Top 8 best AI note-taking tools

Artificial intelligence (AI) has many tools in its arsenal that impact productivity. We can use AI to fact-check our work, find inspirational resources, and format and clean up notes. Productive devices today are influenced by AI, such as the top Chromebooks that use Google’s Chromebook Plus program. No matter the source, AI supports us with our everyday work while allowing businesses to speed up daily workflows.

Understanding the risks of using AI note-taking tools

AI has a ways to go before it is fully accurate. You need to check the results when using these tools. If you’re selecting AI tools to audit confidential meetings or automate project outlines, be aware of the legal implications it can have, especially when working with sensitive material. If you plan to use AI note-taking tools for purposes other than personal use, assess the risks and obtain consent.

1 Microsoft OneNote With Copilot

Fantastic tool for structuring notes

Microsoft OneNote with Copilot is reliable when it comes to supercharging your productivity. It is a customizable AI-powered chatbot created by Microsoft using OpenAI technologies. Copilot summarizes your notes in an easy-to-read and shared format while offering services like making to-do lists and action plans. You can chat with Copilot on the web or inside the OneNote app to generate new ideas or find topics for a new project.

Related

What is Microsoft Copilot?

The newest AI-powered chatbot on the market has real potential

When you need inspiration (especially on an unfamiliar topic), Microsoft Copilot can point you in the right direction through conversation. On the web, Copilot allows you to choose a conversation style between More Creative, More Balanced, and More Precised to suit its answer to your content. You can then add these responses to the OneNote app.

You can access Copilot if you own a version of Windows 11 and have Microsoft 365. However, integrating Copilot with OneNote for note-taking requires a paid license. Otherwise, you’ll settle for Copilot’s free features (limited to creating summaries and to-do lists).

Microsoft Copilot

2 Notion

Feature-rich AI note-taking tool and app

Notion is another excellent note-taking app that boosts productivity. It is commonly used in the software industry to manage databases and project collaboration. Still, it has exceptional capabilities as a general note-taking app.

Notion’s AI tools summarize content and improve your draft with grammar, style, and spell-checking while suggesting ideas. You can manage to-do lists, objectives, and key results (OKRs), tag members, assign tasks and deadlines, draft documents and wikis, brainstorm ideas, and generate creative text formats.

You can add Notion AI to any plan (including the free plan). Purchasing the AI allows everyone in the workspace to use the features except guests. For monthly billings, Notion AI costs $10 per month per member (or annually billed if you pay for yearly plans). Notion also offers complimentary AI responses to sample the AI before buying the add-on.

Notion

3 Fellow

A great AI tool for meetings

Fellow’s AI is a powerful meeting assistant. It automates the transcription of meeting notes and records them, including smart summaries with action items and keynotes (highlights decisions made) based on the transcription material.

Fellow can also be used to create agendas and show relevant talking points, so you won’t go into meetings underprepared. You can integrate the AI into calendar and video conferencing apps to create Fellow meetings. The Fellow AI offers prompts and topic suggestions for these scheduled sessions. In addition to meeting set-ups, the calendar integration tool adds services such as posting a meeting summary and assigning action items after the scheduled meeting.

Fellow

4 Reflect

A handy tool to improve organization in note-taking

Reflect is a web-based note-taking app with AI tools. The AI improves note-taking by focusing on improving writing, efficiency, and organization. The AI includes smart suggestions and advanced search functions and provides backlinks to keep your notes well-connected. The app also includes end-to-end encryption and a built-in sync feature, so you can stay on top of your notes privately.

You can access the AI tools for free, but with limitations. You won’t gain full access to backlinking, the writing assistant, or the search function. So, if the basic features don’t meet your needs, choose the paid plan to unlock the AI’s full capabilities.

