If you left a Zoom call thinking, “What on earth did we discuss?”, and you are using Zoom’s free plan, this article is for you.
Zoom Pro’s “AI companion” can summarize meetings and provide quick takeaways, among many other features. However, an “AI companion” is available only on Zoom paid plan. If you are like me, an occasional Zoom user, you will not have access to AI companion features. The good news is, you can still generate a summary of the meeting by following these steps.
Steps to Get Zoom Meeting Summary for Free
Turn on Closed Captioning for your Zoom Account.
All Zoom’s plans, including free plan has live closed captioning feature. That means, your speech is getting converted into text. Most LLMs are text base, so you are going to need meeting transcriptions.
You may run into situation where you don’t see Captions in your Zoom application, click on three dots (More) and turn on the Caption.
If you still don’t see Caption Option in your Zoom application, you need to enable it from zoom.us web portal. The automated caption option is buried deep inside a nested menu. It can be tricky to find it. Here is how to enable Caption in Zoom Admin Portal.
First Login to your zoom.us account, Navigate to On the left had navigation bar Admin -> Account Management-> Account Settings -> Meeting -> In Meeting Advance. Once you navigate to that menu, Turn on the “Automated Captioning”. Now, you should see the ‘Close Caption’ option in your zoom application.
Record Your Zoom Call
Nothing special here—just start the meeting as usual and hit the record button; this is crucial. Future you will appreciate it. While you’re at it, turn on the captions. Attend the meeting. Nod occasionally, you’ll look engaged—no one will notice that you’re watching Bollywood dance videos on the side.
Find Your Recording and Transcriptions
After the meeting has ended, Zoom will provide a recording and transcription. To find the recording, open the Zoom application, go to settings, and locate and open the recording folder. There you will see some thing like this.
Use VideoToBe.com for Generating Transcription for Zoom Meetings.
If you have previously recorded audio or video that needs transcribing or can’t find the transcription, there’s VideoToBe.com.
Go to VideoToBe.com/tools/transcribe
To get transcription using VideoToBe is simple. Just Upload your file, enter your email and click “Start Transcription”. Once you receive the transcription, you can follow the next step.
Let AI Do Some Work!
Now you have meeting transcription handy. Time for fun stuff. Copy the transcription and feed it to your favorite LLM – ChatGPT or Claude or Meta. Use a prompt like this:
Analyze the following meeting transcript. Provide a brief summary (2-3 sentences), list key takeaways, tasks assigned (with assignees if mentioned), and any deadlines. Format as: Summary, Key Takeaways, Tasks Assigned, Deadlines. Be objective and use only information from the transcript. Transcript:
[INSERT TRANSCRIPT HERE]
Now you will have a nice meeting summary!
In Conclusion
We’re all just trying to navigate this world of information overload. The above method may look tedious at first, but once you get the hang of it, it might help you keep track of what’s happening without needing to hang on every word. Visit VideoTobe.com/tools/transcribe
And don’t forget to comment, share, or DM. I can pause watching Bollywood dance videos to reply to you.