In a significant evolution for AI meeting notetaker applications, Otter is expanding its capabilities beyond simple transcription and summarization. The company aims to transform into a comprehensive workspace that allows users to integrate data from various sources, facilitating informed business decisions. Following the footsteps of competitors like Read AI, Fireflies.ai, and Fathom, Otter is now launching an enterprise search feature that operates as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) client. This innovative approach enables seamless connections and data retrieval from external applications and services, in line with rapidly adopted AI standards.
Having established itself over nearly a decade, Otter has recently shifted focus toward becoming a robust enterprise productivity tool. The introduction of custom MCPs last October allowed organizations to access Otter data externally, while the latest feature emphasizes the integration of external data into its platform.
With this new functionality, users can link their accounts from Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Jira, and Salesforce, allowing for comprehensive queries that combine both existing meeting notes and external data. The company plans to expand this connectivity to include Microsoft Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and Slack shortly. This means users can not only search through various tools but also share meeting summaries directly to Notion or compose emails via Gmail.
Additionally, Otter has revamped its AI assistant to ensure it is consistently accessible throughout the interface, enabling users to pose questions at any time. The assistant is designed to understand the context of the current screen, whether it's a specific meeting or a communication channel, and provide relevant answers.
As part of its ongoing enhancements, Otter has also introduced a feature that allows for botless meeting capture, which records meetings using the device's system audio rather than requiring a bot to participate. This capability was first launched for Mac users and is now being rolled out for Windows, aligning with industry trends.
There is ongoing discussion about the effectiveness of meeting note-taking with or without bots. According to Otter's CEO, Sam Liang, enterprise clients generally prefer having a note-taker bot join the meeting. This preference is rooted in the desire for transparency and the sharing of notes among all participants, rather than limiting access to a single individual.
To further streamline meetings, Otter has implemented a deduplication feature that prevents multiple bots from joining a single call, ensuring a balanced human-to-bot ratio during discussions.
Last year, Otter reported having 25 million users and achieving $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Although specific financial updates were not disclosed, the platform has now grown to 35 million users, indicating a robust upward trajectory.