Reflect

5 ClickUp

Efficiently streamlines your workflow

The ClickUp platform is an excellent project management tool for small to mid-size businesses. It’s also useful if you’re a freelancer looking to improve your productivity and project management. The platform employs an AI (ClickUp Brain) powered by ChatGPT-4 Turbo to make everything accessible and automated. The AI provides services like summarization, action item identification, writing assistance, templates, and quick reply generation.

ClickUp’s AI improves workflows. It takes key points out of discussions, documents, and notes to write summaries and tasks. However, when conversing with the AI for innovation, it comes up short compared to other options on this list.

You can’t use ClickUp Brain on the free forever plan. However, ClickUp offers a free trial if you want to see what the AI is capable of. Otherwise, you’ll pay an extra $5 a month per workspace per member on any paid plan to acquire the AI add-on.

ClickUp

6 Otter.ai

Excellent real-time transcriptionist AI tool

Taking notes in a lecture can be overwhelming. Recording lectures and transcribing notes from the recorded lecture relieves some stress. However, the amount of time spent transcribing long lectures can be inconvenient. This is where an AI tool like Otter.ai comes in handy. Otter.ai records and transcribes conversations into text. You can also use the AI to identify different speakers and perform searches in the transcribed text.

You can upload old recordings and videos to receive transcriptions from Otter.ai along with live meetings. The service isn’t foolproof, as it may struggle to identify words spoken in heavier accents and only works with English speakers. Still, the AI tool is a time saver when you need to transcribe lengthy (hour-plus) meetings into notes.

Similar to Fellow, using transcription-AI services could have legal implications. Before using AI to record meetings and write notes, review the privacy policy and data collection. Otter.ai claims that data stays secure with industry-standard encryption methods, but privacy is always a concern when employing transcription tools in your work. When recording speakers, acquire consent where applicable.

Otter.ai

7 Notebook LM

Shows promise as an AI Notebook

Notebook LM is a young product being developed by Google and has a limited public release (it’s only available in the US for 18+ with Experimental Apps enabled). However, as an AI tool for note-taking, it has potential. Notebook LM integrates AI into your notes to analyze your text and develop new ideas while asking questions and connecting ideas (based on your notes).

The tool isn’t only about assisting you in writing notes (it has a built-in writing tool to help with grammar checks and structure/format). It also reviews the context of your notes and sees them in a different light while gaining additional insight.

Related

I tested NotebookLM and saw the promise of something great

NotebookLM has a lot of issues, but the idea behind it has potential

Notebook LM’s most remarkable feature is how the AI assistant focuses on the context found in notes when answering queries. If you want to feed a text of information and re-organize it, Notebook LM is useful. The limited scope and release of Notebook LM means it still has a way to go to become a fully functional AI note-taking tool. Still, the easy integration of Notebook LM with other Google products (like Docs) makes it an attractive prospect. If you’re interested, sign up for the waitlist.

Google Notebook LM

8 Evernote

Helpful AI tools for starters

Evernote incorporates AI into its note-taking app but in a more limited capacity than the options listed. Using AI in Evernote may be perfect for those still warming up to using AI in note-taking and already subscribed to the app. The Evernote AI has limited use cases. It focuses on more organization and background help by enhancing the note search features and bringing in smart filing suggestions for improved information retrieval.

It doesn’t offer additional tools to improve your workflow. However, it uses AI Edit (replaced AI Note Cleanup) to fix grammar and spelling, but it is only offered in the higher tier (Professional) plans. If you’re still uncertain about using AI in your workflow, tools like AI Edit and AI-powered search are optional. Evernote brought in heavier restrictions for note-taking on the free tier. Still, you can see what Evernote AI capabilities offer in note-taking before transitioning into more heavy-duty feature-rich AI (note-taking) options.

Evernote

AI is the future

Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. We use it as a digital assistant on our phones, integrate it into our smart homes, and chat with it online. Even the best note-taking apps are using AI to improve our workflow, making it more of an interactive experience than before. AI may be young and have a way to go before we can fully trust its accuracy, but it has its core uses.