team plans start at $19 per user, per month.

4. Gong | Best AI note taking tool for sales coaching on Zoom call

Gong is an AI note taking tool perfect for sales teams who rely on zoom and want to be coached to improve their disco and demo calls.

By recording and analyzing sales conversations, Gong provides detailed insights and feedback, helping sales professionals improve their techniques and performance.

Gong excels at identifying patterns in sales calls, highlighting successful strategies, and pinpointing areas for improvement. This tool also provides actionable insights that can be used to train and coach sales teams, ensuring consistent performance improvements.

Sales leads can also use Gong to spot trends in individuals and in the team and coach them on those issues. 

Pros

  • Detailed analysis of sales calls.
  • Provides actionable insights for coaching.
  • Seamless integration with Zoom.
  • Identifies patterns and successful strategies.
  • Enhances team performance with data-driven feedback.

Cons

  • Can be expensive for small teams.
  • Requires time to analyze and act on feedback.

Pricing: Gong offers customized pricing plans based on the size and needs of the sales team. Pricing details are available upon request.

5. Notion AI |Best AI note taking tool for personal note taking

Notion is an AI note taking tool companies often use to hold company documents and track projects. And when users create documents they’re able to use Notion AI to organize their thoughts, ideas, and tasks in a structured and efficient manner.

You can create custom templates that you use for note taking time and time again, auto generate text based on some context you provide, summarization of notes you’ve taken, and more. 

Notion is intuitive and user friendly making it a favorite among 1000s of organizations. While it won’t sit in on meetings and transcribe your calls it is a useful AI note taker you can add to your repertoire. 

Pros

  • Highly customizable templates and databases.
  • AI assistance for content generation and organization.
  • Versatile tool for various types of personal notes.
  • Integrates well with other productivity tools.

Cons

  • Can be overwhelming for new users due to its extensive features.
  • Premium features require a subscription.

Pricing: Notion AI offers a free tier with basic features. The premium plan, which includes advanced AI capabilities, starts at $10 per member, per month.

6. Notta | Best AI note taking tool for transcriptions you can share

Ideal for professionals and students alike, Notta is an AI note taking tool that converts spoken content into written notes, allowing users to easily share transcriptions with team members, classmates, or colleagues.

It has a direct integration with Notion where you can export the notes and share it with other stakeholders.

Notta’s advanced speech recognition technology ensures high accuracy in capturing spoken words, which can be edited, organized, and instantly shared. This feature is particularly beneficial for collaborative environments where precise and accessible transcription is crucial.

Notta also supports real-time transcription in multiple languages, enabling users to follow along as the audio is transcribed. 

Pros

  • Accurate transcription of audio into text.
  • Real-time transcription capabilities.
  • Supports multiple languages.
  • Easy sharing and collaboration features.
  • User-friendly interface for editing and organizing notes.

Cons

  • Limited features in the free tier.
  • Premium subscription required for advanced functionalities.

Pricing: Notta offers a free tier with basic transcription features. Premium plans start at $9/month (billed annually; 1800 minutes).

7. Fellow | Best AI note-taking tool for extensive integrations

Fellow is an AI note taking tool that integrates with 50+ other workplace tools. This makes it the best choice for teams who need a seamless experience across various platforms. 

The tools it integrates with include calendar apps, project management software, and communication platforms. 

Fellow allows users to collaboratively create agendas, take notes, assign action items, and track meeting outcomes, ensuring every meeting is productive and well-documented.

We do want to highlight that Fellow only provides notes and summaries and will not keep transcripts of your calls. 

Pros

  • Extensive integrations with over 50 tools.
  • Collaborative meeting agendas and notes.
  • Real-time sharing and collaboration.
  • Seamless synchronization across platforms.
  • Templates for structured meetings.
  • Enhances accountability with clear action item tracking.

Cons

  • Limited features in the free tier.
  • Premium features require a subscription.

Pricing: Fellow offers a free tier with essential features for meeting management. Premium plans start at $6 per user, per month, offering additional functionalities and integrations.

8. Clickup | Best AI note-taking tool for project management integration

ClickUp is a versatile project management tool that excels in integrating AI note-taking capabilities, making it the best choice for teams who need to manage projects and take notes in one place. It works similarly to Notion in that it’s essentially a digital workspace for your team.

ClickUp allows users to create and organize notes directly within their project workflows. These notes can be linked to specific tasks, projects, or goals, providing a comprehensive view of the project’s progress and ensuring all relevant information is easily accessible.

You can auto-summarize notes you’ve taken as well. So if you do have a transcript of a call you can copy it into an Click-Up doc and summarize it with the AI feature. 

Pros

  • Integrated note-taking within project management workflows.
  • Links notes to tasks, projects, and goals.
  • AI features for automation and organization.
  • Highly customizable to fit various team needs.
  • Enhances productivity and collaboration.

Cons

  • Can be overwhelming for new users due to extensive features.
  • Some advanced features require a learning curve.

Pricing: ClickUp offers a free tier with basic features. Premium plans start at $5 per user, per month, providing access to advanced features and greater customization options.

9. Reflect | Best AI note-taking tool for personal reflection and insights

Reflect is an AI-powered note taking tool ideal for people who want to improve their self-awareness and productivity. That’s because it helps users capture their thoughts, ideas, and experiences in a structured and meaningful way.

Many people use it as a work journal as they work on projects to document ideas and auto-summarize brain dumps. This is possible through its GPT-4 based capabilities.

