My Otter.ai Journey: How AI Audio Transcription Simplified My Work Life

I've attended several conferences this year, and at each one, there's a keynote presentation followed by breakout sessions. The thing is, those keynotes can contain tons of information and keeping up with the notes is... tough.

Recently, I decided I needed help, and a colleague recommended Otter.ai for interviews. Just before the keynote presentation started, I downloaded the app and captured the keynote using the free version. What I learned is that I'll probably never attend another conference without an AI transcription service again.

It's not all roses, though. There are a few caveats, which I'll discuss.

Getting Started in AI Audio Transcription

Downloading an app in the heat of the moment was probably not the best way to get started using AI transcription, but in that moment, I was desperate. I knew there would be a ton of information that I didn't want to miss. Otter.ai was easy to download and start using. All I had to do to get started was enter an email address.

For the first run with Otter.ai, I used the free version, which gets you 300 minutes of transcription in 30 minute increments. Not a problem. I just stopped and restarted the recording every 30 minutes during the keynote. A paid tier removes that limitation, but let's talk about the free tier first.

I was amazed when I started the recording. I could watch, live on the screen, as the AI recorded and transcribed the presentation in real-time. It was kind of amazing. I went back to the recording and transcription after the event, and I was impressed by how well the audio was captured in a large auditorium filled with a few hundred people.

The transcription was pretty good. There were a few mistakes in it, but there's an edit function in Otter.ai, so you can edit a transcript as needed. Editing is a whole lot faster than transcribing, and having the recording to refer back ensured I got everything right.

Using AI to Transcribe Meetings

One of the big selling points of Otter.ai is that you can use it to record and transcribe your meetings, and it's useful for that. In addition to the recording and transcription, you also get an executive summary of the meeting, which I find useful when trying to remember certain points that were discussed.

When recording a presentation online, as you might see in a Zoom or Teams meeting, Otter.ai also captures screenshots from the presentation. I found it useful to have exact slides to refer back to when needed. And in the transcription, you can view only the screenshots if you need to, which allows you to flip through them quickly. Combined with the meeting summary, I often don't need the transcript at all, but it's nice to know it's there if I do.

Now, let's talk about the feature of Otter.ai that I turned on and then immediately turned back off. It can automatically join all the meetings on your calendar. You have to enable this feature, which I did, while thinking "oh how cool, now I don't have to remember to turn it on."

Two things here. If someone else is conducting the meeting, they have to allow Otter.ai's bot to join, which means you might want to give them a heads-up and explain what it is. But the other thing is that I quickly learned I don't want an AI bot in all of my meetings. Consider your company's stance on AI before you enable that. Needless to say, I turned it back off pretty quickly.

When Otter.ai Doesn't Work

One thing I learned the hard way is that Otter.ai doesn't always work when you're attending a meeting someone else sets up. Unfortunately, I enabled it for a meeting, I thought it caught the transcription and found out after the fact that all it caught was silence. I got lucky, because someone else had a recording and transcription of the meeting, but it made me a little hesitant the next time I needed it for a meeting someone else scheduled.

To circumvent that, I leaned into Notes' new recording and transcription capabilities in iOS 18. I created a new note, attached an audio recording, tapped the Record button, and set it next to the computer's speaker. When I was finished, I had a recording and a transcription, just no summary, and it won't automatically capture screenshots of presentations. Still, it worked pretty well for a roundabout way to capture an audio recording and transcript.

The takeaway here is that AI audio recording and transcription services are useful but not without failings, so maybe make sure you have a backup plan if something doesn't work as expected.

Is Otter.ai Worth It?

I've already mentioned that Otter.ai has a free version. It's available for iOS or Android, or you can use it in your web browser. And for most people, that's probably enough. If you have greater needs, you can invest in Otter.ai's premium subscriptions. The Pro subscription is $16.99/mo or $99.96/yr and gets you 1,200 monthly transcription minutes, which you can record in up to 90-minute increments, and you can import up to 10 audio or video files per month for transcription. This is the subscription I have, and so far, I've never hit the limit on it.

You could also opt for the Business subscription, which is $30/mo or $240/yr. On this plan, you can have Otter.ai join up to three concurrent meetings, you get 6,000 transcription minutes per month, and you can record in increments of up to 4 hours, plus unlimited audio and video uploads.

Depending on your needs, I'd say it's worth it. In hindsight, I would probably look around a little more and see if there are alternatives that would work as well as Otter.ai (there may not be), but I'm not at all disappointed with my $100 spend on a tool that's made my life infinitely easier.