Calendly Enters the Meeting Note-Taking Space

Note-taking has quickly evolved into a vital component of productivity, with various workplace software providers working to develop AI that automates tasks from action items derived from meeting records. Calendly, known for its scheduling and meeting booking tools, is now exploring the note-taking sector.

Like other players in the market, Calendly’s note-taking feature joins meetings, captures audio and video, and transcribes the information. It then produces summaries and action items, along with drafting follow-up emails. The company has also announced that it is testing a Granola-like functionality that employs system audio for meeting transcription.

Furthermore, Calendly will introduce an AI assistant named Callie, designed to leverage the company’s existing meeting and scheduling framework to organize meetings, verify attendee availability, and provide context from prior meetings. (Earlier this year, the meeting note-taking startup Read AI launched a similar email-based assistant.)

Calendly CEO Tope Awotona stated that the company’s goal is to automate workflows for its primary users—individuals in client-oriented roles like sales and marketing, who often have their days dominated by meetings.

However, the competition in this domain is intense. On one side, you have specialized meeting note-taking applications such as Granola, Fireflies, Read AI, Otter, and Fathom; while on the other side, productivity platforms like Notion, ClickUp, and Wispr have incorporated note-taking assistants and features into their products.

Despite the stiff competition, Awotona sees considerable potential in automating tasks that follow the transcription of meetings.

“There’s a wide range of note-takers, and they all excel at documenting and transcribing notes. However, most tasks occur after meetings. We believe that’s where our note-takers can significantly boost efficiency,” he remarked.

In light of privacy violation allegations faced by some competitors in this area, including Otter and Granola, Awotona assured that Calendly’s note-taker will inform users when their meeting is being recorded. The recording assistant will deliver a message in the chat to notify everyone of its presence and activity, and any participant can ask the app to leave the conversation. Additionally, it can alert attendees about the recording in advance, thanks to its integration with Calendly’s scheduling system.