Sembly: Free AI Meeting Assistant for Transcription & Summaries

As a project manager juggling multiple clients, my calendar is a relentless stream of back-to-back online meetings. For years, my biggest challenge was being fully present in a discussion while simultaneously trying to capture every important detail, decision, and action item. My notes were often a chaotic mess of half-formed sentences and missed key points. I’d finish a call on Zoom or Google Meet, immediately jump into the next, and by the end of the day, the crucial details from the morning’s discussion would be a blur. This is the exact problem that led me on a search for an AI meeting assistant, and that’s how I stumbled upon Sembly.

My initial thought was, “Can an AI really replace manual note-taking?” I was skeptical but decided to try their free plan. The sign-up process was seamless—I just connected my Google account, and it instantly synced with my calendar. There was no request for a credit card, a huge plus for anyone searching for genuinely free online tools.

I decided to put Sembly to the test on a high-stakes client kickoff call the very next day. Before the meeting, I saw that “Sembly Notetaker” was already scheduled to attend the Google Meet call, just like a human participant. During the meeting, I made a conscious effort to stop typing and focus entirely on the conversation, trusting the AI to do its job. It felt strange at first, but it allowed me to engage more deeply, ask better questions, and build a stronger rapport with the client.

About ten minutes after the call ended, I received an email notification. Sembly had processed the meeting. I clicked the link, and what I saw was a complete game-changer. It wasn’t just a wall of text. Sembly provided a full, speaker-identified transcript that was incredibly accurate. But the real magic was in their “GlanceView™” summary. This AI meeting assistant automatically transcribes the entire conversation and then summarizes it into a digestible format. It had pulled out key topics, outlined the decisions made, and, most importantly, created a clean list of action items with assigned owners.

I could instantly see tasks like “Alex to send over the initial design mockups by Friday” and “Sarah to schedule the Q2 planning session.” This feature alone saved me at least 30 minutes of deciphering my messy notes and writing a follow-up email. The ability to extract action items/insights from online meetings is not just a feature; it’s a productivity multiplier.

Over the next few weeks, I used Sembly for all my important calls across Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. The experience was consistent and reliable. The platform created a searchable library of all my meetings. A week later, when a client asked, “What did we decide about the budget for Phase 2?”, I didn’t have to panic. I simply went into my Sembly dashboard, typed “budget Phase 2,” and it instantly pulled up the exact moment in the transcript where we discussed it.

This AI-powered tool that automatically transcribes and summarizes meetings has become an indispensable part of my workflow. It has not only eliminated the stress of note-taking but has also created a perfect, searchable record of every important conversation. For anyone looking to improve their meeting productivity, Sembly is a fantastic free alternative to expensive transcription services. The clarity it provides is also invaluable for collaborative work; having an accurate transcript is a great foundation before using other [free project management tools] to track the action items Sembly identifies.

Key Features:

• High-Accuracy Transcription: Automatically transcribes your meetings with speaker identification, providing a detailed and searchable text record of your entire conversation.
• AI-Generated Summaries (GlanceView™): Goes beyond simple transcription to provide intelligent summaries that highlight key topics, decisions, issues, risks, and other crucial insights.
• Automated Action Item Extraction: Sembly’s AI scans the conversation to identify and list clear action items, tasks, and follow-ups, ensuring nothing gets missed.
• Seamless Cross-Platform Integration: Works effortlessly as an AI meeting assistant for Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Simply connect your calendar, and Sembly joins your calls automatically.
• Searchable Meeting Library: All your recorded meetings are stored in a centralized, searchable library, allowing you to quickly find specific information from past conversations.
• Meeting Notes and Bookmarks: You can add your own notes, comments, and bookmarks directly to the transcript for personal reference or to share with your team.
• Shareable Meeting Reports: Easily share the complete meeting summary, transcript, and key moments with attendees or anyone who couldn’t make the call.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• How does Sembly join my online meetings? Once you connect your calendar (Google or Outlook), Sembly identifies your scheduled online meetings. You can configure it to automatically send a “notetaker” agent to join your calls on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or MS Teams. The agent appears as a participant, and it’s best practice to inform other attendees that the call is being recorded and transcribed by an AI assistant.
• How accurate is the transcription provided by this AI meeting assistant? Sembly’s transcription is highly accurate, especially in scenarios with clear audio and minimal background noise. It effectively identifies different speakers and handles various accents well. While no AI transcription is 100% perfect, it is more than reliable for creating summaries, extracting action items, and serving as a searchable record of the conversation.
• Is my meeting data kept private and secure? Sembly states that they take data security seriously. They use enterprise-grade security protocols to encrypt and protect your data. Your meeting recordings and transcripts are private to your account, and you have full control over who you share them with.