Zoom has finally upped its game and offered conversational intelligence to its paid users at no additional cost. It has a clear intention to compete in the category of AI meeting assistants, but whether it does a good job or not is for you to decide.
The quality of an AI meeting assistant varies based on your personal business needs. To make sure you can make the most qualified decision, we’ll break down exactly what Zoom’s new features are – what it can do and what it can’t do – in our Zoom AI Companion review. Then, we’ll pull out five Zoom AI Companion alternatives that might be better for your business needs.
Let’s start with the basics.
What Is Zoom?
Zoom is a video conferencing platform that you can use to make online calls with multiple participants. It’s often used in business for internal and external meetings, but it can also be used in educational settings or just for private personal calls.
In the past, if you wanted to mine your online meetings for conversational intelligence – particularly useful in the realm of Sales – then you’d need to download a third party app that records, transcribes, and mines your conversations for insights.
Now, however, Zoom offers this itself. Firstly, it’s important to note that these new features are embedded within the current subscription tiers. That means if you already have a paid subscription for Zoom, you’ll have access to these new AI features at no additional cost to you.
What Is Zoom AI Companion?
Zoom AI Companion (previously known as Zoom IQ) refers to the new generative AI-powered feature that empowers users to summarize Zoom meetings and get AI insights.
It naturally integrates with all the same apps that Zoom already integrates with. This includes CRM systems, sales tools, organizational tools, and more.
Meeting Summaries
The main feature that Zoom AI Companion offers is an AI meeting summary. While this feature is popular and can help a great deal, it’s fairly standard and nothing particularly unique.
The good news is that you can get Zoom AI Companion at no additional cost so you don’t have to pay extra to try it.
Team Chat Compose
There’s a new “compose” feature for Zoom’s team chat that allows users to generate AI text based on the chat thread.
Similarly, Email Compose lets users craft compelling emails with conversational context at the click of a button.
Meeting Queries
If you join the Zoom meeting late, you can now ask the AI for a quick update to get you up to speed. This option is discreet so you won’t disturb your teammates.
Zoom AI Companion Benefits
In addition to the new features listed above, Zoom AI Companion has a few more benefits that make it a good option for recording your calls.
Language Support
Zoom has transcript translation available in more than 30 languages and a localized platform in a whopping 16 different languages. This makes it a wonderful tool for multilingual teams.
Real-Time Transcription
Having the transcript in real-time is a massive help for those that want to follow along and share snippets during the live call. Many Zoom AI Companion alternatives don’t have real-time transcriptions so this feature is useful for those recording calls on Zoom.
Basic Sales Coaching Features
Now that Zoom has conversational intelligence features, it is able to include some sales coaching tips. It has a speaker analytics dashboard which documents how long individual users have spoken per meeting, how many questions they asked, filler words they used, their talk-to-listen ratio, and much more. This data is crucial for sales coaches and can be used by an apt sales manager for some insightful sales training.
However, the feature is somewhat limited and the AI doesn’t offer too much in the way of advice. You can download a third party plug-in to work with Zoom that offers more sales coaching features, but these aren’t official Zoom plug-ins and may suffer from incompatibility issues depending on your other plug-ins. Alternatively, you could just get a better meeting recorder.
Cons of Zoom AI Companion – Does It Have Any?
Of course it does. Zoom AI Companion might be the snazzy new kid on the block, but it’s certainly not the best offering in the AI meeting assistant niche. Most of its features are fairly simple – things that AI Companion alternatives have already been offering for years.
Let’s break down the drawbacks in a little more depth.
Compatibility
Sure, Zoom is compatible with thousands of third party apps, but AI Companion only works with Zoom. If you’re an MS Teams user, or your workplace uses Google Meet for calls, AI Companion will be completely and entirely useless to you.
Requires Paid Plan
While AI Companion is no additional cost to those that already have a Zoom subscription, it’s an unnecessary cost for non-Zoom users. In fact, AI Companion competitors like tl;dv offer free and unlimited transcriptions, recordings, and AI summaries in the free plan alone, making Zoom’s AI offering pale in comparison.
No Multi-Meeting Intelligence
Zoom allows you to create single meeting summaries with ease, but it fails to offer summaries across multiple meetings at once. This is a huge drawback compared to Zoom AI Companion alternatives that do offer the ability to draw insights across multiple meetings simultaneously.
