The transition to online communication—from sales calls to internal meetings to educational coursework—has created significant opportunities for new AI-powered tools and platforms that help individuals fully use all this digital data.
One predominant AI feature that has risen in popularity is AI-powered transcript summarizers. In addition to providing an immediate transcript of a virtual meeting or lecture (using AI speech-to-text), AI transcript summarizers can summarize the meeting’s main points, call attention to specific conversation areas, or even summarize post-meeting action or follow-up items.
In this article, we compare seven of the best transcript summarizers powered by AI that are available today across features such as accuracy, scalability, language support, API access, and more.
AI transcript summarizers: A comparative overview
To help you choose the best AI transcript summarizer for your use case, we compared each of the seven tools across the following:
- Category
- Accuracy
- Additional features available
- Pricing
- Platform compatibility
Here is a brief breakdown of the results:
What to look for in a transcript summarizer
Before we examine the results in further detail, let’s explore the metrics used for comparison.
Category
Transcript summarizers can either be generic or purpose-built to solve a specific problem. The type of summarizer you choose will impact the way in which the summary is generated. For example, some AI summarization models are built and trained on conversational data, like a virtual meeting, while others may be trained on static text inputs instead.
Some summarizers also let you modify how the summary is displayed: a paragraph, bullet points, length, short, keywords, etc. Others tailor their output based on the industry the tool was built for, such as sales, virtual meetings, call coaching, or education.
Accuracy
The accuracy of the AI transcript summarizer will be directly dependent on (a) the accuracy of the transcript used to generate the summary and (b) the accuracy of the AI summarization model used. Make sure to test each provider you are considering with audio/video files that match your intended use case to obtain the most useful results.
Additional features available
Is transcript summarization the only feature you need or are there additional audio or conversation intelligence features you will need as well? Each of the providers discussed here vary greatly in their product offering, so make sure to choose the feature set that best matches your needs.
Pricing
Some platforms contain their transcript summarizer within a bigger package or offering while others offer it as a one-off tool. The size of the platform and the size of the feature package will greatly impact the price, so take time to determine exactly what you need before deciding on a provider. Some providers also offer a free tier based on volume usage.
Platform compatibility
Finally, make sure to check platform compatibility prior to committing to a provider. For example, some platforms require you to supply pre-transcribed audio/video files while others will perform the transcription and summarization near-simultaneously. Other platforms seamlessly integrate into virtual meeting platforms like Zoom or Teams to generate the summary automatically.
Ultimately, your specific use case will be the biggest factor in determining the best AI transcript summarizer for you, so let’s examine each of these tools more thoroughly.
7 best transcript summarizers powered by AI
Best for summarizing transcripts with keywords
Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai is a dedicated AI notetaker that transcribes, summarizes, and analyzes virtual meetings. Its transcripts and summaries are highly accurate, making them extremely useful tools for those interested in obtaining meeting summaries automatically or in using the transcripts for further analysis.
Fireflies.ai can be integrated via a Chrome extension, directly into a virtual meeting platform, or via API, making it compatible with most platforms. Additional features include the ability to share meeting notes directly via a collaboration app like Slack, create soundbites, track speaker talk time, perform sentiment analysis, and automate workflows.
Pricing for Fireflies.ai ranges from a free plan for unlimited transcription but limited AI summaries to $39 per seat per month for enterprise-level use including unlimited AI summarization.
Best for custom summaries
AssemblyAI
AssemblyAI is an industry-leading API for speech-to-text and speech understanding models, built by a team of top Speech AI research experts. The company is constantly shipping new updates and improvements for its numerous Speech AI models, including speech recognition, streaming speech-to-text, summarization, content moderation, sentiment analysis, and more.
AssemblyAI also offers LeMUR, which lets users leverage advanced LLM capabilities to extract insights automatically from audio and video files. This includes generating highly accurate custom summaries that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the user and/or company.
Pricing for AssemblyAI’s Pay as You Go plan starts at $.12/hour for speech-to-text, with volume discounts available for teams building products at scale.
Interested users can test LeMUR and custom summaries in the free AI playground.
Best for smart meeting notes
Sembly AI
Sembly AI is an AI platform for AI-generated meeting notes, AI tasks, AI artifacts, and AI chat. The AI can be directly integrated into common virtual meeting platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and more. Once Sembly is added to the virtual call, the AI will automatically record, transcribe, and provide intelligent insights generated post-call, including AI meeting notes.
The AI meeting notes appear in the same language the meeting was recorded in, and are provided via a shareable summary and time-stamped outline, at high accuracy. Sembly AI also offers a multitude of additional AI-powered features.
Pricing for Sembly AI starts at $0 for up to 60 minutes of meeting time per month and goes up to $20 per seat per month to gain access to all of Sembly AI’s features. There is also a custom plan available for enterprise users.
Grain
Grain is another highly accurate AI-powered platform that helps automate note-taking and record-keeping and generate AI insights for virtual meetings. Like Sembly AI, Grain can be integrated directly into popular virtual meeting platforms. Gain can also be integrated with CRMs such as HubSpot and Salesforce to automatically update records and data.
In addition to note-taking, Grain also offers AI-powered meeting automation, coaching, collaboration, analytics, and insight tools.
Pricing for Grain begins at $0 for up to 20 meetings and go up to $29 per seat per month for business accounts and access to all of Grain’s AI-powered features. Enterprise accounts are also available at request.
Best for one-off summaries
AssemblyAI
In addition to its API, AssemblyAI also offers an AI playground where users can directly upload any audio or video file and receive a highly accurate transcript and summary in just a few seconds—for free.
This service is great for one-off transcriptions or summaries or to test the API before committing to higher usage. Users can toggle on/off AssemblyAI’s various AI models, including Summarization, Auto Chapters (time-stamped summaries), and LeMUR to tailor the summary format and output as desired.
Best for sales and call tracking
CallRail
CallRail is a call tracking and marketing analytics software with an extensive feature set, including summarization. The CallRail platform lets users record and transcribe all virtual calls and meetings and then perform AI-powered analytics such as conversation intelligence, lead tracking, keyword tracking, and summarization.
Its AI-powered summarization feature provides a highly accurate summary of every call that can be used for quick reference and context-sharing among teams.
CallRail directly integrates with top platforms such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, and Google Analytics. Pricing starts at $55 per month for call tracking and AI and up to $175 per month for use of its complete suite.
Jiminny
Jiminny is a revenue intelligence platform that uses AI to help teams capture and analyze go-to-market insights. The platform captures all of a user’s video, voice, calendar, and email data and auto-logs it into the user’s CRM.
Additional features include customer sentiment and behavior analysis, automated call scoring, and deal insights. In addition, summarized meeting notes are automatically provided in bullet points after each call. Jiminny can be integrated into Slack, zoom, Google Meet, Salesforce, HubSpot, and more.
Pricing for Jiminny is available by request.
Final words
AI transcript summarizers are extremely valuable tools for those looking to automatically summarize virtual audio and video content at high accuracy. Explore the tools compared above across accuracy, feature set, pricing, and platform compatibility to find the best summarizer to fit your needs.
