AI That Helps You During the Meeting
Most notetakers are historians: they tell you what happened after the call. A smaller group works live, answering questions, catching what you missed, and suggesting what to say next.
Reviewed by Sarah Chen | Last updated October 2026
The best real-time AI meeting assistant in 2026 is Hedy. It shows a live transcript and live coaching suggestions during any meeting, without a bot, and can run that real-time layer on-device on supported hardware. Microsoft Teams Copilot offers live Q&A and agenda tracking inside Teams. Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, and MeetGeek add live transcripts plus in-meeting AI, with Otter's coaching agent limited to Enterprise.
"Real-time" covers a range. At the bottom is a live transcript you can scroll. Above that is live Q&A: ask what was decided ten minutes ago and get an answer without interrupting. At the top is live coaching: the assistant follows the conversation and suggests questions, flags commitments, or nudges you when you are talking too much. We rank on how far up that ladder each tool goes, how quickly it responds, and whether it works across the platforms you actually use.
Hedy
Editor's Pick On-DeviceAI meeting coach with full on-device AI and real-time intelligence
The only meeting assistant among the 28 we tested with a built-in option to run its entire AI pipeline (transcription, summaries, and real-time coaching) on-device on supported hardware, making it the privacy and reliability leader for 2026.
Microsoft Teams Copilot
Built-InMicrosoft's native, agentic meeting AI built into Teams for the Microsoft 365 stack
A genuinely strong, agentic meeting assistant for Microsoft 365 shops, but it is cloud-only, locked to Teams meetings, and the real meeting AI sits behind a paid Copilot license from $21/user.
Otter.ai
CloudReal-time transcription and agentic meeting AI for teams
A powerful, increasingly agentic cloud platform for teams who prioritize collaboration and live AI over on-device privacy.
Fireflies.ai
CloudAI meeting assistant with CRM integration and conversation intelligence
Best for sales teams who need deep CRM integration and conversation analytics, now with real-time meeting features layered on top.
MeetGeek
CloudAuto-recording and agentic AI for every meeting
A capable, affordable meeting recorder that has pushed into agentic AI, well suited for small and growing teams that work inside the major video platforms.
What Each Tool Does Live
| Tool | Live transcript | Live Q&A | Live coaching |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hedy | Yes | Session chat; live suggestions surface what to ask | Yes, on every plan (free plan: first 30 minutes per session) |
| Microsoft Teams Copilot | Yes (Teams only) | Yes | Facilitator notes and agenda tracking |
| Otter.ai | Yes | Yes, via its Meeting Agent | Live Assist, Enterprise only |
| Fireflies.ai | Yes | Yes, AskFred during the meeting | No |
| MeetGeek | Yes | Yes, AI Voice Agents in Copilot Mode | Live briefing |
| Wispr Flow | Yes | "What did I miss?" catch-up | No |
| Avoma | Yes | Live answer cards (paid add-on) | No |
| Gemini in Meet | Yes (Meet only) | Yes, Ask Gemini panel | No |
Is Real-Time Worth It?
For high-stakes conversations, yes. Sales calls, negotiations, interviews you are running, and difficult one-to-ones are where the right question at the right moment is worth more than a perfect summary afterwards. Live coaching earns its keep there. For a routine status meeting, a good post-meeting summary is enough, and real-time features are a nice extra rather than a reason to switch.
Latency and placement matter more than feature lists. A suggestion that arrives thirty seconds late is noise. Tools that run their real-time layer close to the audio respond faster, and Hedy can run its real-time layer on-device on supported hardware, so it does not wait on a round trip to a server. Placement matters too: Hedy's suggestions can also appear on an Apple Watch, so you can glance at them without turning to a second screen mid-conversation.
Platform-bound tools stop at the platform edge. Teams Copilot and Gemini in Meet are excellent inside their own apps and absent everywhere else. Otter.ai's Live Assist is the closest cloud competitor to live coaching, but it is Enterprise-only, and Otter trains on de-identified customer data by default. If your conversations span several platforms and some happen in a room, a cross-platform tool is the only way to get the same live help everywhere.