- 1. Jarvey: Spoken Answers, Optional Process Prompts and Follow-Up
- 2. Otter.ai: Transcription and Spoken Answers
- 3. Fireflies.ai: Summaries and a Voice in the Room
- 4. Fathom: Clean Highlights, Still Silent
- 5. Fellow: Meeting Agendas With AI Assistance, Still Human-Driven
- 6. Read.ai: Real-Time Signals and a Live Dashboard
- 7. Tana: Voice Participation in Its Own Calls
- The Real Distinction: Passive vs. Active
- FAQs
If you've ever finished a call, read the AI summary, and thought "yes, but none of that actually happened," you're not alone. Many AI meeting tools are built around the same core idea: capture the conversation, transcribe it, send a recap. That works fine for documentation. A recap alone doesn't resolve unclear ownership or keep work moving afterward.
This list focuses on the best AI tools that actively participate in meetings, not just the ones that watch from the sidelines. Some answer questions aloud; others provide live notes, agendas or analytics. The distinction matters, so each entry covers both its capabilities and its limits, based on vendor information checked in October 2026.
1. Jarvey: Spoken Answers, Optional Process Prompts and Follow-Up
Jarvey joins your Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams call as a named participant, visible to everyone in the room. By default, it waits until someone says "Jarvey," then answers aloud to the whole room using web search or context from the team's earlier calls.
The team can enable process prompts that ask what the meeting is about at the start, ask whether to add a drifting topic or return to the agenda, and ask who will take agreed work without an owner. All are off by default. Jarvey asks about ownership; the team assigns the work. It doesn't confirm every commitment, owner and deadline before the call ends.
After the meeting, Jarvey writes to Notion, Jira, Linear, Trello, Slack and Telegram. The team chooses private Slack DMs or email for owner reminders, which start politely and become firmer before the next call. Overdue work can also be posted in a Slack channel the team picks.
Best for: Teams that want spoken answers, optional help with meeting process, and follow-up with owners. Where it falls short on passive use: Jarvey always joins visibly, with no botless mode. Process prompts can stay off if the team only wants answers when asked.
2. Otter.ai: Transcription and Spoken Answers
Otter captures live transcripts and generates summaries with action items. Its meeting bot can join calls, giving teams a record they can search afterward.
It also goes beyond documentation. Otter Meeting Agent responds aloud to "Hey Otter" and can answer questions using meeting context, schedule follow-up meetings and draft emails. Otter launched it on Zoom first.
Best for: Teams that need transcripts and searchable meeting archives alongside voice-activated assistance. Where it falls short on active participation: Its documented spoken workflow centers on responding to requests. That differs from Jarvey's optional prompts about agenda drift and unowned work.
3. Fireflies.ai: Summaries and a Voice in the Room
Fireflies can join calls as a recording bot and deliver a structured summary with topics, action items, and a searchable transcript. It integrates with CRMs and project tools, supporting automatic updates after the meeting.
The in-call experience includes more than recording. Talk to Fireflies lets participants say "Hey Fireflies" or type /ff in meeting chat to ask about the discussion, search the web or request action-item capture. With voice responses enabled, it answers aloud. The feature works on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
Best for: Sales and customer success teams that need CRM-linked call records and live assistance. Where it falls short on active participation: Its documented voice interaction is request-driven. Jarvey also offers optional process questions about agenda drift and work without an owner.
4. Fathom: Clean Highlights, Still Silent
Fathom focuses on highlight clipping and fast post-call summaries. It's a fit for individual contributors who want a quick, shareable record of what was decided without wading through a full transcript.
Fathom doesn't speak to the room, but its value isn't entirely post-meeting. Its product pages also describe live transcripts and summaries. Afterward, searchable recordings, linked highlights and CRM syncing help teams use the record.
Best for: Individuals and small teams who want fast, clean call summaries. Where it falls short on active participation: Fathom documents the conversation without asking the room spoken questions or facilitating the agenda.
5. Fellow: Meeting Agendas With AI Assistance, Still Human-Driven
Fellow is built around collaborative meeting agendas, and its AI layer helps generate agendas, suggest talking points, and summarize calls. It's one of the more structured tools in this space for teams that want to run disciplined meetings.
Fellow's AI doesn't join as a speaking participant. Ask Fellow works through a chat interface, helping users find meeting context, prepare agendas and draft follow-up documents. Shared agendas and action items support the people facilitating the conversation.
