Otter's AI now spares you the pain of summarizing meetings

You might not have cause to panic the next time you miss an important meeting. Otter is updating its collaboration tool with a beta "Automatic Outline" feature that uses the AI-based Assistant to automatically create a meeting summary. You should get the gist of what your colleagues said without having to listen to an entire conversation or read a transcript.

The new version should make it easier to translate meetings into real-world decisions, too. Otter is introducing a "Meeting Gems" panel that can create to-do entries and highlight crucial moments by highlighting segments from the notes. You can also mark action items as complete and copy notes for sharing.

Other improvements aren't quite so dramatic, but could still prove helpful. You can use Otter Assistant to quickly add slides and other presentation images to your notes, and you can join meetings directly from the calendar panel. The home feed now prioritizes "high signal" meetings, and rookies will find more help from the outset.

The AI summaries may tempt you to skip less-than-essential meetings. However, they could easily prove useful as companies settle into the realities of hybrid and remote work. The pandemic has led to a surge in virtual meetings, and it's not always easy to attend every one. Otter's new AI functionality could help you spend more time working — and less time helping coworkers catch up.