How to Transcribe Meetings - Tips & Tricks

There are two ways in which you can transcribe meetings: a) you do it manually, and b) you use an AI meeting assistant that does all the heavy work for you. Which one do you prefer? In this article, you will learn best practices for manual transcription, and we will present you with the best AI meeting assistants available today.

What Are Meeting Transcriptions?

A meeting transcription refers to the process of turning what was orally discussed during a meeting into written text. Managers and bosses might require full transcriptions of in-person or virtual meetings. These transcriptions come in handy when you need to come back to what was said and look for specific bits.

Why Are Meeting Transcriptions Important?

Meeting transcriptions are great for staying organized and up to date. With them, it is easier to identify which team member committed to or was assigned to which task. Also, with transcripts, it is easier to look for specific quotes, figures, statements, and requests made during the meeting.

Different Methods for Getting Meeting Transcriptions

As we mentioned at the beginning, there are two methods to transcribe meetings:

• Manually. This implies manually taking meeting notes yourself or through manual transcription services.

• Transcription With AI. If you decide to go this way, a transcription software will take care of transcribing every word said during the meeting. The best thing is that the transcription will be ready in a couple of minutes.

Creating Manual Meeting Transcriptions

So, you are old-school and prefer manual meeting transcriptions? That’s totally fine. Let’s review the two options available for that kind of meeting transcription.

Manual Transcription On Your Own

This is the kind of manual transcription no one wants to do. Why? Because you have to do it yourself. It’s a laborious task, but it comes with high rewards — since you were also part of that meeting, chances are you will do a good job generating the transcription file.

When transcribing meetings on your own, you can do it in real time or afterwards with a recording. Needless to say, transcribing meetings in real time is hard; you will be prone to making mistakes and not being fast enough to catch 100% of what is being said. It is estimated that an hour of audio requires at least 4 hours of transcribing efforts, if not more.

You can, however, use shorthand or your own system of symbols to make it more effective. Always remember to correctly label and highlight speakers, remove filler words like ‘uhm’, and edit the text so it is easily understandable and scannable.

Manual Transcription By a Professional

This option is a smart move if you have the resources and time. Professional transcribers guarantee 99% accuracy. They can work with audio that has noise in the background, overlapping voices, and complicated jargon. Some platforms offer human transcription services with a fast turnaround, from 3 hours to 24 hours. The cost of these manual transcription services might go up quickly if the audio recordings are long.

Pros of Manual Transcription

• High Accuracy. When you choose manual transcription, you know you are getting a high-quality, mostly error-free document. Humans are better at understanding difficult audio recordings than machines… for now.

• Speaker Identification. The same goes for speaker labeling. Humans will almost always do a better job at recognizing who is speaking than AI… also for now. This guarantees that there will be no mix-ups.

• Understands Context Better. Human transcription ensures a cleaner text. We understand complex sentences and turns of phrase better.

• Flexibility and Judgment. In some cases, there is no need to transcribe the whole thing. Here is when human flexibility and judgment come into play.

• Confidentiality. With manual transcription, you know no sensitive data will leave your company.

Cons of Manual Transcription

• Time. Longer meetings might take several hours to transcribe.

• Cost. Standard rates for manual transcription services start at $1 per minute. Costs can increase rapidly for long meetings.

• Fatigue. Humans get tired, which might impact delivery time and overall quality.

• Not Scalable. There are only 24 hours in a day. You might need to hire several transcribers for bigger projects.

Manual Transcription Best Practices

If you are taking the manual transcription route, here are a few useful tips:

• Get Ready Before the Meeting Starts. It’s a good idea to prepare before the meeting starts. Gather documentation, review the agenda, see who is attending/joining the meeting, and set up your recording devices/software.

• Clear Voices. Ask your teammates to speak loudly and clearly to facilitate a smooth transcription experience.

• Edit, Edit, Edit. Once you have the transcription ready, edit it as much as you can. Remove filler words, false starts, and verbatim.

• Edit Some More! Review your transcription once more, proofread it, and make sure you have labeled all speakers correctly.

• Summarize. Create a summary that includes key points, decisions made, and follow-up tasks.

Getting Meeting Transcriptions Using AI

Nowadays, you don’t need to create manual transcriptions anymore. Now you can delegate that task to AI. Transcription software in 2025 is fast, reliable, and consistent. But it doesn’t stop there. With AI transcription tools like Amie, you not only get a precise description of the entire meeting but also AI-generated summaries, action items, follow-up tasks, interactive AI chat, automatically updated CRM, and more!

Pros of AI-Generated Meeting Transcriptions

• Speed and Efficiency. AI is fast, furious, and efficient. You can get a transcription for a three-hour-long audio recording in a matter of seconds. LITERALLY.

• Cost-Effective. When you compare transcription software costs with manual transcription services fees, the difference is abysmal. The cost of AI transcription software can be as low as $20-$25 a month for unlimited transcriptions, while human transcribers charge at least $1/minute.

• 24/7 Availability. With AI, you don’t have to wait. Ever. Record, upload, and get your transcript instantly.

• Scalable. Upload dozens of hours of meeting recordings, and AI will return transcripts in a couple of minutes.

• Consistency - AI transcription software like Amie learns from you. This means it is always getting to know your needs better.

• Integration Capabilities - AI personal assistants not only will transcribe long meetings for you, but they will also integrate with your favorite apps to streamline the process.

Cons of AI-Generated Meeting Transcriptions

• Slightly Less Accurate. AI transcriptions are about 90% accurate. So, some level of errors or misspellings is expected.

• Speaker Identification Issues. Sometimes, when voices overlap or are too similar, AI can struggle, although software is getting better and better at recognizing speakers more accurately.

• Jargon. Technical terms can be a tough nut to crack for artificial intelligence. In Amie you do, however, have the option to add custom words that will tune the AI to your needs.

AI Transcription Best Practices

• Good Audio. Try to get the cleanest audio recording as you possibly can.

• Ask Attendees to Speak Clearly. Inform the rest of the speakers that the meeting will be recorded and ask them to speak as clearly as possible to help AI minimize mistakes.

• Custom Words. As we mentioned above, AI is constantly learning from you. Create a list of custom words you usually use during your meetings so AI can get them right every time.

• Mute. If it is a virtual meeting, then go ahead and mute those participants who are not talking in order to reduce background noise.

• Editing. You will probably have to edit a few sentences, correct grammatical mistakes, typos, speaker identification issues, and more.

• Backup. If it is an important meeting, make sure you do some basic manual real-time transcription as well. You can’t be too careful when the stakes are high.

Final Thoughts

We’ve reviewed the two main ways of getting meeting transcriptions —manually or using AI. Each alternative has its pros and cons, and it is up to you to decide which better suits your needs. While manual transcription is slower and more expensive, it provides highly accurate transcripts. AI-generated transcripts, on the other hand, are quickly generated, are mostly accurate, cost less, and give you access to extra tools like automatic summaries and tool integration.