To take notes in an in-person meeting with AI, record the conversation with a microphone close to the table (the computer's, the phone's or a voice recorder), transcribe the recording separating who is speaking and then get the notes or the minutes. The program matters less than the audio: with distant or overlapping voices, no AI gets it right.
What changes in an in-person meeting
At a law firm, many of the important meetings are still in person: the client's first consultation, preparing a witness statement, the meeting with the expert witness or the negotiation with the other side's lawyer in your meeting room. An in-person meeting changes the way the audio is captured: all the voices reach the same microphone, from different distances and with the room's echo. In a video call each participant speaks into their own microphone and the platform knows who is who; around a table, it doesn't.
That has three practical consequences:
- The Teams, Meet or Zoom features don't work as they are: they transcribe and summarise meetings on their platform, not a conversation at the firm, unless the room has its own equipment or you use their feature for in-person meetings.
- Separating who is speaking is harder: the transcription has to tell the voices apart just by how they sound. That technique is called diarisation, and it makes more mistakes when two people speak at once or have similar voices.
- The microphone decides the quality: the voice of whoever is furthest away arrives weaker and with more echo, and it is the one transcribed worst.
What to record the meeting with
An in-person meeting can be recorded with the laptop, the phone, a voice recorder or the platform's feature if your organisation has it. This is how they compare:
| Laptop | Phone | AI voice recorder | Platform feature | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you need | An app that records; better with an external microphone | The phone's voice recorder app | Buying the device and, often, a transcription subscription | Google Workspace with in-person «Take notes for me», or a room with Microsoft Teams Rooms |
| Where it is transcribed | On the computer or in the cloud, depending on the app | You move the file to the computer or to a service | In the manufacturer's cloud | In Google's or Microsoft's cloud |
| Separates who is speaking | If the app has diarisation | Depends on how you transcribe it | Depends on the service | Teams Rooms identifies the people present who have a voice profile |
| Best thing about it | You record and transcribe in the same place | You always have it on you | Designed for recording outside the office | Nothing to install in the room |
Google lets you use «Take notes for me» in in-person meetings from Meet: you place the computer or the phone close to the people speaking and Gemini documents the meeting. According to its help, checked on 29 October 2026, it supports a single language per meeting, recommends meetings of at least 15 minutes and leaves the notes in the email and Drive of whoever turns it on; the organiser needs a Workspace edition that includes it.
In rooms with Microsoft Teams Rooms, each in-person attendee can create a voice profile so that the transcript identifies them by name, and the intelligent recap comes afterwards with Teams Premium or Copilot. It requires the room equipment with its licence (Teams Rooms Pro, for all the AI features) and the users' licences. If you are considering a voice recorder, we compare it with the computer in Plaud alternative.
How to place the microphone so that everyone can be understood
The microphone has to be in the centre of the conversation, at a similar distance from everyone, and away from anything that makes noise. Around a meeting table that comes down to four decisions:
- Put the microphone in the middle of the table, not in front of whoever is recording. If you use the laptop's, turn the computer towards the table or, better, connect a conference microphone.
- Keep it away from noise: the projector fan, the air conditioning, the window onto the street or the keyboard of whoever is taking notes by hand.
- Ask people to take turns. When two people speak at once, both sentences are lost and the speakers get mixed up.
- Record a one-minute test before you start and listen to it from the seat furthest from the table.
Which type of microphone suits each case, we explain in which microphone to choose: for a table, an omnidirectional conference microphone picks up everyone better than a headset.
Transcribing the meeting and separating who is speaking
A good transcript of an in-person meeting separates each speaker and marks the minute of each sentence. The first lets you read it as a conversation; the second, go back to the audio to check a sentence before quoting it.
When you finish, check three things above all: that each voice has the right name, that there aren't two «people» who are actually the same one, and that proper names, figures and dates are right. Those are the ones that later end up in minutes or in an email to the client.
With ablalo, you press «Record a meeting» in the Hearings tab and, when you stop, the recording is transcribed on your own computer: the audio is not uploaded to any server. It detects the voices and lets you listen to them and name them (client, lawyer, expert…), merge two voices that are the same person and jump to the moment of each sentence. Then you export to Word the transcript with timestamps, or only the notes you have marked. It transcribes Spanish.
From the recording to the notes or the minutes
A transcript is not yet a note: a one-hour meeting is thousands of words. To keep what is useful you have two routes.
- Summarise the transcript with an AI. Quick, but the text of the meeting goes out to the service that summarises it: with client information, check its terms first (we cover it in client confidentiality and the GDPR when using AI).
- Dictate your notes as you leave and let the AI organise them. Two minutes of speaking is enough to capture what was agreed while it is fresh, and the transcript is there to check what was said.
What the final document should include and how to ask an AI for it, we cover in meeting minutes with AI, with a template to copy.
Limits worth knowing
No tool transcribes a badly recorded in-person meeting well. Voices talking over each other, laughter, papers rustling next to the microphone and people speaking with their back turned are the most common causes of errors, and the AI cannot recover what the microphone didn't pick up.
Separating voices isn't infallible either: with similar voices or very short contributions, it can attribute a sentence to someone who didn't say it. That is why, before quoting an important sentence, it is worth listening to it at its minute. And the most important thing doesn't depend on the tool: tell the attendees you are going to record, all the more so in a meeting with the other side.
In short
To take notes in in-person meetings with clients, record with a microphone in the middle of the table, transcribe separating the speakers and get the notes from the transcript or from what you dictate as you leave. Google Meet and Microsoft Teams Rooms have features for in-person meetings with their licences; with your computer you can record and transcribe without depending on any platform, and if you transcribe on it, the recording never leaves the firm.
Sources: Google, Use «Take notes for me» in in-person meetings; Microsoft, Copilot in Teams Rooms admin guide and Intelligent recap for Teams calls, meetings and events. Checked on 29 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How do I record an in-person meeting in Teams?
Teams records and transcribes Teams meetings. For an in-person meeting you need a room with Microsoft Teams Rooms, where Copilot can identify the people present who have a voice profile; if there isn't one, record with the computer or the phone and transcribe the recording afterwards.
How do I take notes in a first consultation with a client without taking my eyes off them?
Record the meeting with the microphone in the middle of the table and jot down only what is essential. When you finish, transcribe the recording and dictate your notes in two minutes: facts, dates and outstanding documents. The transcript is there to check what the client said in their own words.
Which app records in-person meetings and makes a summary?
Google Meet does it with in-person «Take notes for me» if your Workspace edition includes it. You can also record with a desktop app that transcribes and separates the speakers, and get the summary from the transcript or from your dictated notes.
Can I record an in-person meeting with my phone?
Yes, with the phone's voice recorder app, with the phone placed in the middle of the table. Then you move the file to the computer to transcribe it; ablalo accepts M4A, MP3, WAV, OGG and other audio formats.
How can you tell who is speaking in a recording?
With diarisation, which splits the recording according to each person's voice. It labels each one with a number («Speaker 1», «Speaker 2»…) until you name them by listening to a snippet of each.
Which microphone is best for recording a meeting around a table?
An omnidirectional conference microphone in the middle of the table picks up everyone at a similar distance. We explain it in which microphone to choose.