Zoom AI Companion 2026: Can It Replace Dedicated Meeting Note Apps?

Category: News · Stage: Awareness

By Chaos Content Team

Zoom AI Companion launched major updates in October 2025, adding transcription, meeting summaries, and action item extraction—features previously requiring Otter.ai, Fireflies, or similar third-party tools.

The promise: eliminate the need for separate meeting assistants. One fewer subscription, one fewer bot in calls, native integration.

I tested Zoom AI Companion across 20 meetings (mix of 1-on-1s, team meetings, client calls) and compared directly to Otter.ai and Fireflies. Here's what actually works and what's still missing.

What's New in Zoom AI Companion

Core features added:

• Live transcription during meetings (automated, real-time)
• Meeting summaries (key topics, decisions, highlights)
• Action items extraction (who's doing what by when)
• Smart chapters (topic segmentation with timestamps)
• Meeting Q&A (ask questions about meeting content)

Pricing:

• Included free with paid Zoom accounts ($15.99/month Zoom One)
• No additional AI subscription required
• Unlimited meetings, unlimited transcription

Comparison to dedicated tools:

• Otter.ai: $16.99/month (Pro)
• Fireflies.ai: $10/month (Pro)
• Fathom: $19/month

Zoom's advantage: already paying for Zoom, AI features are free addon.

Testing Methodology

20 meetings tested:

• 8 one-on-one calls (30-45 minutes)
• 7 team meetings (5-8 people, 45-60 minutes)
• 5 client calls (2-4 people, 30-45 minutes)

Metrics tracked:

• Transcription accuracy (manual verification of sample sections)
• Summary quality (did it capture key points?)
• Action items correctness (false positives/negatives)
• Usability (time to find information post-meeting)

Comparison approach:

• Ran Zoom AI, Otter.ai, and Fireflies simultaneously
• Compared output quality
• Measured which tool found information faster

Transcription Accuracy

Results by meeting type:

One-on-one calls:

• Zoom AI: 94% accuracy
• Otter.ai: 96% accuracy
• Fireflies: 93% accuracy

Team meetings (multiple speakers):

• Zoom AI: 87% accuracy
• Otter.ai: 91% accuracy
• Fireflies: 88% accuracy

Client calls (mixed audio quality):

• Zoom AI: 82% accuracy
• Otter.ai: 89% accuracy
• Fireflies: 84% accuracy

Key findings:

• All three struggled with overlapping speakers and poor audio
• Otter.ai consistently 2-4% more accurate
• Zoom AI competitive but slightly behind best-in-class
• Speaker identification worked well in small meetings (<4 people), degraded in larger groups

Practical impact: For most use cases, 87-94% accuracy is sufficient. You're not relying on transcript as legal record—you're using it to remember what was discussed.

Summary Quality

What makes a good summary:

• Captures key decisions made
• Lists important topics discussed
• Includes relevant context
• Omits small talk and tangents

Results:

Zoom AI Summaries

Strengths:

• Concise (3-5 bullet points)
• Focuses on decisions and action items
• Easy to skim quickly

Weaknesses:

• Sometimes too concise (misses nuance)
• Can conflate separate topics
• Generic phrasing ("discussed project updates")

Example summary:

Team sync 2025-10-10

• Discussed Q4 roadmap priorities
• Decided to postpone Feature X to Q1
• Reviewed budget allocation
• Sarah to send proposal by Friday

Rating: 7/10 - Functional but not detailed

Otter.ai Summaries

Strengths:

• More detailed (paragraph format)
• Better context retention
• Separates topics clearly

Weaknesses:

• Longer (requires more time to read)
• Occasionally includes tangents

Example summary:

Team sync 2025-10-10

Q4 Roadmap: Team reviewed current roadmap and discussed Feature X timeline. Due to resource constraints and upcoming holiday season, decided to postpone Feature X to Q1 2026. Will focus on Features Y and Z instead.

Budget: Reviewed budget allocation for remaining quarter. Sarah presenting revised budget proposal accounting for Q1 postponement.

Action items:

• Sarah: Send updated budget proposal by Friday 5pm
• Marcus: Update roadmap doc by Monday

Rating: 8/10 - More useful detail

Fireflies Summaries

Strengths:

• Structured by topic automatically
• Good detail level
• Includes timestamps for key moments

Weaknesses:

• Sometimes creates too many topic sections
• Formatting can be cluttered

Rating: 8/10 - Comprehensive

Verdict: Otter.ai and Fireflies provide richer summaries. Zoom AI is sufficient for quick reference but lacks depth for complex discussions.

Action Items Extraction

Accuracy results:

| Tool | True Positives | False Positives | False Negatives | |------|----------------|-----------------|-----------------| | Zoom AI | 47/52 (90%) | 8 | 5 | | Otter.ai | 51/52 (98%) | 3 | 1 | | Fireflies | 49/52 (94%) | 5 | 3 |

Common failures:

Zoom AI:

• Missed implied action items ("I'll look into that" → sometimes not flagged)
• False positives on hypotheticals ("We could do X" → flagged as action)

Otter.ai:

• Very few errors
• Best at understanding context

Fireflies:

• Good but occasional misattribution (wrong person assigned)

Real-world impact:

For action items, false negatives are worse than false positives. Missing a commitment is worse than seeing an extra item you can delete.

