Technology seems to advance at the speed of light these days. As companies rely on the latest innovations to remain competitive, finding ways to bring teams together becomes increasingly important.
With videoconferencing, for instance, organizations of all sizes have become dependent on quality, reliable video conferencing solutions. As platforms add more advanced features, these organizations need ways to capture conversations and information shared in meetings to use across their other productivity platforms.
AI meeting managers provide that vital next step towards unified communication solutions, helping companies gain the most from every meeting.
This article discusses AI meeting managers, how they benefit organizations, and how to choose the right applications for your company.
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- AI Meeting Managers: What Are They & How To Choose The Right One
- What is an AI Meeting Manager?
- 7 Benefits of Using an AI Meeting Manager
WHAT IS AN AI MEETING MANAGER?
An AI meeting manager is a virtual assistant used within video conferencing software that’s designed to assist users with processes that have historically taken added time and resources. AI meeting managers use artificial intelligence—specifically machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP)—to help in planning, organizing, and conducting meetings.
AI meeting managers provide the following key features to help organizations gain the maximum value from video conferencing meetings.
SCHEDULE MEETINGS
AI meeting manager applications can collect data from participant calendars to suggest meeting times when everyone is available.
MANAGE RSVPs
These applications can send automated invites and collect RSVPs, tracking attendees and reporting attendance data.
CREATE SMART AGENDAS
They can help meeting planners use information about topics, goals, and specific notes during preparation, organize an agenda, and send it out to all participants.
TRANSCRIBE MEETINGS
With AI-based meeting transcription, AI meeting managers use machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to improve data accuracy and gather real-time text from speech—even notating who’s speaking in the meeting.
TRACK ACTION ITEMS
Companies are realizing it is vital to gain the most value from meetings by making it easier to access key data for later use. AI meeting managers make it possible to assign actions to specific participants so they can be taken care of later, holding individuals accountable for assignments discussed in a meeting.
GENERATE MEETING NOTES
Automatically generating the meeting’s notes saves the company the human resources needed to create notes manually while saving time and helping all attendees focus on the discussion.
CREATE MEETING SUMMARIES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Beyond transcription, AI meeting managers can understand the context of communication and prioritize the most important elements discussed, automatically sending all participants a summary of what was covered, along with highlights of the meeting’s key takeaways.
ANALYZE COMMUNICATIONS
AI meeting managers take the benefits of automated processes beyond simply increasing the efficiency of standard practices. AI can uncover insights from meetings that are beyond what we used to be able to deduce.
AI can collect data on how effective communication is from different participants, compare the length of time people communicate, and help companies learn how to make improvements as a result.
One of the most powerful aspects of these applications is that more than just automation is taking place. Because ML trains on human language, it can accumulate complex metrics and help organizations learn about their strengths and weaknesses in communication. As technology advances, it will be able to assist in optimizations even more over time.
7 BENEFITS OF USING AN AI MEETING MANAGER
AI meeting manager applications will increasingly become integral to the effectiveness companies expect from their meetings. The following are seven primary ways these applications benefit individuals, teams, and entire organizations.
1. SAVE TIME
Automating tasks provides insights and helps attendees be more aware, prepared, and organized, freeing up time in the planning stages before meetings while automatically transcribing minutes during meetings and sending notes, highlights, and summaries to participants without any added human effort after meetings.
2. ENHANCE PRODUCTIVITY
Accurate, automated processes free up workforce time so people can focus on projects that bring extra value to the company. This leaves more time to play an active role in projects that require special skills, reducing more menial tasks. Employees and executives can better use the substance of meetings and apply discussions toward action.
3. BOOST OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
Beyond the benefits to individuals and teams, these applications help organizations make the best use of their resources. Finding ways to optimize processes and save time lets companies strategize ways to scale operations.
4. IMPROVE DECISION MAKING
AI will only continue to become more advanced over time. But even in these early stages, AI meeting manager applications can gather data that decision-makers can use for strategic planning and growth. This allows them to deduce and correlate data in ways that were never possible before. As a result, companies will continue to find ways to tap into the ability to optimize processes, improve sales, and scale.
5. ELEVATE PREPAREDNESS
Analytics can help managers, directors, and executives learn from details about attendee performance to make future predictions about their operations. Whether planning growth, projecting future profits, or guiding policy decisions, companies can take data about how meetings are conducted and use it for more efficient future planning.
