Best AI note-taking tools for executive assistants
EAs take notes in executive meetings, board prep, principal 1:1s, and the side conversations after each that the principal won't remember by Friday. The four below cover that range without requiring the EA to manually transcribe after every session.
Granola
★ Editor's pickFree tierAI meeting notes that work in the background without a bot joining the call.
Free Basic plan with limited meeting history. Business at $14/user/month, Enterprise at $35/user/month.
Records in the background, so nobody sees a bot join the call. That matters in executive meetings, where a visible note-taker changes the room.
Pros- Captures meetings locally without sending a bot into Zoom or Meet
- Notes get structured into action items and decisions, not just a transcript
- Works whether you talk, listen, or both, without manual tagging
Cons- macOS-first, Windows support added recently and lags
- No real-time transcription view during the call
- $14/month is steep if you average fewer than 5 meetings a week
Otter.ai
Free tierMeeting transcription and AI summaries. The default if Granola isn't a fit.
Free Basic plan. Pro at $8.33/user/month billed yearly ($16.99 monthly). Business at $19.99/user/month billed yearly ($30 monthly).
Covers the meetings you can't sit in on. $8.33 a month billed yearly ($16.99 monthly) gets you a transcript, a summary and the action items to chase.
Pros- Joins meetings as a bot for Zoom, Meet, Teams reliably
- Automatic action item extraction and summary
- Cheapest serious transcription tool on this list
Cons- Bot in the meeting can feel intrusive vs. Granola's background recording
- Voice diarization (who said what) is occasionally wrong
- Pro tier limits hit fast on heavy meeting weeks
Notion AI
$20/moAI features built into Notion: drafting, summarizing, asking questions about your workspace.
Notion AI comes with Business at $20/member/month and Enterprise. Plus at $10/member/month and Free get limited AI access.
Ask across past meetings what was decided without hunting through pages. It only helps if your notes already live in Notion.
Pros- Q&A against your own workspace: ask 'where's the launch checklist?' and get a link, not a search result
- Drafting and summarizing inside the doc you're already editing
- Pays back immediately if your team's docs already live in Notion
Cons- Pointless if your team isn't already heavy in Notion
- Quality of summarization is decent but behind dedicated tools
- Full AI access needs the $20/member/month Business plan
Claude
Free tierAnthropic's chatbot. The 2026 pick for long-form work that has to hold voice.
Free plan. Pro at $17/month billed yearly ($20 monthly), Max at $100/month, Ultra at $200/month.
Long-context summarization when board prep requires synthesizing weeks of notes.
Pros- Longest, most on-voice drafts of any general-purpose chatbot
- Projects feature loads a full brand bible once and pulls from it across every chat that month
- Reads PDFs, decks, and CSVs without setup
Cons- No native image generation
- Smaller third-party ecosystem than ChatGPT
- Free-tier limits kick in fast on long sessions
Frequently asked questions
Best tool for board meeting notes?
Granola if subtlety matters; Otter for clean transcription. Both work; pick by your principal's comfort with recording.
How do I keep notes confidential?
Enterprise tiers. Separate workspaces per executive. Never share AI-tool credentials with other staff.
What about Zoom's built-in transcription?
Free and decent for most uses. Lacks the AI summary depth of Otter or Granola, but Pro-tier subscribers may find it sufficient.
Should I record one-on-ones?
Always ask first. Many principals prefer their EA take written notes. The relationship calculus is different from board meetings.