This feature takes managers to the next level as they’re able to quickly catch up on all their team’s meetings with one multi-meeting report (complete with timestamps referring to individual meeting moments). Without this powerful feature, AI Companion suffers compared to its competitors.
No Manual Notes
While it can be a swell companion, the AI isn’t perfect. Sometimes something you consider important for your own personal reasons is not considered important by the AI notetaker. Without the option to take manual notes in the app, Zoom forces users to jot their manual notes down elsewhere. This creates a mess for you to organize manually later. In short, it’s not the most user-friendly way of handling notes.
Zoom Uses Your Data to Train AI
Zoom claims that it isn’t training AI on calls without consent, but other data is fair game. Also, the matter of consent is a sketchy one. Zoom’s idea of consent is that an admin can consent on your behalf. Is it really consent if your manager chooses the settings for you?
5 Zoom AI Companion Alternatives for Better Meeting Intelligence
1. tl;dv
tl;dv is more capable than Zoom AI Companion when it comes to meeting intelligence. This is because Zoom is primarily a video conferencing platform whereas tl;dv is an AI meeting assistant at heart. The new features that Zoom has just released were something of an afterthought to its business model, compared to being the primary focus of tl;dv’s.
With that said, tl;dv completes the same basic functions: it records, transcribes, translates, and takes notes for your meetings, but there’s one HUGE bonus. These standard features are completely free and totally unlimited.
Let’s take a look at some of the big features that separate tl;dv from Zoom AI Companion.
Sales Coaching
While Zoom AI Companion does have some limited sales coaching features, they’re exactly that: limited. Most of the good stuff comes from third party plug-ins which can be unreliable.
tl;dv is targeted towards SMB Sales teams so this is something it gets right. It offers sales coaching, complete with playbooks (custom-made or with templates), objection handling tips, and speaker insights.
tl;dv’s multi-meeting intelligence also comes in handy for sales managers who want to keep track of their reps’ meetings in one quick and easy scheduled report system.
Integrations
tl;dv boasts more than 5,000 integrations. These include all your favorite CRMs, sales tools, Zapier, and much, much more. You no longer need to worry about syncing up your different work platforms as tl;dv does it for you. Even better; tl;dv works for calls on MS Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom.
Language Support
Another fantastic choice for multilingual teams, tl;dv has a localized platform in 7 languages and translates transcripts in more than 40 languages. Even with a big international team, you can still use the same platform.
Customer Support
tl;dv’s support system is superior to Zoom’s too. For example, on tl;dv’s free plan, you still get email and live chat support. Zoom offers neither. For Zoom’s free users, all you get is the help center.
If you want a priority support option which gives you quicker and more personalized help, tl;dv offers this for its paid users. Zoom users can only get priority support on the Business or Enterprise plans.
Multi-Meeting Intelligence
tl;dv sets the bar high for the entire industry with its multi-meeting intelligence. Simply put, you can get insights across multiple meetings simultaneously.
Imagine you’re a sales manager. You can now get recurring reports from all your sales reps’ meetings from the week, complete with timestamps to specific moments from different calls. Set filters to narrow down exactly what you’ll receive reports on. Want to see how your team handled the same objection? Filter your reports so that you only get insights from meetings in which the prospect raised the objection you have in mind. Now you can quickly and easily compare your sales reps’ performances and see where your team needs more work: and tl;dv can help you there too.
In short, tl;dv has no commitment, no expiring free plan, no complicated onboarding, no resource-heavy installation, no clunky UI. It’s built with the customer in mind. Always.
tl;dv is a lightweight extension that takes seconds to install, and then you’re ready to go.
tl;dv Pros
- Free AI Integration: tl;dv capitalizes on top-of-the-range AI to provide summaries, notes, and automatic speaker detection.
- Free and Instant Translations: tl;dv’s transcriptions are available in 40+ languages for Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet.
- Incredible Free Plan: Unlimited free recordings and transcriptions of Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet calls.
- Easy to Use: tl;dv’s sleek design makes it super easy for beginners and experts alike.
