Two AI Note Takers, Two Different Approaches
If you use Microsoft Teams and you've searched for AI meeting notes, you've probably come across Read AI. It's a well-known meeting assistant that works with Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. Beaver also supports all three platforms. But the two tools take meaningfully different approaches to privacy, features, and pricing.
This is a fair comparison. Both are solid tools. The right choice depends on what your team values most.
Read AI: What You Get
Read AI positions itself as a "meeting copilot" with a focus on engagement analytics. Key features include:
- Meeting summaries — AI-generated notes from your Teams meetings.
- Engagement scores — Read AI analyses participant engagement, speaking time, and sentiment. It tells you who was paying attention and who wasn't.
- Action items — Extracted from the conversation with assignees.
- Recording and playback — Meetings are recorded and stored for later review.
- Multi-platform — Works with Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet.
Beaver: What You Get
Beaver focuses on meeting intelligence with a privacy-first architecture. Key features include:
- Live transcription — Real-time transcript with speaker identification and timestamps.
- AI summaries — Structured notes shaped by meeting templates (General, Sprint Planning, Sales Call, 1:1, Incident Postmortem, or custom).
- Action items — Auto-extracted with assignees, priorities, and due dates.
- Commitment tracking — Promises made during meetings are logged and tracked for accountability.
- No audio recording — Audio is transcribed in real-time and discarded. No audio files are ever created or stored.
- Integrations — Push action items to Linear, Jira, GitHub, Notion, Asana, and Trello. Post summaries to Slack and Discord.
- Pre-meeting briefings — AI emails you context 30 minutes before scheduled meetings.
- Semantic search — Search across all meetings by meaning, not just keywords.
- Knowledge base — Auto-generated wiki from meeting summaries.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Read AI | Beaver |
|---|---|---|
| Live transcription | Yes | Yes |
| AI meeting summary | Yes | Yes (template-based) |
| Action item extraction | Yes | Yes (with priorities and due dates) |
| Engagement analytics | Yes — scores and sentiment | Speaker insights (speaking time, participation) |
| Commitment tracking | No | Yes — cross-meeting accountability |
| Pre-meeting briefings | No | Yes — AI context email 30 min before |
| Audio recording | Yes — audio stored | No — never recorded |
| PM tool integrations | Limited | Linear, Jira, GitHub, Notion, Asana, Trello |
| Slack/Discord sharing | Slack only | Slack and Discord |
| Semantic search | Basic | Full semantic search (RAG-powered) |
| Meeting templates | No | 5 built-in + custom |
| Knowledge base | No | Auto-generated wiki |
| On-premise option | No | Yes (Enterprise) |
| Platforms | Teams, Zoom, Meet | Teams, Meet, Zoom (Beta) |
Privacy and Data Handling
This is where the two tools diverge most significantly.
Read AI records and stores meeting audio. This means audio files of your conversations exist on Read AI's servers. For many teams — particularly in regulated industries, European organisations, or companies with strict data governance — this is a non-starter.
Beaver never records audio. The audio stream is transcribed into text in real-time and immediately discarded. No audio files are created. No recordings to breach, subpoena, or accidentally share. This approach dramatically simplifies GDPR compliance and reduces data exposure.
If your team handles sensitive information — HR discussions, financial planning, client conversations, medical consultations — the difference between "audio stored" and "no audio stored" is significant. Read more about Beaver's approach to security and privacy.
Pricing Comparison
Pricing structures differ between the two tools:
- Read AI — Offers a free tier with limited features. Paid plans start at around $19.75/user/month for the Pro tier with full AI features.
- Beaver — 7-day free trial with full features (no feature gates). After trial, $10/month for individual users. Team and Enterprise plans available.
On pure cost, Beaver is roughly half the price of Read AI's comparable tier. And Beaver's trial gives you full access from day one, while Read AI's free tier has significant limitations.
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Read AI if:
- Engagement analytics (attention scores, sentiment analysis) are a priority for your team.
- You're comfortable with audio recording and storage.
- You primarily use one platform and don't need deep PM tool integrations.
Choose Beaver if:
- Privacy is a priority — you want meeting intelligence without audio recording.
- You need deep integrations with PM tools (Linear, Jira, GitHub, Notion, Asana, Trello).
- Commitment tracking and accountability across meetings matter to your workflow.
- You work in a regulated industry or need GDPR-friendly meeting AI.
- You want pre-meeting briefings, semantic search, and a team knowledge base.
- You want a lower price point ($10/month vs ~$20/month).
The Bottom Line
Both Read AI and Beaver are capable AI meeting assistants for Microsoft Teams. Read AI's strength is engagement analytics — understanding how people participate in meetings. Beaver's strength is meeting intelligence with privacy — capturing decisions, tracking accountability, and integrating with your existing tools, all without recording audio.
For Teams users who want AI meeting notes without Copilot, either tool works. If privacy, integrations, and accountability are your priorities, Beaver is the stronger choice.
Try Beaver free for 7 days — no credit card, no audio recording — and see the difference for yourself.
