One-Line Summary: Choose and configure a transcription tool that automatically records your meetings and produces text transcripts you can feed to AI.
Prerequisites: Step 1 completed, an account on your video conferencing platform (Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams)
Why Transcription Is the Foundation
Everything in this blueprint depends on having a text transcript of your meeting. Without it, you are relying on memory and handwritten notes. With it, AI can do the heavy lifting.
Your goal in this step: after setup, every meeting you join automatically produces a transcript with zero effort from you.
Option 1: Otter.ai (Recommended for Beginners)
Otter.ai is a dedicated transcription tool with a generous free tier (300 minutes per month).
Setup steps:
- Go to otter.ai and create a free account
- Click Settings > Calendar and connect your Google or Microsoft calendar
- Under Meeting settings, enable "Auto-join meetings from my calendar"
- Choose whether Otter joins all meetings or only ones you select
- Set your language preference
What happens next: Otter's bot (named "Otter.ai Notetaker") will automatically join your scheduled meetings, record the audio, and produce a transcript within minutes of the meeting ending.
Free tier limits:
- 300 transcription minutes per month
- 30-minute limit per conversation
- Syncs with one calendar
Pro tip: If you hit the 30-minute limit on free, start a new Otter session mid-meeting. Or upgrade to Pro for unlimited length.
Option 2: Fireflies.ai
Fireflies offers similar functionality with a different feature set.
Setup steps:
- Go to fireflies.ai and create a free account
- Connect your Google or Outlook calendar under Settings > Calendar
- Under Auto-join settings, choose which meetings Fred (the Fireflies bot) should join
- Configure notification preferences so attendees know the meeting is being recorded
Free tier limits:
- Unlimited transcriptions (with storage limits)
- 800 minutes of storage
- AI-generated summaries included
Best for: Teams that want built-in AI summaries alongside transcription.
Option 3: Built-In Platform Transcription
If you prefer not to add a third-party bot, most platforms now offer native transcription.
Zoom
- Go to Settings > Recording in your Zoom web portal
- Enable "Audio transcript" under Cloud Recording
- Enable "Automatic recording" if you want every meeting recorded
- After the meeting, find the transcript in Recordings on your Zoom dashboard
Google Meet
- Start or join a Google Meet call
- Click the Activities icon (bottom right) and select Transcripts
- Click "Start transcript" — all participants will be notified
- After the meeting, the transcript appears in your Google Drive in a "Meet Recordings" folder
Microsoft Teams
- During a meeting, click More actions (...) and select Start transcription
- Teams will transcribe in real time with speaker identification
- After the meeting, the transcript is available in the meeting chat and in the meeting details
Trade-off: Built-in transcription is free and requires no extra tools, but you get a raw transcript without the AI features that Otter and Fireflies provide. That is fine — we will add AI processing ourselves in the next steps.
Getting Your Transcript Out
Regardless of which tool you chose, you need to be able to copy the transcript text. Here is how:
| Tool | How to Export |
|---|---|
| Otter.ai | Open the transcript, click Share > Copy all, or export as .txt |
| Fireflies.ai | Open the transcript, click Copy transcript or download as .txt |
| Zoom | Download the .vtt file from your recording, or copy from the web viewer |
| Google Meet | Open the Google Doc created in your Drive and copy the text |
| Teams | Open the transcript from meeting details and copy the text |
Test Your Setup
Before moving to the next step, run a quick test:
- Schedule a short test meeting with yourself (or a colleague)
- Verify your transcription tool joins (or start transcription manually)
- Talk for 2-3 minutes — mention a few names, a decision, and an action item
- End the meeting and wait for the transcript to appear
- Open the transcript and confirm it captured the content reasonably well
Do not worry about perfect accuracy. AI transcription typically hits 85-95% accuracy, and that is more than enough for our AI processing to work with.
Checklist
- Transcription tool chosen and account created
- Calendar connected (if using Otter or Fireflies)
- Auto-join or auto-record preferences configured
- Test meeting completed with a transcript produced
- You know how to copy or export the transcript text
With transcription in place, you now have the raw material. In the next step, we will turn that raw transcript into a structured, useful meeting summary.