# AI meeting note takers for New Zealand teams. URL: https://levystreet.com/compare/ai-meeting-note-takers-nz/ Updated: 2026-10-19 AI note taker options for NZ teams: Teams Copilot, Google Meet, Zoom, Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and Granola on price, storage, consent and te reo Māori. ## Short answer For most New Zealand teams, the AI note taker to start with is the one built into the meeting platform they already pay for: Copilot in Teams, Google Meet's "Take notes for me" or Zoom's meeting summaries. Choose a standalone tool such as Otter, Fireflies, Fathom or Granola only when meetings span platforms. Whichever you use, tell participants, check where notes are stored, and test accuracy on your own meetings. - Meet notes need Workspace Business Standard; Teams needs a Copilot licence; paid Zoom includes summaries. - Otter, Fathom and Granola host data in the US; Fireflies in the US and other countries. - Otter, Fathom and Granola say they train their own models on de-identified meeting data; check opt-outs. - Of the tools checked, only Fireflies lists te reo Māori as a transcription language. - The Privacy Commissioner says recording people without telling them may breach the Privacy Act. ## How do the main AI note takers compare? Seven tools cover most of what New Zealand teams use. Three are built into meeting platforms; four are standalone and work across platforms. As listed on 20 October 2026: | Tool | How it captures | Price | Where notes are stored | Trains on your content? | Te reo Māori listed? | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Copilot in Teams | Works from the Teams transcript; all participants are notified | Copilot Business add-on NZ$34.00 a user a month, yearly, excl. tax | Transcripts in the organiser's OneDrive | No | No; lists English (New Zealand) | | Google Meet "Take notes for me" | Gemini in Meet; participants see a notice and pencil icon | Included from Workspace Business Standard, NZ$21 a user a month | Organiser's Google Drive; data regions US or Europe | No | No; eight languages | | Zoom meeting summaries and My Notes | Built in; AI icon shown to attendees | Included with Workplace Pro, NZ$24.99 a user a month billed annually, excl. tax | By the account's hosted data centre region | No | No current list found | | Otter.ai | Bot joins Zoom, Teams and Meet | Pro US$8.33, Business US$19.99 a user a month billed annually | AWS, United States | De-identified data, in-house models | No; six languages | | Fireflies.ai | Bot joins Zoom, Meet, Teams and more | Pro $10, Business $19 a seat a month billed annually | United States and other countries | No | Yes | | Fathom | Bot, or bot-free capture in beta | Team $15 a user a month billed annually, two-user minimum | United States | De-identified data, opt-out in settings | No; 38 languages | | Granola | No bot; records device audio | Business $14, Enterprise $35 a user a month | US-hosted AWS; audio not stored | Anonymised data, opt-out; off by default on Enterprise | No | Fireflies, Fathom and Granola show prices with a bare "$", so confirm currency and GST at checkout. ## Built-in or standalone: which do you need? Start with what you already pay for. If your meetings happen in one platform, its built-in note taker keeps notes inside your existing tenant, under admin controls you already run, with no extra vendor to assess. Standalone tools earn their place when meetings span platforms or the notes must feed a CRM. ### Choose a built-in note taker if - Most meetings run in Teams, Meet or a paid Zoom plan. - You want notes stored with your other Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace data. - You would rather not add another vendor to your privacy impact assessment. ### Choose a standalone tool if - Staff join client meetings on Zoom, Teams and Meet in the same week. - You need notes pushed into a CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce automatically. - You need a language the built-in tools lack, and you have tested it. Our comparison of [Copilot vs Gemini](/compare/copilot-vs-gemini/) covers the wider suite decision. ## Do you need consent to record a meeting in New Zealand? Assume you need to tell people. The Privacy Commissioner says recording someone without telling them [may breach the Privacy Act](https://www.privacy.org.nz/resources-and-learning/knowledge-base/view/31/), depending on who records and why. Recording on behalf of an organisation brings in the general collection rules, and "it might be unfair to record someone without telling them". The Commissioner also notes that recording a private conversation you are not part of could, depending on the circumstances, be a crime. This is general information, not legal advice. Three [Privacy Act](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/31/en/latest/) points apply to most business meetings: - **IPP 3.** When you collect information from people directly, take reasonable steps so they know it is being collected and why. - **IPP 3A.