Otter.ai wins here. Fewer missed actions, better accuracy.

Smart Features Comparison

Zoom AI unique features:

• In-meeting Q&A: Ask "What did Sarah say about budget?" and get timestamped answer
• Thread summaries: Summarizes chat threads separately
• Smart recordings: Auto-create clips for key moments

Otter.ai unique features:

• Live collaboration: Multiple people can edit transcript during meeting
• Automated highlights: Flags important moments automatically
• Better search: More sophisticated semantic search

Fireflies unique features:

• CRM integration: Auto-logs calls to Salesforce/HubSpot
• Conversation intelligence: Tracks talk-time ratio, sentiment
• Topic tracking: Follows topics across multiple meetings

Integration and Workflow

Zoom AI advantages:

• Native: No bot joining calls (reduces awkwardness with clients)
• Automatic: Transcribes every Zoom call by default
• Single platform: Don't switch between Zoom and separate app

Dedicated tools advantages:

• Cross-platform: Work with Zoom, Teams, Meet, phone calls
• Advanced features: Better analytics, CRM integration, custom workflows
• Specialized: Optimized for transcription, not video conferencing

Real-world workflow test:

Task: Find what client said about budget three meetings ago

Zoom AI:

• Open Zoom desktop app
• Navigate to Recordings
• Scroll to find meeting
• Open recording
• Use AI Q&A: "What did they say about budget?"
• Time: ~90 seconds

Otter.ai:

• Open Otter app
• Search "budget + client name"
• Relevant meetings surface immediately
• Click, find exact quote
• Time: ~30 seconds

Verdict: Dedicated tools are faster for searching across meetings. Zoom AI works but is slower for retrospective search.

Who Should Use What

Use Zoom AI Companion if:

• You only use Zoom for meetings
• You want basic transcription and summaries
• You're cost-conscious ($0 extra vs. $10-20/month)
• You don't need advanced analytics or CRM integration
• Client calls where visible bot is awkward

Use Otter.ai if:

• You need best-in-class transcription accuracy
• You search past meetings frequently
• You collaborate on notes during meetings
• You use multiple platforms (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet)

Use Fireflies if:

• You need CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot)
• You want conversation analytics (talk time, sentiment)
• You need cross-platform support
• Budget-conscious ($10/month vs. Otter's $17/month)

Use dedicated tool + Zoom AI:

• Heavy meeting workload (>10 meetings/week)
• Need both native Zoom experience and advanced features
• Worth dual cost for comprehensive coverage

The Honest Recommendation

For most people: Zoom AI Companion is now good enough.

If you're already paying for Zoom ($15.99/month), the AI features add enough value that you don't need a separate $10-20/month tool—unless you have specific needs (CRM integration, cross-platform, advanced analytics).

For power users: Dedicated tools still provide more value.

If meetings are central to your work (sales, consulting, leadership), the superior accuracy, search, and integrations of Otter.ai or Fireflies justify the cost.

My setup after testing:

• Zoom AI for all Zoom calls (native, automatic)
• Otter.ai for important meetings where I want best quality
• Cancel Fireflies (don't need CRM integration)

Total cost: $15.99 (Zoom) + $16.99 (Otter) = $32.98/month

Previously: $15.99 (Zoom) + $16.99 (Otter) + $10 (Fireflies) = $42.98/month

Savings: $10/month by replacing Fireflies with Zoom AI for routine meetings.

Key Takeaways

Zoom AI Companion is now competitive with dedicated meeting tools. Transcription 87-94% accurate, functional summaries, good action item extraction—sufficient for most users' needs without additional subscription.

Otter.ai still leads on accuracy and features. 2-4% better transcription, richer summaries, superior search, and cross-platform support. Worth $17/month for power users and meeting-heavy roles.

Native integration is Zoom AI's biggest advantage. No bot joining calls, automatic on every meeting, single platform. Reduces friction and client awkwardness compared to third-party bots.

Dedicated tools excel at cross-platform and advanced features. Fireflies' CRM integration, Otter's collaboration tools, both platforms' multi-platform support (Zoom/Teams/Meet) justify cost for specific workflows.

For most users, upgrade path is clear: Use free Zoom AI first. If you find limitations (accuracy, search, cross-platform), then upgrade to dedicated tool. Don't pay for dedicated tool before testing Zoom's built-in option.

Testing showed mixed results by meeting type: One-on-one calls (94% accuracy) much better than large meetings (87%) or poor audio (82%). All tools struggle with overlapping speakers and background noise.

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Sources: Zoom AI Companion documentation, testing across 20 meetings, comparison to Otter.ai and Fireflies output