- Multi-Meeting Intelligence. Schedule recurring reports to get insights from multiple meetings at once, delivered straight to your inbox.
- Sales Coaching. Upgrade your sales team using insights from your sales calls. Improve objection handling and use templates or custom playbooks to personalize your coaching strategy.
- Timestamps and Tagging Features: Timestamp your meeting highlights to quickly jump back to specific moments in the call. It also features the ability to tag colleagues at specific meeting moments so they get an email with a link straight to their inbox.
- 5,000+ Integrations: Push timestamps and meeting clips directly to Notion, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, and 5,000+ more via native integrations.
- Create Clips and Highlights: Scan your library and make clips and highlight reels to condense insights.
- Intuitive Library: Search your meetings library for keywords in transcripts to quickly find what you’re looking for.
tl;dv Cons
- Compatibility: Not yet available for Webex or BlueJeans.
Pricing
tl;dv’s free plan solidifies its place at the top of this list of Zoom AI Companion alternatives. You can try all the base features without pressure. Plus, depending on which region of the world you’re in, you can get up to a 40% discount on the paid plans!
Free Plan Features
- Unlimited video recordings and transcripts.
- Record Google Meet, Zoom, and MS Teams calls.
- Transcribe in 40+ languages
- Unlimited AI moment summaries
- 10x AI Meeting Notes
- 10x Ask tl;dv AI
- 10x AI Multi-Meeting Reports
- Slack, Email, and Calendar integrations
- Set timestamps and highlights
- Create and share clips
- Automatic speaker recognition
- 3 monthly uploads
tl;dv’s paid subscriptions unlock 5,000+ integrations, sales coaching playbooks, limitless multi-meeting intelligence, recurring reports, analytics, downloadable recordings, customizable share settings, priority customer support, and much, much more…
See the full details here.
tl;dv vs Zoom AI Companion
tl;dv and Zoom aren’t direct competitors. Zoom is better for teams looking for a video conferencing platform that also has AI insights. However, if you already have a video conferencing platform that you regularly use (and particularly if it’s Google Meet or MS Teams) then tl;dv is clearly the better AI meeting assistant.
For a more comprehensive comparison, check out our ultimate guide: tl;dv vs Zoom.
2. Fathom
Fathom is definitely a tool to consider if you’re in the market for Zoom AI Companion alternatives. The main reason for this is that up until Zoom launched their own AI meeting assistant, they recommended Fathom as the best in-meeting notetaker plug-in on their marketplace. Originally, Fathom was a Zoom-only tool, but it’s quickly branched out into Google Meet and MS Teams too.
Its core features are completely free for individuals, and businesses are priced on a per business basis rather than subjected to different tiers. This is a little confusing, but nothing crazy.
Fathom includes all the basics you’d expect: AI summaries, meeting organization, detailed AI notes, and plenty of collaboration features. It also provides live transcripts which makes it easy to share insights on the go.
Despite all the benefits of using Fathom, it lacks substance in quite a few areas where tl;dv excels. For example, Fathom doesn’t offer any sales coaching features nor does it provide multi-meeting intelligence. Fathom also only provides transcripts for 6 different languages and doesn’t offer a localized platform in any language other than English. This is a huge setback for multilingual teams.
Let’s take a deeper dive into the pros and cons.
Fathom Pros
- Automatic Summaries. Fathom automatically generates summaries of meetings, including action items.
- Easily Shareable. It’s super convenient (and free) to share data across multiple platforms.
- Powerful AI. Generate highlights mid-call and then get Fathom’s AI to summarize them with a simple click.
- Download Instantly. Meetings and transcripts are available to download instantly.
- Good Free Options. It’s free for personal use and has a 2 week free trial for the team version.
- Live Transcripts. Fathom’s live transcripts make it a great tool to use for sharing insights on the fly.
Fathom Cons
- Compatibility. Fathom is only available with Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet.
- Limited Translations. Transcripts are only available in 6 languages and the platform is limited to just English.
- Complicated Pricing. The pricing for Fathom can be quite confusing compared to other Avoma competitors.
- No Sales Coaching. Fathom fails to provide any sales coaching features.
- No Multi-Meeting Intelligence. Fathom’s AI is limited to focusing on one meeting at a time.
