# Which AI meeting assistants actually speak in the meeting?

> Most AI meeting assistants record and summarize. A few answer a spoken question. Very few take part. A sourced look, as of November 2026, at what each kind does in the call.

Canonical: https://mainroom.ai/blog/which-ai-meeting-assistants-speak-in-the-meeting/
Updated: 2026-11-01

"AI meeting assistant" covers very different products. The useful question is what the AI does **while the meeting is happening**. There are three levels.

## 1. Records and summarizes

Most products. A bot or a desktop app captures the audio and produces notes after the call. Examples, from each vendor's own pages as of November 1, 2026:

- **Fathom** records and summarizes meetings on Meet, Zoom and Teams, with a free plan. ([fathom.ai](https://www.fathom.ai/))
- **Granola** is a notepad that writes notes "without a meeting bot" by recording device audio. ([granola.ai](https://www.granola.ai/))
- **tl;dv** records and summarizes, with a bot-free desktop option. ([tldv.io](https://tldv.io/))
- **Fellow** adds agendas and recaps to AI notes. ([fellow.ai](https://fellow.ai/pricing))

None of these speak in the call.

## 2. Answers a spoken question

A newer feature in notetakers: say a wake word and the bot answers a question about the meeting out loud.

- **Fireflies** documents "Hey Fireflies" voice answers in Google Meet, Teams and Zoom, on all plans. ([Fireflies help](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8186888414-talk-to-fireflies-in-live-meetings))
- **Otter** announced "Hey Otter" voice answers for Zoom in March 2025, with Teams and Meet to follow. ([announcement](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250325249430/en/))

This is useful, and it is still a notetaker: it answers about the meeting, it does not take part in it.

## 3. Takes part

An AI participant that speaks when addressed and also acts in the meeting. The platform assistants act inside their own app: **Microsoft Facilitator** runs the agenda, timers and notes in Teams meetings, in chat and on the meeting stage ([Microsoft support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/teams/copilot/facilitator-in-microsoft-teams-meetings)). A few independent products put a speaking agent into the call, including **Mainroom**.

A Mainroom agent joins Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or Zoom from a calendar invite and, during the call:

- answers when addressed, waits for a gap, and stops when a person talks over it;
- puts slides, tables and charts on the shared screen;
- teaches on a whiteboard it draws step by step as it explains;
- runs a live browser demo the room steers;
- looks things up in your tools (any MCP server) and the web;
- opens an anonymous intake for the room;
- coaches the person who invited it on a private companion page;
- logs decisions and commitments, then emails a recap.

## Which level do you need?

If you only need a record, a notetaker is simpler. If you want quick answers about what was said, a wake-word notetaker is enough. If you want the meeting itself to go differently (questions answered in the call, material on the screen, input from the whole room), you need a participant.

Details about other products come from their public pages as of November 1, 2026 and may have changed. Corrections: hello@mainroom.ai.


## Frequently asked questions

**Do Otter or Fireflies speak in meetings?**

Both have added spoken answers to a wake word. Fireflies documents "Hey Fireflies" voice answers in Meet, Teams and Zoom on all plans; Otter announced "Hey Otter" voice answers for Zoom in March 2025. Neither presents on the shared screen or runs the meeting.

**Does Microsoft's Facilitator agent speak?**

Microsoft describes Facilitator as taking live notes, posting the agenda in chat, running timers on the meeting stage and answering in chat, in scheduled Teams meetings with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Its support page does not say it speaks.

**What does Mainroom add?**

A participant that speaks when addressed and also acts: slides, a whiteboard it draws as it explains, live browser demos, lookups in your tools, anonymous intake, private coaching and a ledger of decisions, on Meet, Teams and Zoom.