Otter.ai’s Voice-activated Ai Agent Can Answer Questions During Online Meetings

The caller ‘Otter Meeting Agent’ activates a sound supplier erstwhile called upon, understands questions, and pulls information from nan net aliases soul documents.

Otter.ai, which is chiefly known for its voice-to-text transcription service, is rolling retired a voice-activated AI supplier that will participate successful and reply questions during online calls.

The “Otter Meeting Agent,” launched Tuesday, activates a sound supplier erstwhile called upon, understands questions put to it, and pulls accusation from nan nationalist web aliases soul documents to reply queries.

Otter.ai already has a web interface and an app that transcribes sound notes to text, generating summaries of notes and allowing users to query nan strategy via text.

The strategy tin now do nan aforesaid via sound during meetings, which tin travel successful useful erstwhile group request contiguous accusation astatine their fingertips and don’t want to type successful queries, said Sam Liang, CEO of Otter.ai.

“This caller AI Meeting Agent is really going to beryllium capable to reply questions aliases participate successful meetings and moreover return immoderate actions to execute immoderate tasks,” Liang said.

For example, successful a objection during a Zoom videoconference, Liang asked nan AI agent, participating arsenic an attendee, “Hey Otter, who invented nan audio recorder and successful what year?” and nan supplier responded instantly: “The audio recorder was invented by Thomas Edison successful 1877.”

The voice-activated supplier useful pinch Zoom and will merge into Slack and Teams package successful nan coming weeks.

The supplier is besides capable to reply questions by sourcing accusation from firm data. For example, it tin respond to a query astir subscriber numbers aliases maturation complaint by selectively pulling information from soul databases.

The AI supplier tin besides return different actions specified arsenic scheduling a follow-up gathering aliases drafting an email.

The strategy uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to analyse personification queries, which it past breaks down into subtasks and decides which functions to telephone aliases which soul strategy to nonstop a query. “It could propulsion information from aggregate places and past make nan reply to summarize nan results,” Liang said.

At a recent GTC sheet discussion, tech leaders stressed that customers for illustration to talk to humans alternatively than machines. But Liang said immoderate sound AI agents tin supplement quality agents and meet basal needs, specified arsenic answering elemental questions.

For now, nan voice-activated gathering supplier is an on-demand characteristic answering questions from soul documents, overmuch for illustration text-based requests. The supplier is only activated connected sound requests and doesn’t interrupt conversations.

However, Otter.ai is moving successful nan guidance wherever an supplier will soon beryllium an progressive participant, Liang said. It tin moreover correct misinformation.

The thought that agents would return portion successful meetings isn’t new. More than a decade ago, successful 2013, Forrester expert J.P. Gownder predicted AI devices would participate successful meetings proactively, successful summation to surfacing information and insights from soul systems.

“Meetings often don’t return advantage of nan immense stores of endeavor information that we have: We make decisions without consulting our ain data, insights, documents, and past conversations, which is suboptimal,” Gownder said astatine nan time.

But location are respective issues astatine play earlier AI gathering participants are apt to beryllium welcome, including accuracy and societal acceptance. Participants mightiness not for illustration being interrupted by AI agents.

And if nan instrumentality makes moreover 1 aliases 2 mistakes, humans mightiness quickly travel to distrust it.

“Can these AI gathering participants find nan correct data, documents, and insights retired of our immense endeavor SharePoint sites to aboveground during a meeting?” Gownder said. “I would propose that it will beryllium rather a fewer years earlier this becomes mainstream, moreover though it offers a very logical and perchance powerful worth proposition.”

Otter has aggregate monthly and yearly subscription plans, including a free tier and a $30 monthly scheme for business users. The subscription work besides includes an endeavor plan, for which a value wasn’t given. 

Otter has 25 cardinal subscribers but declined to item nan number of paid subscribers.