Everyone's rushing to trial these AI meeting assistants like MeetGeek, eager to see the magic transcripts and summaries. They're dazzled by the shiny features and forget to ask what happens after the novelty wears off. If you're starting a trial, you're already behind the eight ball if you're just looking at transcription accuracy. That's table stakes. The real evaluation begins with the long-term consequences of embedding this tool into your workflow.
First, scrutinize what "integration" actually means. Does it just pull calendar invites, or does it create a data pipeline into their proprietary system? Track where your raw meeting audio and video ends up. Is it processed on their servers indefinitely? What are the data retention policies, and can you truly delete it? If your business handles anything sensitive, this is your first red flag. A slick API is a gilded cage.
Next, move beyond the feature list and measure the lock-in velocity. How many manual steps does it take to get a meeting summary into your actual system of record, like your CRM or project management tool? If it's more than two clicks, you're looking at friction that will kill adoption. More importantly, test the export functionality. Can you get a clean, structured data dump of all transcripts, action items, and summaries in an open format like JSON or plain text, or are they presented only in their pretty, walled-garden interface? The inability to cleanly extract your own data is the earliest warning sign of vendor captivity.
Finally, calculate the hidden costs. Sure, there's a monthly per-seat price. But what is the cost of the context lost when summaries oversimplify complex discussions? You need to spot-check meetings where nuanced debate happened. Does the tool reduce it to generic bullet points that miss the subtle disagreements that are crucial for decision-making? Also, factor in the compliance overhead. If this tool is now a data processor, does it necessitate amendments to your DPAs or increase your audit surface area? The cheapest per-user license can become the most expensive line item when you account for the legal and security review required to use it properly.
Track these metrics: data sovereignty and exit capabilities, not just word error rates. The trial should be a stress test of your future dependency, not just a demo of their features.
Just my two cents
Skeptic by default