** Since 1 May 2026, information collected about someone not in the room, such as a client describing an employee, can carry its own [notice duty](https://www.privacy.org.nz/resources-and-learning/a-z-topics/ipp3a/). - **Offshore vendors and training.** A standalone tool that trains on your meetings is using them for its own purposes. The Commissioner's [AI guidance](https://www.privacy.org.nz/assets/New-order/Resources-/Publications/Guidance-resources/AI-Guidance-Resources-/AI-and-the-Information-Privacy-Principles.pdf) expects a privacy impact assessment before an AI tool is used. Vendors put the duty on you: Otter's terms say users "must always ask for consent", and Fathom asks you to hold "the necessary permissions and consents" before recording. ## Should a note taker join external client calls? Only with the client's agreement. A bot appearing uninvited in a client's meeting can damage trust, and the client may simply remove it. Teams, Meet and Zoom show participants that notes or transcripts are running, and Meet lets participants from the host's organisation stop note-taking. Granola adds no bot at all, so nobody else can see it: disclosure is entirely your job. - Ask in the invite: "We use [tool] to take notes; notes are stored in [place]. Happy to switch it off." - Never send a bot to a meeting you are not attending. - Pause capture for salary, health, disciplinary or legal discussion. - Share the notes with attendees so errors get corrected. - Delete recordings on a schedule you have written down. ## How well do they handle New Zealand accents and te reo Māori? Only what vendors document can be said with confidence, and we have not tested any of them on te reo Māori or New Zealand accents. Teams transcription lists [English (New Zealand)](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-download-live-transcripts-in-microsoft-teams-meetings) as a spoken language. Fireflies lists [Māori](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/2973706448-learn-about-fireflies-supported-languages) among more than 100 languages. Google Meet's notes support eight languages, one per meeting, and Granola, Fathom and Otter publish lists without te reo Māori. The Privacy Commissioner's guidance records concern that systems built overseas may not work accurately for Māori. Test before you rely on any of them: 1. **Pick three recorded internal meetings** with consent: one routine, one with heavy jargon, one where te reo Māori or strong regional accents are spoken. 2. **Run each tool on the same recordings** and keep a human-written action list for each meeting. 3. **Count errors that matter:** wrong owners, wrong dates, misspelt names and place names, invented decisions. 4. **Decide per meeting type,** not per tool. Our lesson on [turning meeting notes into actions](/learn/turning-meeting-notes-into-actions/) shows how to check an action table against its source. ## What do they cost for a 10-person team? Worked example at list prices on 20 October 2026, annual billing where offered. | Option | Monthly | Yearly | Note | |---|---|---|---| | Meet, already on Workspace Business Standard | NZ$0 extra | NZ$0 extra | Notes included | | Meet, upgrading from Business Starter | 10 × NZ$10.50 = NZ$105 | NZ$1,260 | Adds Gemini in Docs and Sheets too | | Zoom Workplace Pro | 10 × NZ$24.99 = NZ$249.90 | NZ$2,998.80 | Excl. GST; includes the meeting platform | | Copilot in Teams | 10 × NZ$34.00 = NZ$340 | NZ$4,080 | Excl. GST; Copilot covers far more than meetings | | Granola Business | 10 × $14 = $140 | $1,680 | Currency not labelled | | Fathom Team | 10 × $15 = $150 | $1,800 | Currency not labelled | | Otter Business | 10 × US$19.99 = US$199.90 | US$2,398.80 | USD | The licence is rarely the real cost. Illustrative: ten people each spending five minutes fixing notes from four meetings a week is over three hours of staff time a week. Accuracy on your meetings matters more than a few dollars a seat. ## Where AI note takers go wrong - **Invented commitments.** Summaries can turn "we should look at that" into an action with an owner. Check against the transcript; see [using AI for meeting preparation](/learn/using-ai-for-meeting-preparation/) for the other end of the meeting. - **Language limits.** Meet does not support several languages in one meeting, so bilingual hui need human notes or another tool. - **Free plans at work.** Free tiers often carry training defaults that business plans do not. - **Everything recorded.** Transcripts are discoverable records. Write retention rules into your [AI use policy](/resources/ai-use-policy-template-for-nz-smbs/). - **Notes nobody uses.