I’ve previously covered AI note-taking tools on two occasions, and the content has always been popular. Since it’s been a year+ since my last review of the market, I thought I’d hit the topic for 2026.
For those of you who haven’t already played with AI notetakers, these are bit like the gateway drug to more serious AI usage. In 2026, as we see more agentic use cases, I think there’s potential for these tools to use in-meeting triggers to start other approved workflows. That’s not something I’m seeing in the mainstream tools. Yet.
The Contenders
For this year I’m looking at 6 options, including several that have been mentioned before.
- Otter.ai: the classic, with several past reviews.
- Fireflies: also a classic, with counterpoints to Otter.
- Fathom: You love it, or you don’t.
- Sembly: A nice option no one remembers.
- Granola: An AI Notetaker that joins meetings with stealth; also improves your own meeting notes.
- Avoma: A representative of the more expensive, more feature-rich niche market.
For this year’s comparison, so much comes down to the features you need or industry you’re in. For that reason, I’ve shifted this review into a flowchart to help you identify the best tool for you at a glance. Click on the image if you need to zoom around…
A big thank you to Scott O’Leary of NC State for sharing his experience with Granola so I could fine-tune this comparison!
Get More
If you’re looking for more insights, takeaways, or want to read my comparison of the conferencing-native AI notes tools (i.e., Zoom, Google, Microsoft) check out the full article.
Emma Browning
Managing Director,
Paradox Consulting Partners
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What We’re Reading
Our recent reading goodies.
- Behind Microsoft’s efforts to push AI adoption, from Semafor
In case you don’t feel like you’re getting the AI training you need, turns out Microsoft agrees. Now they’re helping their employees get a leg up. - Canadian officials to meet with OpenAI safety team after school shooting, from Reuters
Apparently Open AI revoked access to the person who recently killed 8 in a shooting in BC. Canada wants to know why, and why there was no warning. - ClimateTech Map
Take a spin around the categories of Climate Technologies, and the opportunities they can help us deliver. - Introducing Markdown for Agents, from Cloudflare
Cloudflare recently announced the option to enable markdown versions of your web content for AI (and other) agents. This is a much smaller amount of data, meaning a massive reduction in token (and energy) usage.
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