Pricing
Fathom is completely free for personal use, making it a great Zoom AI Companion alternative to check out. For business use, you must purchase a paid plan. There’s a 2-week free trial for your team to have a play, but then you’ll need to commit. The paid plan starts at $50 per month per company.
For a detailed overview of how Fathom squares up to the number one Zoom AI Companion competitor on this list, tl;dv, take a look at our comprehensive comparison: tl;dv vs Fathom.
Fathom vs Zoom AI Companion
Fathom and Zoom IQ are similar tools for recording, transcribing, and summarizing online meetings. Fathom has the advantage that it can work in Zoom calls, but also with MS Teams and Google Meet. It’s also been a long-running success in the Zoom marketplace so you can be sure the integration quality is as good as Zoom AI Companion itself.
However, Zoom AI Companion’s new features can do pretty much everything that Fathom can do at no additional cost. If you already have a Zoom subscription, it might be better to stick with Zoom (or opt for a more advanced AI meeting assistant like tl;dv). If you don’t have a Zoom subscription, then Fathom is a great tool that can assist you across multiple different platforms.
3. Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai is a bot that records, transcribes, and summarizes your live meetings, and then delves into conversational intelligence to help you make the most of it.
Like Zoom AI Companion and Fathom, Fireflies has a more general target market. On one hand, this means it’s more of a direct competitor to Zoom AI Companion’s AI features, while on the other hand it means that sales teams are going to come up short if they opt to use Fireflies. It has no sales coaching features, but it does offer quality transcripts in over 60 languages.
Another great thing about Fireflies is that it offers custom vocabulary so that your transcripts can pick up on specific jargon related to your business.
Fireflies Pros
- Good Integrations. Fireflies has a bunch of top integrations, including Salesforce and other popular CRMs.
- Custom Vocabulary. Fireflies enables users to customize their vocabulary and add industry-specific jargon to the AI’s dictionary (in English).
- Great AI. It has a fantastic AI-powered search function which makes it easy to find meeting moments across your entire library.
- Collaboration. It’s great for team collaboration and has plenty of features built to improve teamwork.
- Compatibility. Fireflies is available on Google Meet, Zoom, MS Teams, and more…
- Translations. Translates into more than 60 languages!
Fireflies.ai Cons
- Paid Video Recording. To record video, you’ll need to sign up to the $19 per month plan.
- No Sales Coaching. Sales teams will find Fireflies’ offering rather limited.
- No Multi-Meeting Intelligence. Fireflies’ AI cannot assess multiple meetings at once.
- Limited Free Plan. The free plan isn’t the best (more on that below).
Pricing
Fireflies.ai has several paid plans, starting at $10 per month per user (when billed annually). There’s a free plan too which is useful to try considering Zoom AI Companion is only available for paid users. The biggest drawback is that you need the Business Plan at $19 per month for video recording.
Free Plan Features
- Unlimited transcription
- Limited AI Summaries
- 800 mins of storage/seat
- Record on Zoom, Google Meet, MS Teams, and more
- Transcriptions in 69+ languages.
- Search within meetings
- Playback (1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x)
- Comments & reactions
- Clip out moments as soundbites
- Global search
- Uploads
- 3 public channels
- API access
- Domain capture (Auto-add)
- Fireflies mobile app
Fireflies’ free plan has had something of an upgrade recently, but it still restricts the user by not allowing video recording. Users are also limited in regards to AI capabilities in the free offering.
Just as with Fathom, we have a comprehensive breakdown of Fireflies compared to the best Zoom AI Companion competitor on this list, tl;dv.
To check it out, read our article: tl;dv vs Fireflies.
Fireflies vs Zoom AI Companion
Fireflies has a better free tier compared to Zoom AI Companion. This is because Zoom’s AI meeting assistant is only available in the paid tier. That said, there isn’t too much that makes Fireflies stand out. The fact it can’t record video for free sets it back a fair bit, but its custom vocabulary ensures that its transcripts are more accurate than Zoom’s native ones.
One of the great things about Fireflies is that it has long-running experience so you can rely on its AI to get the job done and streamline your meeting intelligence. Zoom, on the other hand, has only just ventured into this area of conversational intelligence. It may well be clunky in comparison in the short-term.
