AI Work Systems · aiworksystems.pages.dev/recap
The AI Meeting Notes Checklist
We gave the same 21-minute meeting to Fireflies, Otter and a free option that runs on your own computer. All three wrote the chair's name wrong, and the wrong name went straight into the summary, the tasks and the follow-up email. This is the check that catches it.
1Before you record
- Tell everyone on the call that it will be recorded and transcribed, and by which tool.
- Ask for consent. Under US federal law, one party's consent can be enough (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)), but some states require everyone's consent for confidential conversations, such as California (Penal Code § 632). Rules differ by country and state: check yours.
- Decide if the meeting may go to a cloud tool at all. Salaries, health, clients' data or legal matters? Use the local option, or don't record.
2Check your tool's privacy settings
- Does it train AI on your recordings or transcripts? Fireflies' policy (Sept. 28, 2026) says it does not use personal information for AI model training. Otter's policy (June 16, 2026) says it trains its AI on de-identified audio and on transcriptions, which "may contain Personal Information".
- Can you delete a meeting and your account, and how long until it's gone?
- Who else in your workspace can see the notes?
3The 5-minute review, before you send anything
- Names and titles. Check every name against the invite or attendee list. In our test: "Poste", "Paste" and "Peste" for Pustay.
- Numbers and dates. Search the transcript for each one and listen to that moment.
- Owners. For each task: did this person actually agree to it, alone or with others? One tool gave a shared task to one person.
- Anything added. Delete dates, years or details nobody said, like "summer 2016" when the speaker said "this summer".
- Read the email out loud before you send it, including the signature.
4The follow-up email prompt we used
Paste it into your tool's AI chat, or into any AI model with the transcript:
Write a short, clear follow-up email to all attendees with the decisions and the action items, each with its owner and deadline if one was said. Do not invent names, numbers or dates.
5The tools we tested (free plans)
Prices per person, in US dollars, checked on the official pricing pages on November 12, 2026. Prices change often: check before you pay.
Fireflies
Free plan: unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries, 400 min of storage, 20 AI credits.
Paid: Pro $18 a month, or $10 a month billed yearly.
In our test: 9 tasks with owners and timestamps; the fastest.
Otter
Free plan: 300 min a month, up to 30 min per conversation, 3 uploaded files ever.
Paid: Pro $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed yearly.
In our test: a clear summary; 4 tasks, without owners.
On your computer: Whisper + Gemma in Ollama
Free: open-source, works offline.
In our test: 4 tasks, with offices instead of names; nothing leaves your machine.
Sources
- The meeting: Chief FOIA Officers Council Meeting, July 22, 2016, White House archive (public domain): obamawhitehouse.archives.gov
- Answer key: official minutes, National Archives, Office of Government Information Services: archives.gov
- 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d), via Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu
- California Penal Code § 632, California Legislative Information: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
- Fireflies: pricing · privacy policy (company pages)
- Otter: pricing · privacy policy (company pages)
- Local option: faster-whisper · Ollama · Gemma (open-source projects)
This checklist is general information, not legal advice.
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