6. ENHANCE INCLUSIVITY
Live transcriptions, highlights, and attributing text to the right speakers help everyone follow the same data during meetings.
7. FACILITATE COLLABORATION
AI meeting managers can help participants share data during and after meetings and follow up with others based on actionable data, like summaries, notes, and highlights, or request team members to complete specific actions discussed in the meeting. Analytic insights help teams work more efficiently with one another based on accurate data.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT AI MEETING MANAGER FOR YOUR BUSINESS
The most important thing to consider when looking for the AI features that will best serve your company is what platform(s) you rely on the most for unified communications.
Videoconferencing is increasingly becoming part of integrated workspace platforms. While many companies continue using separate applications, like one platform for spreadsheets, another for documents, and yet another for video conferencing, the most prominent platforms are integrating these features into comprehensive workspaces or suites.
The most popular unified communications platforms come from Zoom, Google, and Microsoft. If your organization predominantly uses one of these three platforms exclusively, you will likely benefit from using that platform for everything, including your AI meeting manager application.
Below, we provide the fundamental data on what comes with Zoom, Google, and Microsoft, along with two of the more prominent third-party applications that can easily be integrated into all three companies’ unified communications platforms.
ZOOM
Zoom’s AI meeting manager is called Zoom AI Companion, which includes most of the features and benefits mentioned earlier in the article. AI Companion is included with paid Zoom subscriptions, making it convenient for companies looking to use Zoom for other features beyond videoconferencing alone.
Zoom’s stand-out feature is ease of use, and because so many use Zoom, either exclusively or along with other workspace platforms, it has a wealth of third-party integrations available to help you customize it to your specific needs.
Google Meet, Google’s video conferencing application, is just one piece of its Workspace suite of unified communication features.
It makes the most sense to use Google’s AI meeting manager if you already favor Google Workspace for its other expansive features.
Google Meet focuses on using AI for features like creating unique backgrounds and enhancing audio. Google’s AI meeting manager is a part of their Duet AI application, an add-on that serves numerous AI functions beyond acting as a meeting manager.
Google’s AI meeting manager features are not as extensive as Zoom’s, but there are so many third-party options, many of them free, that if you are already natively using Google Workspace, you will find everything you need within the Google environment.
MICROSOFT TEAMS
As with Google, the main benefit to using Microsoft Teams for your communications platform, including AI meeting management, is familiarity. If Microsoft’s workspace is what your company uses for features beyond videoconferencing alone, it makes sense to use what is available for meeting management at the tier you use.
Microsoft offers different AI tools in its premium and enterprise tier subscription levels, including the ability to integrate third-party solutions.
Microsoft’s AI offerings at these tiers include most of the same fundamental features, and Microsoft stresses that it will be adding AI-based features continuously as the technology progresses.
THIRD-PARTY OPTIONS
There are numerous third-party applications you can add to all three leading platforms. The following are two stand-outs worth mentioning:
GONG
Gong provides many of the expected fundamental AI meeting manager features but truly elevates the strategic benefits for planning and sales, incorporating meeting insights into broader productivity. Gong calls their main functionality “conversational intelligence.”
In addition to transcribing, highlighting, and summarizing, Gong helps teams with their sales strategy by providing valuable insights to streamline their effectiveness during client meetings.
Gong lets teams analyze their performance in meetings, providing data about common objections and cues from potential customers and indications of their interest in buying.
Individuals can learn what communication techniques are the most effective and make the best use of time. Organizations can use this data to coach individuals and conduct company-wide training.
Companies can use Gong to improve processes, train teams, and assess performance, improving techniques based on real data from actual meetings. Organizations can take real-world communications and apply them to individual coaching.
The same data can be used for sales forecasting to accurately assess potential future sales.
CHORUS
Chorus also provides automated recording and transcription, allowing users to assign action items to specific individuals. For example, you can assign a task with due dates to a meeting participant to assist in follow-through at a later date. This helps teams with accountability and better follow-through.
Additionally, users can search target keywords and information in a recorded meeting to find them quickly. Chorus also provides basic meeting analytics, like user participation levels and speaking time.
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MEETINGS WITH VIVO
Regardless of your circumstances, Vivo is here to help you choose the ideal software platform, AI features, and audiovisual hardware devices for your company’s collaboration needs. In today’s tech-driven world, the right unified communication solution means better productivity, greater efficiency in your processes, and more valuable insights from your meetings.
Got questions? We love helping our clients find the perfect fit for their conferencing needs. Talk to one of our experts today!