In short, if you’re just looking for a high-quality transcription tool, Fireflies is probably the better option. If you want video recording and some sales-related features, Zoom AI Companion might be better.
4. Tactiq
Tactiq is a leading AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and takes notes during your online meetings. Like Fathom, it provides real-time transcriptions and insightful AI summaries so that you can get more out of your meetings and even share meeting snippets mid-call.
Similarly to Fireflies, its transcripts are translatable into more than 60 languages. It also supports regional dialects and it can automatically remove filler words which makes your transcripts much cleaner and more accurate. Tactiq is quite powerful as it can even perform sentiment analysis, helping your sales reps figure out where your prospects are at emotionally.
One of Tactiq’s more subtle features is the ability to assign tasks based on meeting discussions. This is super helpful for streamlining your workflows. It also shares tl;dv’s desire for organization, offering great admin options so you don’t have to stress about getting things in order. Tactiq also trumps Zoom AI Companion when it comes to customer support.
As with the previous two Zoom AI Companion alternatives, Tactiq lacks sales coaching. It does most things right, but it doesn’t have any industry-specific features to put it higher on our list.
Tactiq Pros
- Real-Time Transcriptions. Tactiq’s transcriptions appear in real-time so you can take notes or share snippets on the go.
- Translations. Tactiq’s transcripts come in more than 60 languages and it has a localized platform in 7 languages, making it great for international teams.
- Great AI Summaries. Tactiq’s AI summarizes meetings, pulling out the most insightful comments for you to rewatch.
- Task Assignment. Tactiq enables users to assign tasks based on the meeting discussions.
- Sentiment Analysis. Tactiq’s AI can determine the emotional tone behind words.
- Efficient Customer Support. Tactiq’s customer support is quick, friendly, and efficient.
Tactiq Cons
- No Sales Coaching. Tactiq suffers in this regard by not being able to use its AI to improve sales.
- No Multi-Meeting Intelligence. Tactiq’s AI is limited to single meeting insights. It’s unable to connect the dots between two or more separate meetings.
- Weak Free Plan. Only 10 meetings are available to be transcribed per month on the free plan, with just 5 AI credits too.
- Questionable Compliance. Tactiq doesn’t comment on whether or not it is SOC2 compliant, and its data retention policies are not clearly presented.
- No Concurrent Meetings. Tactiq doesn’t allow users to record more than one meeting at the same time, making it a weaker offering for busy managers.
Tactiq Pricing
Tactiq’s paid subscriptions start at $8 per month, making it the cheapest plan out of all the Zoom AI Companion alternatives. This plan unlocks unlimited transcriptions and 10 AI credits per month (something tl;dv offers for free). The Team Plan is $16.7 per user per month and provides unlimited AI credits and priority support. Finally, the Enterprise Plan is customizable and varies in price depending on your needs.
Free Plan Features
- 5 AI credits per month
- 10 transcripts per month
- Share and export transcripts
- Upload meeting recordings
Tactiq’s free plan also enables you to use some core features like global search and edit transcript.
Tactiq vs Zoom AI Companion
As far as AI meeting assistants go, Tactiq is up there with the best of them. It can do everything Zoom AI Companion can do, so it’s really a matter of whether or not you’ve already got a Zoom paid subscription. If so, you might as well try out Zoom AI Companion. If you have already tried it and weren’t a fan, Tactiq does offer some interesting additions that might be worth the switch.
Tactiq’s sentiment analysis is a great starting point for understanding the emotional tone behind someone’s words. The task assignment feature can also save a whole lot of time, too.
If you’re looking for something that’s definitely not Zoom AI Companion, Tactiq is certainly worth a try. However, it’s 4th for a reason. tl;dv’s free plan offers everything that’s included in Tactiq’s first paid plan, for example, so it would be wise to start there before jumping straight to Tactiq.
For more information about how those two fared against each other, check out our comprehensive comparison; tl;dv vs Tactiq.
5. Otter.ai
Our final Zoom AI Companion competitor is Otter.ai, an AI meeting assistant that fulfils the same kind of need. If you’re looking to record, transcribe, and get conversational insights from your meetings, Otter is one of the most well-established AI meeting assistants you can find; it was the primary meeting recorder used in remote education during the pandemic.
