Daunting tasks that keep projects streamlined and moving forward — or “life admin,” as a friend recently coined it — are the bane of my existence.
Toggling between big idea visions and grounded day-to-day planning literally uses both sides of the brain, and is exhausting. But managing others’ workflows and staying focused during a brainstorming session are necessary for personal projects or entrepreneurial efforts, and having a project manager on your side would be nice.
It would also be nice to have a budget for that.
When I’m on a tangent that eventually leads to a good idea, I use Otter.ai to help me focus on the vision — and to keep me organized along the way.
Otter.ai transcribes speech to text, using artificial intelligence and machine learning. It works in real time and for previously recorded audio and video.
The California-based company behind Otter.ai was founded in 2016 by Sam Liang and Yun Fu, and its product is available as a computer or mobile platform on Android, iOS, Mac and Windows devices, plus browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
In early 2024, Otter.ai saw the introduction of Meeting GenAI, which records information within meetings and transforms it into insights thanks to generative AI, learning from the data it’s fed to be able to respond to your needs. It’ll remember all the past meetings you recorded, and use those to fuel its answers to your questions within its chatbot.
This sets it apart from chatbots like Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, where you’d have to go to a third-party app and enter in your data again to be able to get summaries and insights.
Here’s how to get the most out of Otter.ai as a project manager. If you’re looking for more ways to use AI, check out our pieces on how to use AI-powered Grammarly for all your editing needs and how to use ChatGPT to write a cover letter. For more AI tips, news and reviews, check out CNET’s AI Atlas hub.
Getting started with Otter.ai
You can get free, Pro ($10/month) and Business ($20/month) versions of Otter.ai. For the versions that cost money, you can also pay by the year.
I first used Otter.ai as a blissful solution for transcribing any interviews I did. The free version will record your audio, generate an AI-powered transcription with an automated summary, and has AI chat. It offers 300 minutes free every month, which can be great for shorter interviews, or quick-turn pieces. I specifically used it for transcribing 20-minute podcast interviews and sifting out nuggets for show notes and social content.
Otter.ai’s biggest competitors include Fathom (free, or $15-$29/month), Grain (free, or $15-$29/month), Fireflies.ai (free, or $10-$19/month) and Meetgeek (free, or $19-$39/month). I’ve also tried out transcription tools on multifunctional media platforms like Descript, but I continually found myself going back to Otter.ai.
For me, it’s the simplicity, and how it feels more editorial than tech. As a writer, I’m not looking for a platform with the most innovative gadgets and design — I simply want to feel like I’m interacting with the story I experienced.
Additionally, I don’t want to spend time getting to know a tool that I’m using solely for time management and efficiency. That seems counterintuitive. So for that alone, Otter.ai will continue to be my platform of choice.
How to use Meeting GenAI for project management
Once you’re set up with an Otter.ai account, you can use Meeting GenAI as a project manager and assistant for any meetings across Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. It records and transcribes during your meeting — just make sure to scrub back through the audio and double-check its transcriptions, as it sometimes gets the words wrong. It also captures slides and generates meeting summaries.
You can also implement Otter AI Chat to generate emails and status updates from your meetings. Even further, there’s the ability to use it as a chatbot to get answers to questions or keep momentum going on projects, much like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
I found this to be helpful for projects where there wasn’t a budget for a project manager, or when trying to streamline multiple teams’ projects in one place. In a call-and-response format, I could plug in a question relating to a recent meeting, and Otter.ai would remember and summarize the contents of the call, or remind everyone of valuable takeaways that might’ve been missed.
It’s most beneficial for folks who missed meetings — with the help of Meeting GenAI, information is readily available without having to catch someone up on high-level points. With information saved into the software, time is saved, too.
I like how this feature is customizable depending on the type of team you’re on: There’s Otter for sales, marketing and recruiting teams, plus business, media and education.
Otter.ai’s tool integrates with your other work apps, letting you connect your Otter.ai account with any Slack, Zoom, Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and HubSpot accounts you use. It can then assign tasks across those platforms; send reminders and insights; and post to Slack.
Sounds like a project manager, all embedded with your digital communication, thanks to the power of AI.