Best for: Teams that want structured agendas and AI-assisted prep. Where it falls short on active participation: Fellow assists the meeting organizer; it doesn't address the room with spoken process questions during the call.
6. Read.ai: Real-Time Signals and a Live Dashboard
Read.ai stands out for its real-time meeting metrics, including talk-time distribution and estimated engagement. Its engagement scores are model-generated assessments, rather than direct measurements of what people are thinking. The dashboard also provides live notes and transcription.
That dashboard isn't limited to the organizer's private panel. Read's help center describes access for other participants, including a dashboard link that can be shared in meeting chat. These signals can help people adjust the discussion while it happens, although Read doesn't deliver spoken process prompts to the group.
Best for: Managers who want data on meeting dynamics and team engagement. Where it falls short on active participation: Read.ai surfaces information for people to act on. It doesn't ask the room aloud how to handle agenda drift or unowned work.
7. Tana: Voice Participation in Its Own Calls
Tana takes a different approach. It connects meeting notes, tasks and context across a shared knowledge graph. In calls hosted inside Tana, its "Hey Tana" voice agent can join the conversation and respond aloud.
That voice participation is limited to Tana's own calls, but recording isn't. Tana's Mac and Windows desktop apps can capture system audio from Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams without adding a bot. A companion window provides meeting assistance during external calls, although Tana's voice agent doesn't speak into those calls.
Best for: Teams that want meetings, connected context and agent workflows in Tana. Where it falls short on active participation: Speaking with Tana's voice agent requires a Tana-hosted call. External calls support capture and companion assistance instead.
The Real Distinction: Passive vs. Active
Every tool in this list is useful. The question is what you actually need from an AI during a meeting.
For documentation, search, and post-call summaries, Otter, Fireflies, and Fathom all offer those capabilities. For structured agendas and engagement analytics, Fellow and Read.ai are worth a look. Tana combines meeting content with agent workflows and offers voice participation in its own calls.
Speaking alone doesn't separate Jarvey from every alternative. Otter and Fireflies can answer aloud, and Tana can do so within its meeting environment. Jarvey combines spoken answers with optional questions about meeting purpose, agenda drift and unowned work, then follows up with owners afterward.
That's a meaningful difference when your team's problem is follow-through. The team chooses whether to enable process prompts, while Jarvey's default is to wait until someone calls its name.
A new account can run one demo call during sign-up, before choosing a plan.
FAQs
What does it mean for an AI to actively participate in a meeting? Active participation can mean answering questions aloud, helping people use context during the discussion, or asking process questions. With Jarvey, the team can enable prompts about the meeting's purpose, agenda drift and work without an owner. Those prompts are off by default.
Which AI meeting tools actually speak during a call? Jarvey answers aloud when someone says "Jarvey." Otter Meeting Agent responds to "Hey Otter," with Zoom documented at launch. Talk to Fireflies can answer aloud on Google Meet, Zoom and Teams when voice responses are enabled. Tana's voice agent participates in calls hosted inside Tana. Fathom, Fellow and Read.ai don't offer equivalent spoken participation in the workflows covered here.
Are silent AI note-takers still useful? Yes. Transcripts, structured summaries and searchable archives are useful for documentation and catching up on missed discussions. Live notes and shared agendas can also help during a call. Spoken participation is an additional capability, rather than a requirement for a useful meeting tool.
Can AI meeting tools push tasks to project management apps automatically? Some can. Fireflies documents automatic task creation through configured integrations after meetings. Jarvey writes to Notion, Jira, Linear, Trello, Slack and Telegram afterward. Its owner reminders go through the team's choice of private Slack DMs or email, starting politely and becoming firmer before the next call. Overdue work can be posted in a chosen Slack channel.
Does Jarvey work with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams? Yes. Jarvey joins all three as a visible, named participant. New calls created through Jarvey use Google Meet only. For Zoom and Teams, the team supplies an existing meeting link or uses the connected calendar.
What's the difference between an AI meeting assistant and an AI meeting participant? These labels overlap. An assistant may generate agendas, summarize afterward or surface analytics, while a participant contributes during the conversation. Several assistants now answer aloud. Jarvey adds optional process prompts and owner reminders to its spoken answers.
Why do most AI meeting tools only summarize rather than participate? Many tools began with recording and summaries, but several now offer live assistance or spoken answers. Their capabilities differ: voice responses, shared agendas, live metrics, process prompts and follow-up each address a different need. Choose based on where your team's meetings lose momentum.