Zoom, Teams add live AI tools

Zoom and Microsoft now offer built-in AI tools that capture meeting content, while third-party services including Fathom and Otter market similar note-taking features across Zoom and Teams. Zoom’s support pages say hosts can enable AI-generated meeting summaries, and Microsoft’s support pages say Copilot in Teams can summarize discussions, identify who said what and suggest action items in real time or after a meeting. Those product pages match a broader shift in how live meetings are being instrumented. Fathom says it records, transcribes and summarizes Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls, and Otter says its meeting agent supports real-time transcription, live chat, automated summaries, insights and action items. ### Which parts are built into Zoom and Teams, and which come from outside tools? (support.zoom.com) Zoom says its Meeting Summary with AI Companion lets a host initiate an AI-generated summary during a meeting, with participants able to receive the summary automatically after the meeting ends if the host chooses to share it. Zoom also says account owners and admins can enable or disable the feature at the account level. (fathom.video) Microsoft says Copilot in Teams meetings can capture key discussion points, identify speakers, suggest action items and answer questions during or after a meeting. Microsoft also offers recap features for recorded or transcribed meetings, town halls, webinars and calls, with recordings, shared content and other materials organized in one place. (support.zoom.com) ### What do Fathom and Otter say they add on top? Fathom says its software can automatically summarize meetings and, in Microsoft Teams, can use calendar syncing and auto-join workflows to enter scheduled calls. Its help pages also describe a newer “bot-free” desktop experience for some users, alongside settings for real-time coaching and meeting capture. Otter says its meeting agent can automatically join Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls through connected calendars, then record audio, write notes, capture action items and generate summaries. (support.microsoft.com) Otter’s Zoom-specific page describes the product as an AI agent for Zoom meetings, and its broader product page says users can follow along live on the web or in mobile apps. ### How much of this happens live, and how much arrives after the call? (fathom.video) Microsoft’s support documentation is explicit that Copilot in Teams can work “in real time during or after a meeting.” That means the product is positioned not only as a recap tool, but also as an in-meeting assistant that can answer questions and surface action items before the call ends. (get.otter.ai) Zoom’s documentation puts more emphasis on post-meeting delivery. Zoom says AI Companion can generate a meeting summary during the session, but the summary is automatically sent after the meeting has ended. Zoom separately says transcripts tied to Meeting Summary can be searched by meeting ID, host email or keywords within the summary text. ### What does this show about the standard meeting workflow? (support.microsoft.com) Microsoft, Zoom, Fathom and Otter all describe nearly the same core outputs: transcript, summary and action items. Across those product pages, the user promise is consistent — fewer manual notes during the call and a structured record afterward. Zoom also says AI Companion can work with other meeting platforms, including Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, whether the user is host or participant. (support.zoom.com) That cross-platform design, alongside Otter and Fathom’s support for multiple meeting services, shows vendors are competing not only inside one app but around the meeting layer itself. ### What should users watch next? Microsoft’s admin documentation says organizers can turn Copilot off for a meeting, a setting that also disables recording and transcription for that session. (support.zoom.com) Zoom’s support pages likewise say admins can control whether Meeting Summary with AI Companion is enabled. Those controls mean the next product changes are likely to show up in admin settings, recap pages and cross-platform integrations rather than in the basic promise of transcription itself. (zoom.com) The current reference points are already public: Zoom’s AI Companion support hub, Microsoft’s Teams recap and Copilot documentation, and the product pages for Fathom and Otter. (support.zoom.com) (learn.microsoft.com)