** Pipe actions into the system where work happens, as in [meeting actions into project systems](/industries/professional-services/meeting-actions-into-project-systems/), and train the team on what good notes look like through our [AI training for business teams](/services/ai-training/). ## Questions people ask ### Do I need consent to use an AI note taker in a New Zealand meeting? The Privacy Commissioner says recording someone without telling them may breach the Privacy Act, depending on who records and why, and that recording on behalf of an organisation brings in the general collection rules. In practice: tell everyone before you start, name the tool, and switch it off if someone objects. This is general information; get legal advice for employment, legal or health conversations. ### Which AI note taker is free? Several have free tiers, as listed on 20 October 2026. Zoom's free Workplace Basic plan includes meeting summaries for three hosted meetings a month. Otter Basic includes 300 transcription minutes a month, Fireflies has a free plan with limited AI summaries, Fathom's free plan offers unlimited recordings, and Granola Basic is free with 30 days of meeting history. Check training settings on free plans before using them for work. ### Can AI note takers transcribe te reo Māori? Of the seven tools we checked on 20 October 2026, only Fireflies lists Māori among its transcription languages; we found no current list for Zoom. Teams transcription lists English (New Zealand) but not te reo Māori, and Google Meet's notes support eight languages, none of them te reo. We have not tested accuracy on te reo Māori or New Zealand accents, so test on your own recordings before relying on any tool. ### Where do AI meeting notes get stored? Built-in tools keep notes with your existing data: Teams transcripts sit in the organiser's OneDrive, and Meet saves notes to the organiser's Google Drive. Zoom stores data by your account's hosted data centre region. Otter, Fathom and Granola say they host in the United States, and Fireflies says servers in the United States and other countries. Record each in your privacy impact assessment. ### Is it rude to send an AI note taker to a client meeting? It can be, and a client may simply remove an uninvited bot. Ask before the meeting, say which tool you use and where notes are stored, and offer to share the notes. Never send a bot in your place to a meeting you are not attending. Tools that record device audio without a bot, such as Granola, are invisible to others, so the duty to tell them is entirely yours. ## Sources - [Microsoft Copilot plans and pricing for business (NZ)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/copilot/pricing/business) - [Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Microsoft Teams](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/platform/frequently-asked-questions-about-copilot-in-microsoft-teams) - [Start, stop and download live transcripts in Teams meetings](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams/meetings/start-stop-and-download-live-transcripts-in-microsoft-teams-meetings) - [Take notes for me in Google Meet](https://support.google.com/meet/answer/14754931?hl=en) - [Let Google Meet AI take notes for my users](https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/meet/let-google-meet-ai-take-notes-for-my-users) - [Google Workspace pricing (NZ)](https://workspace.google.com/pricing?hl=en_nz) - [ZoomMate vs Zoom AI features](https://community.zoom.com/success-guides-zoommate-85/zoommate-vs-zoom-ai-features-80966) - [Zoom Workplace pricing](https://zoom.us/pricing) - [Zoom AI Whitepaper: models, processing, storage and usage](https://library.zoom.com/ai/ai-whitepaper/models-processing-storage-and-usage) - [Zoom AI Whitepaper: user transparency and notice](https://library.zoom.com/ai/ai-whitepaper/user-transparency-and-notice) - [Otter.ai pricing](https://otter.ai/pricing) - [Otter.ai privacy and security](https://otter.ai/privacy-security) - [Otter.ai privacy policy](https://otter.ai/privacy-policy) - [Fireflies.ai pricing](https://fireflies.ai/pricing) - [Learn about Fireflies supported languages](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/2973706448-learn-about-fireflies-supported-languages) - [Fireflies.ai privacy policy](https://fireflies.ai/privacy-policy) - [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing) - [Fathom privacy policy](https://www.fathom.ai/privacy) - [What languages does Fathom support?](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296192) - [Granola pricing](https://www.granola.ai/pricing) - [Granola security](https://www.granola.ai/security) - [Can I record someone without telling them?](https://www.privacy.org.nz/resources-and-learning/knowledge-base/view/31/) - [Privacy Act 2020](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/31/en/latest/) - [IPP 3A: collecting personal information from another source](https://www.privacy.org.nz/resources-and-learning/a-z-topics/ipp3a/) - [Artificial intelligence and the Information Privacy Principles](https://www.privacy.org.nz/assets/New-order/Resources-/Publications/Guidance-resources/AI-Guidance-Resources-/AI-and-the-Information-Privacy-Principles.pdf) Published by Levy Street (https://levystreet.com), Wellington, New Zealand.