Like some of the other Zoom AI Companion alternatives, Otter provides real-time transcriptions, filler word removal, and custom vocabulary. These three features ensure your transcripts are crystal clear and easy to skim.
However, Otter struggles with a few things. While we criticized Fireflies for making users fork out for video recording, Otter doesn’t record video at all. It’s also an English-only tool, crippling its capability for multilingual teams.
In addition to these mind-boggling limitations, you also can’t download recordings, make clips or reels, or even track keywords. It lacks any kind of sales coaching feature and there isn’t even a way to use smart filters to search through all your meetings at once.
In short, if you’re looking for clear and crisp transcripts, Otter is a great choice. It’s the only option on this list that has the trifecta of real-time transcriptions, custom vocabulary, and filler word removal. If you’re not too fussed about video recording or sales coaching, Otter could be one of the best options for you. Its pricing is also a little more lightweight which is always a bonus.
Otter Pros
- Easy to Use. Otter.ai is intuitive and easy to navigate.
- Multi-Meeting Intelligence. You can get AI insights on multiple meetings at once.
- Real-Time Transcription. Get your transcripts live during the call.
- Custom Vocabulary. With custom vocabulary, users can add jargon to their AI’s dictionary.
- Filler Word Removal. Get clearer transcripts as filler words are automatically removed.
- Affordable Pricing. Otter’s paid plans are very affordable.
Otter Cons
- English Only. The lack of transcript languages (and localized platform languages) makes this a weak choice for multinational teams.
- No Video Recording. There’s no video recording, not even on the paid plans.
- Can’t Download Recordings. Otter doesn’t allow users to download recordings, presenting a problem for those who want to store call recordings locally.
- No Clips or Reels. Otter doesn’t allow the user to make clips or reels from meeting moments.
- Can’t Track Keywords. Otter can’t track keywords, taking a large amount of potential automation away from the tool.
- No Smart Filters. Otter’s global search function lacks any smart filters, making it more difficult to find what you’re looking for.
- No Sales Coaching Features. Otter.ai is no good for sales teams hoping to improve their performance as it lacks playbooks, scorecards, dashboards, or insights on improvement.
Otter Pricing
Otter’s paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month when billed annually. This includes custom vocabulary and the ability to tag speakers, but it still limits transcription to 90 minutes per conversation and only 1,200 minutes in total.
Their Business Plan costs $20 per user per month and unlocks usage analytics and priority support. This enables you to join up to 3 meetings simultaneously and ups the monthly transcription minutes to 6,000.
Finally, their Enterprise Plan requires a sales call to get a quote. It includes SSO and advanced security and compliance controls.
Free Plan Features
- 300 monthly transcription minutes (30 max per conversation)
- 3 imported transcriptions
- 5 terms for custom vocabulary
- Otter AI chat
Otter vs. Zoom AI Companion
In reality, this boils down to why your company requires an AI meeting assistant. If you’re looking to get top notch transcripts, Otter.ai is more likely to provide that than Zoom AI Companion – plus, it works for MS Teams and Google Meet too.
However, if you’re looking to record video, download and store your recordings, or work outside the English language, Otter is not going to be your best option. The good news is that the paid plans are cheaper, so if you can get everything you need from this one tool then it won’t break the bank. But if you’re already on a Zoom paid subscription, you might be better off sticking with it (or taking a look at the other 4 Zoom AI Companion competitors).
Discover the difference between the top and bottom of this list in our detailed breakdown: tl;dv vs Otter.ai.
The Obvious Verdict.
Long story short, which AI meeting assistant you choose depends entirely upon your requirements as a business. If you’re just after transcripts, all five of these Zoom AI Companion alternatives are worth checking out.
If you actually want to put these transcripts to good use, through streamlining your workflow, automating tasks, and mining your calls for juicy insights, then tl;dv is your best option. Not only can it provide sales coaching features to improve your sales reps’ potential to close deals, it can also provide multi-meeting intelligence that empowers you to receive regular updates that identify patterns and trends across all your meetings at the same time.
Fathom, Fireflies, Tactiq, and Otter are all great alternatives but none of them can match these two features, and none of them can compete with tl;dv’s free plan either. Try it out today and see how it works for you.
