Otter.ai, Inc. is an American transcription software company headquartered in Mountain View, California. The company develops speech-to-text transcription applications using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its primary software, called Otter, displays captions for live speakers and generates written transcriptions of speech, primarily targeting meetings, lectures, and interviews. While the software has been praised for its functionality, it has also faced privacy concerns, including allegations that the company records users' conversations without consent.
The company was founded in 2016 by Sam Liang and Yun Fu, two computer science engineers with extensive backgrounds in artificial intelligence. Initially operating under the name AISense, the company rebranded to Otter.ai in early 2020. Otter.ai's products are available across multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, and web browsers, and integrate with popular video conferencing tools.
History
Otter.ai was founded as AISense in 2016 by Sam Liang and Yun Fu. In January 2018, the company announced a partnership with Zoom Video Communications to transcribe video meetings post-conference. In March of that year, the company debuted its first Otter speech translation app at Mobile World Congress, available for free on Google's Android and Apple's mobile products. In October 2018, the company launched Otter for Education, a note-taking tool designed for college students.
In March 2019, Otter.ai launched Otter for Teams, a transcription and storage product for enterprises. In January 2020, now doing business as Otter.ai, the company announced a US$10 million funding round led by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT Docomo's Docomo Ventures. In April 2020, the company announced it was offering Live Notes for Zoom calls, allowing real-time transcription during virtual meetings.
Technology
To develop its speech transcription technology, the company says it combined deep machine learning using millions of hours of audio recordings, which were analyzed to train the software and improve transcription capabilities. The company states that it uses proprietary algorithms to scour the web for usable audio segments. The underlying technology leverages deep learning techniques and neural networks to recognize speech patterns, handle multiple speakers, and generate accurate captions and transcripts.
OtterPilot
In February 2023, Otter.ai launched an AI meeting assistant called OtterPilot, available to all users. OtterPilot automates meetings by providing an AI-generated summary of key meeting topics, automated capture of images of slides shared during virtual meetings, and real-time meeting notes that can be shared and collaborated on. It includes Otter Assistant, which can automatically join meetings on a user's calendar and transcribe conversations without manual initiation.
Privacy and security
Otter.ai has faced significant privacy scrutiny. The University of Massachusetts banned the software on the basis that it violates Massachusetts' requirement for all-party consent to record a conversation. Users have also complained that Otter has joined meetings unasked when linked to a calendar application.
In March 2018, technology news site ZDNet reported issues with Otter.ai's privacy policy, noting that the company could access uploaded recordings and transcriptions. In response, Otter.ai updated its policy and stated that only the company's chief technology officer would allow access to transcriptions, and only in response to a 'legitimate user request'. In 2022, Politico highlighted further concerns after the company queried journalist Phelim Kine about the purpose of a meeting transcribed through Otter.ai, which involved a discussion with Mustafa Aksu, a Uyghur human rights advocate. Kine reported receiving an unusual survey from Otter.ai referencing the interview's title, leading to fears of potential surveillance or data leaks. Although Otter.ai confirmed the legitimacy of the survey, they later retracted that statement and advised Kine to ignore it.
A 2025 class-action lawsuit (N.D. Cal., No. 5:25-cv-06911) filed in California alleges that Otter.ai records users' conversations without their permission, to use as AI training data. The key claims include violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Specific allegations include that OtterPilot joined Zoom meetings without participant knowledge, that voiceprints were collected to identify speakers without written consent, that auto-join was enabled by default and continued after users disabled it, and that default configuration did not notify non-users. Additional AI recording lawsuits include Cruz v. Fireflies.AI (Illinois BIPA, December 2025), Galanter v. Cresta (CIPA, June 2025), and Lisota v. Heartland Dental (federal wiretap, July 2025).
Reception
Digital media website Mashable and technology publication Fast Company named Otter one of the best apps of 2018. The software has been generally praised for its accuracy, ease of use, and integration with popular tools like Zoom and Google Calendar. However, the privacy concerns and legal challenges have tempered its reception among privacy-conscious users and institutions.
See also
- Deep learning
- Speech recognition
- Meeting transcription