What is an AI meeting assistant?
Updated Oct 25, 2026
Definition
An AI meeting assistant is software that records a meeting and uses AI to write it up: a transcript of who said what, a summary, the decisions and the action items. Many also answer questions about past meetings and send the results to other tools.
What an AI meeting assistant does
- Records: by joining the call as a participant (a bot), or from your own computer without a bot.
- Transcribes: turns the audio into text, labelled with each speaker's name.
- Summarizes: writes the key points, decisions and action items with owners.
- Follows up: drafts the follow-up email and sends tasks to tools like Jira or a CRM.
- Answers questions: searches past meetings to answer things like “what did we agree on pricing?”.
What to look for
- Ways to record that fit your meetings: a bot for meetings you can't attend, bot-free recording for client calls and interviews.
- Speaker names you can trust, so action items go to the right person.
- Notes in the shape your work needs: a sales report, an interview scorecard or board minutes, not only a generic summary.
- Clear answers on where recordings are stored and who can see them.
AI meeting assistant vs. a meeting platform's built-in notes
Built-in notes
Work inside one platform, such as only Zoom or only Teams, and usually give one general summary.
AI meeting assistant
Works across Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, keeps all your meetings in one place, and connects them to your other tools.
How Acta works as your AI meeting assistant
Acta records Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings with or without a bot: the notetaker joins from your calendar, while the desktop app and Chrome extension record from your own computer. After each meeting it writes the transcript with speaker names, a summary, the action items and a follow-up email draft, and report templates turn the same meeting into sales, hiring or engineering notes. Acta is free for 15 days.
See Acta's featuresFAQ
Is an AI meeting assistant the same as an AI notetaker?
Mostly. “AI notetaker” usually means the recording and notes; “AI meeting assistant” often also covers follow-ups, integrations and answering questions about past meetings.
Does an AI meeting assistant have to join the call?
No. Some only work as a bot that joins the call. Others, like Acta's desktop app and Chrome extension, record from your own computer so nobody joins.
Should I tell people a meeting is recorded?
Yes. It's good practice, and in many places the law, to tell everyone in the meeting that it is being recorded.