If you’re not much of a writer but want to document your ideas, you can use Reflect to instantly transcribe your voice notes to text.

Pros

  • Provides insights and patterns from personal notes.
  • Supports bi-directional backlinks for interconnected notes.
  • Easy organization with categories and tags.
  • Integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, Zapier, and Readwise.
  • End-to-end encryption for security.

Cons

  • Limited features in the free tier.
  • Premium features require a subscription.

Pricing: Reflect offers a plan at $10 per month (billed annually), providing access to its comprehensive features and integrations.

10. Avoma | Best AI note-taking tool for customer success teams

Avoma is an AI-powered note-taking tool tailored to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of customer success teams. 

Avoma excels in generating human-like notes and summarizing key points from customer meetings, which are then seamlessly integrated with CRM systems such as Salesforce and HubSpot. 

This ensures that all customer interactions are accurately documented and easily accessible, facilitating better follow-up and client management.

You can see things like talk time, topic breakdown, and even save audio snippets from the conversation that represent a sentiment or request of the client you want to use elsewhere. 

Pros

  • Automated, human-like meeting notes.
  • Seamless integration with CRM systems.
  • Smart categorization of notes for efficient follow-up.
  • Multi-language transcription support.
  • Enhances collaboration with shareable meeting recordings and snippets.

Cons

  • Advanced features can be expensive for small teams.
  • Some learning curve for new users to fully utilize all features.

Pricing: Avoma offers a free tier with basic AI meeting assistant features. Premium plans start at $19 per user, per month for advanced features, with higher-tier plans offering additional capabilities and customization options.

11. Rewatch| Best AI note taking tool for internal comms

Rewatch is an AI note taking tool companies use to improve internal communications by providing comprehensive video recording, automated transcription, and AI-generated summaries. 

With Rewatch you can create a centralized video hub where all recorded meetings and asynchronous video updates are stored and organized. 

This allows teams to easily access past meetings, stay aligned on projects, and keep up with company-wide communications. 

The AI capabilities of Rewatch generate detailed summaries, identify key points, and track action items, ensuring that all essential information is captured and easily retrievable.

Pros

  • Automated recording, transcription, and summarization of internal meetings.
  • Centralized video hub for organized, accessible meeting content.
  • Seamless integration with popular collaboration tools.
  • AI-generated action items and categorized notes.
  • Multi-language transcription and translation support.

Cons

  • Advanced features may be costly for smaller teams.
  • Initial setup may require time to fully integrate with existing workflows.

Pricing: Rewatch offers a free tier with basic features. Premium plans start at $19 per user, per month, providing access to advanced AI-generated notes and integrations. Enterprise plans offer additional customization and support options.

12. Nyota | Best AI note taking tool for freelancers 

If you're a freelancer juggling multiple clients and projects, Nyota is the AI note taker for you.

It automates the process of capturing meeting notes, generating summaries, and tracking action items, allowing freelancers to focus more on their work and less on administrative tasks.

Nyota integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Google Calendar, Slack, Notion, Asana, and Trello so that your notes, tasks, and reminders are synchronized across platforms.

The AI also identifies key discussion points, sets reminders for follow-ups, and helps organize tasks, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

Pros

  • Automated, detailed meeting notes and summaries.
  • Seamless integration with popular tools used by freelancers.
  • AI-generated action items and reminders.
  • Customizable note templates for various client needs.
  • Multi-language transcription and translation support.

Cons

  • Advanced features may be costly for individuals.
  • Initial setup may require time to fully integrate with existing workflows.

Pricing: Nyota offers a free trial for 14 days with no credit card required. Premium plans provide additional features and integrations, with pricing details available upon request.

13. Lark Minutes | Best AI note taking tool for translation of transcripts

Lark Minutes is unique as an AI note taking tool because it has excellent translation functionality. So if you have a call in Spanish but want to translate it into English for English speaking stakeholders you can. 

And it’s ideal for global teams that need to communicate across different languages seamlessly.

Lark Minutes integrates seamlessly with the Lark suite, including Lark Docs, Lark Meetings, and Lark Calendar, ensuring that your meeting notes are not only centralized but also easily translatable. 

Pros

  • Automated, detailed meeting notes and summaries.
  • One-click translation for multilingual support.
  • Seamless integration with the Lark suite.
  • Interactive transcripts for enhanced collaboration.
  • Customizable playback speeds for efficient meeting reviews.

Cons

  • Initial setup may take time to fully integrate and configure.
  • Advanced features can be pricey depending on the team size and needs.

Pricing: Lark offers a free tier with basic features. Premium plans are available for more advanced functionalities and integrations, with pricing details provided upon request.

FAQs for AI Note Taking Tools

What is an AI note-taking tool?

An AI note-taking tool uses artificial intelligence to automatically capture, transcribe, and summarize spoken or written content during meetings, lectures, or personal note-taking sessions. These tools often integrate with other productivity software to streamline workflows and enhance collaboration.

How does an AI note-taking tool work?

AI note-taking tools use speech recognition technology to convert spoken words into text in real-time. They often include features like summarization, keyword extraction, and action item tracking. Advanced tools may also offer language translation and integration with other software like calendars and project management tools.

Can AI note-taking tools integrate with other software?

Yes, most AI note-taking tools integrate with various software such as Google Calendar, Slack, Notion, Trello, Asana, Microsoft Teams, and more. 

This integration helps synchronize notes, tasks, and reminders across platforms, enhancing productivity and collaboration.

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