Otter.ai note-taking tool can now follow conversations across 30+ languages
AI-powered note-taker Otter.ai is expanding language support to 31 languages and adding a feature that detects language switches mid-meeting. Fourteen of the new languages are still to come.
Otter.ai, the company behind an AI-powered meeting note-taking and transcription tool, announced on Tuesday a broader set of multilingual features. They include a new capability that can keep up with a conversation when participants switch from one language to another within the same meeting. Once the rollout is finished, the platform will support 31 languages in total, which the company describes as its largest language expansion so far.
The new feature automatically detects language changes and keeps transcribing without users having to change any settings. A call might, for instance, move from English to Korean and then to Portuguese, and Otter would follow throughout. The company says this targets a common problem for international teams, whose meetings and collaboration can be complicated by language differences.
Which languages are added
In all, 27 languages are being added. Thirteen are available now: Mandarin Chinese, Korean, German, Italian, Cantonese, Portuguese, Russian, Indonesian, Malay, Dutch, Turkish, Vietnamese and Polish.
The other 14 are coming soon: Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Hebrew, Norwegian, Greek, Macedonian, Persian, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian.
The new languages run on Otter's own speech models. The company says it trained them on publicly available datasets and enlisted native-speaking volunteers to review transcripts and check accuracy.
Beyond transcription
The announcement comes as Otter moves beyond transcription into other workplace AI tools. The company recently secured $320 million in funding from General Catalyst, the investment firm. It also introduced Work Mode, which uses meeting history and connected apps to help users prepare for upcoming calls, for example by pulling in earlier customer conversations, outstanding action items and recent Google Drive files. Another recent addition, Live Assist, offers real-time coaching during meetings based on what has already been discussed and what is happening at the moment.
