AI note takers: a growing market

These searches belong together because they do one job: getting the notes of a meeting, call or conversation written for you, so nobody has to type while they listen. People reach for software that records a video call and summarises it, and for small recorders that capture a room or a phone call, and they search both by brand and by the job (an AI note taker for meetings, for in-person meetings, an AI recorder).

The brands lead the demand. Plaud, the maker of card-sized and wearable AI voice recorders, draws 60,500 searches a month and rose 197% over the last 12 months against the 12 before; its Plaud Note draws 14,800 and rose 267%. Granola, a meeting notepad that works without a bot joining the call, draws 33,100 and rose 325%. The generic searches grew more slowly but steadily: AI note taking (22,200 a month) rose 74% and AI note taking app (3,600) 53%. Across the members, the median year-on-year rise is 220%.

The newest phrasings show where the job is moving: away from video calls and into the room. AI note taker for in-person meetings and AI recorder note taker are small searches that only appeared in the last year and are too sparse to measure beyond their direction, which is up; AI voice recorder already draws 6,600 searches a month. The buyers are consultants, salespeople, clinicians, students and anyone in back-to-back meetings.

For a founder, the head of the market is crowded with funded software, and video-call platforms build notes in for free. The openings are at the edges: capture hardware and cheaper alternatives to Plaud, tools for in-person and phone conversations, notes for one profession's own workflow, and honest comparisons. Most members dipped over the summer, so read them year on year.