Fireflies.ai is a meeting assistant that joins your video calls automatically. It works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Webex by sending a bot into your meetings to record everything and create written transcripts. The bot can tell who's speaking and pulls out the main points and action items after each meeting ends.

You can search through old meeting notes using keywords to find specific topics or past conversations. There's also a chatbot called AskFred that answers questions about your meetings based on what people actually said. This saves you from having to dig through long transcripts or re-listen to entire recordings.

The platform connects with tools your team already uses, like Slack, Asana, and CRM systems, so meeting information flows automatically to where you need it. People use it to track team discussions, analyze sales calls, and keep personal meeting records. Since everything lives in the cloud, you can access your meeting data from anywhere.

Users look for alternatives to Fireflies.ai because...

• The transcripts aren't always accurate - Many users get frustrated when Fireflies mixes up who said what or misses important details. This happens a lot in busy meetings with multiple people talking, background noise, or industry-specific terms. Imagine reviewing your team meeting notes later and seeing that your boss's feedback is attributed to a colleague, or that key technical decisions are completely garbled. When you can't trust the basic accuracy of your meeting records, the whole tool becomes less useful.

• Privacy concerns make people uncomfortable - Having an AI bot join sensitive meetings makes many users and their clients nervous. Organizations dealing with confidential information often can't use the service because their clients simply won't allow it. Think about a law firm trying to discuss a case strategy or a healthcare team reviewing patient information – many of these conversations can't happen with a third-party recording bot present, which limits when and how you can actually use the tool.

• Limited control over how the bot works - Users often feel stuck with how Fireflies operates in their meetings. You can't easily customize when it records, how it appears to other participants, or what it focuses on during different types of meetings. The bot can confuse people who don't know what it is, and there's not much you can do to make it work better for your specific needs. It's frustrating when a tool doesn't bend to fit how your team actually works.

How Circleback can help

People choose Circleback because it takes a smarter, more thoughtful approach to AI meeting assistance. It directly fixes many of the problems that make other platforms frustrating to use.

Much better accuracy when it matters - Circleback's AI does a notably better job understanding what's happening in your meetings. Even when people talk over each other or use technical language, it keeps track of who said what and captures the important details. Users consistently notice how well it handles complex conversations with lots of participants, getting the speaker names right and keeping up with the flow even when discussions get heated or dive deep into technical topics.

Built with privacy in mind - Instead of making you choose between useful features and keeping sensitive conversations private, Circleback builds privacy protection right into how it works. You get more control over your data and clearer policies about how it's handled. Professional services firms that used to avoid AI meeting tools entirely have found Circleback's approach much more comfortable for their compliance needs and client relationships.

Adapts to how you actually work - Circleback shines because you can adjust how it behaves in different situations. You can tune what it pays attention to during recordings and how it presents information afterward. This makes it feel less like an intrusive bot that everyone has to work around and more like a helpful team member that understands your specific needs and workflows.

Actually understands your business context - What really makes Circleback different is how it grasps not just the words people say, but what those conversations mean for your business. It recognizes which action items are urgent, understands strategic discussions, and creates summaries that reflect what actually matters to your team rather than just listing everything chronologically.

The end result feels more like having a really capable assistant who gets it, rather than a clunky robot that people just put up with.

Circleback provides best-in-class AI meeting notes and automations

Circleback provides best-in-class AI-powered meeting notes and automations. We support over 100 languages and automatic participant identification in both in-person and online meetings.

• Automatically-identified and assigned action items

• AI-enabled search across all meetings

• Automations with 100+ app integrations

• Industry-leading security with SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and HIPAA compliance

• Ability to capture both online and in-person meetings with desktop and mobile apps