Zoom AI Companion, Gemini, Teams Copilot — do you still need a meeting assistant?

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At a glance

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Three real limits of the built-ins

1. They’re platform-locked. Zoom AI Companion only helps in Zoom, Gemini only in Meet, Copilot only in Teams. If your week spans all three — plus a phone call or an in-person meeting — your notes and history are fragmented across vendors, with different formats and no single search. Raven is one tool for every call and in-room audio.
2. They’re after-the-fact. They transcribe and summarize once the meeting ends. None of them sit beside you during the call suggesting what to say, surfacing an answer to a hard question, or running a live sales/interview checklist — and none are hidden from screen share. That live moment is Raven’s whole reason to exist.
3. Your meetings feed the platform vendor. Content is processed in Microsoft’s, Google’s, or Zoom’s cloud under your organization’s agreement and admin controls (which can also switch the feature off). Raven keeps transcripts and notes on your machine and only sends audio to the transcription/AI providers you chose with your own keys — and because it’s open source, that data path is auditable.

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When the built-ins are the right call (honestly)

• You use exactly one platform and never leave it.
• You only want a post-meeting recap, not live help.
• It’s already included in your plan and you don’t want to install anything.

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When Raven fits better

• You bounce between Zoom, Meet, Teams, phone, and in-person and want one consistent tool and history.
• You want help during the call, invisible on screen share.
• You want meetings kept local and a tool you can audit — not another feed into a platform vendor.
• You’d rather pay your AI provider cents than add a per-seat Copilot license.