The tedious tasks of keeping projects flowing and moving forward — or “life management” as a friend recently called it — are the bane of my existence.
Switching between big idea visions and focused daily planning literally uses both sides of the brain, and it’s exhausting. But managing others’ workflow and maintaining focus during a brainstorming session is essential for personal projects or entrepreneurial efforts, and having a project manager by your side will be great.
It would also be good to have a budget for it.
When I’m on the shadow it Recently Leads to a good idea, which I use Otter.ai To help me focus on the vision – and to keep me organized along the way.
Otter.ai converts speech to text using artificial intelligence and machine learning. It works in real time and for pre-recorded audio and video.
The California-based company behind Otter.ai was founded in 2016 by Sam Liang And Yun Fuand its product is available as a PC or mobile platform Android, internal control Department, Mac And Windows Devices, as well as browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
In early 2024, Otter.ai saw the introduction of Meet Jinnai, which records information within meetings and turns it into insights thanks to generative AI, learning from the data it is fed to be able to respond to your needs. It will remember all the previous meetings you have recorded, and use them to feed its answers to your questions into its chatbot.
This is what distinguishes it from chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot And Google Geminiwhere you have to go to a third-party app and enter 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 articles How to use AI-powered Grammarly for all your editing needs And How to use ChatGPT to write a cover letter. For more tips, news, and reviews about AI, check out CNET Atlas of Artificial Intelligence center.
Getting started with Otter.ai
You can get free versions of Otter.ai, Pro ($10 per month) and Business ($20 per month). For versions that cost money, you can also pay annually.
I first used Otter.ai as a great solution for transcribing any interviews I conducted. The free version will record your audio, create an AI-powered transcription with an automatic summary, and it even has AI chat. It offers 300 free minutes each month, which can be great for short interviews or quick articles. I used it specifically to transcribe 20-minute podcast interviews and sift through nuggets of show notes and social content.
Otter.ai’s biggest competitors include: to understand (Free, or $15-$29 per month) wheat (Free, or $15-$29 per month) fireflies.ai (Free, or $10 to $19 per month) and Mitjik (Free, or $19-$39 per month). I have also experimented with transcription tools on multimedia platforms such as a descriptionbut I found myself constantly coming back to Otter.ai.
For me, it’s about simplicity, and how it feels more editorial than technical. As a writer, I’m not looking for a platform that has the most innovative tools and designs — I simply want to feel like I’m interacting with the story I’ve experienced.
Plus, I don’t want to spend time getting to know the tool I’m using just for time management and efficiency. It seems counterintuitive. For this reason alone, Otter.ai will continue to be my platform of choice.
How to use Meeting GenAI for project management
Once you set up your Otter.ai account, you can use it Meet Jinnai As a project manager and assistant for any meetings via Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. He records and transcribes during your meeting – just be sure to review the audio and double-check the transcription, as he sometimes gets words wrong. It also captures slides and creates summaries of meetings.
You can also implement Otter AI Chat to generate emails and status updates from your meetings. Furthermore, there is the ability to use it as a chatbot to get answers to questions or keep momentum going on projects, just like OpenAI ChatGPT.
I’ve found this useful for projects where the project manager doesn’t have a budget, or when trying to streamline multiple teams’ projects into one place. In a call-and-response format, I can ask a question related to a recent meeting, and Otter.ai will remember and summarize the contents of the call, or remind everyone of valuable information they may have missed.
It is extremely useful for people who have missed meetings – with the help of Meeting GenAI, information is readily available without having to follow up with anyone on high-level points. With the information saved in the software, time is also saved.
I like that you can customize this feature depending on the type of team you’re on: there’s Otter for sales, marketing, and recruiting teams, as well as business, media, and education.
Otter.ai integrates with other business apps, allowing you to link your Otter.ai account to 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 posted on Slack.
It’s like being a project manager, all integrated with your digital communications, thanks to the power of AI.