Addressing the Overcrowding of Online Meetings

Online meetings these days are crowded. The abundance of note-taking assistants means that everyone has their own meeting assistant join calls to transcribe and summarize the conversation, resulting in overcrowded meeting rooms.

Fathom's Bot-Less Meeting Mode

Fathom, a startup that makes an AI note-taking tool, is trying to address that overcrowding issue with an update that enables its app to transcribe all calls you attend without requiring an AI assistant to join them. This isn't anything new, as several desktop apps like Granola, Talat, Notion, and ChatGPT can transcribe calls. Fathom says it is trying to improve on those tools by enabling its app to record videos, too, and its users can choose between various recording modes for transcribing calls.

Improving Speaker Diarization

The company said it focused on getting speaker diarization right to make it easier for users to recall context. "A lot of these bot-less tools don't indicate who said what in their captured transcript," Fathom's CEO Richard White told TechCrunch over a call. As an example, he said many people face problems with misattribution when they ask their meeting note-taker a question about what they might have said in a particular meeting a few months ago.

Additional Updates

Other updates include the ability to use AI to query the meeting database, making it more useful for businesses which can feed it broader context. The company is also releasing a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server so users can pull meeting data and plug it into their AI tools. This last point recently sparked user complaints for Granola after it made changes to its on-device database and broke AI workflows that used transcript data from that source.

Fathom's Plans Ahead

White said Fathom is working to make its transcription data more accurate, and give users more ways to capture meetings. The company also plans to release an iOS app that can record in-person meetings. This is a significant step towards making Fathom a more comprehensive meeting management tool.

Conclusion

Fathom's bot-less meeting mode is a significant development in the world of AI-powered note-taking tools. With its focus on improving speaker diarization and releasing additional updates, Fathom is making a strong case for itself as a leader in the industry. Whether or not it can successfully take on Granola and other established players remains to be seen, but one thing is certain - the future of online meetings is looking more efficient and productive than ever.