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AI meeting assistant that doesn’t join your meeting: what to check

There are two kinds of AI meeting assistants: ones that join your meeting as an extra attendee, and ones that run on your own computer beside it. In a client meeting, that difference matters.

Updated 12 November 2026 · 5 min read · Published by Interview Sarthi, makers of Meeting Sarthi (help in client meetings on Windows)

Short answer: If you don’t want an extra attendee in a client meeting, choose an assistant that runs on your own PC. Then check four things: does it work in every meeting app your clients use, does it help during the meeting or only after, where are your files and transcripts kept, and how do you pay. Meeting Sarthi is one such Windows app.

Two ways a meeting assistant can work

It joins the meeting. An extra account enters the meeting and records or transcribes it. Fireflies, which makes both kinds of tool, describes its own meeting assistant this way: “A separate account dials into your call and appears as ‘Notetaker’ in the attendee list.” It adds that “Some companies block them”. (Fireflies’ own article, checked 12 November 2026.)

It runs on your computer. The assistant is an app on your own PC. It works with the meeting’s sound on your computer, so nothing is added to the meeting and nobody has to let it in. It does not matter which meeting app the client chose.

Why this matters in client meetings

• No unknown name in the meeting. An extra attendee the client did not invite has to be admitted and often gets asked about. That is not the start you want with a client.
• The client picks the meeting app. A client may send a Teams link one week and a Google Meet or Webex link the next. An app on your own PC works in all of them.
• Their company sets the rules. If the client’s company does not let outside accounts into its meetings, an assistant that needs to join simply cannot help you there.

What to check before you choose

1. Every meeting app. Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex and whatever else your clients use.
2. During, not only after. Many tools give you notes after the meeting. In a client meeting, the hard part is the question you have to answer now. Look for help while the meeting is on: live captions and a reply you can use.
3. Answers from your own work. A general AI answer is not much use when the client asks about your project. The assistant should answer from your own notes and documents, and it should never make up a date, a name or a number.
4. Where your data stays. Client projects are sensitive. Prefer an app that keeps your projects, documents and transcripts on your own computer.
5. How you pay. A monthly subscription, or a pass paid once. Check what is free, and whether it renews by itself.
6. Your PC. Check the Windows version it needs before you install it.

Be open about it

An assistant that does not join the meeting is still an assistant. Fireflies puts it plainly: “Bot-free recording must not mean recording in secret.” Follow your workplace’s and your client’s rules on AI tools, and where the law asks for consent to record or transcribe a meeting, ask for it.

Meeting Sarthi in short

Meeting Sarthi is a Windows app for client meetings. It runs on your own PC beside the meeting, on Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex or any other app:

• It never joins the meeting. Nobody is invited and nothing is added to the meeting.
• Live captions of what is said, which helps when an accent is hard to follow.
• A short reply from your own project to what the client just asked: from the notes and documents you confirmed (PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, PowerPoint, text or a connected folder; Git, GitHub and Jira read-only).
• It never invents dates, names or numbers. When there is nothing to go on, it suggests “I’ll confirm and get back to you.”
• A recap with to-dos after the meeting, as drafts you confirm.

Captions and recaps are free. Live answers are free for the first 30 minutes on each computer, then ₹299 for 30 days on 2 computers, paid once and never renewing. It needs Windows 10 (version 2004 or later) or Windows 11 and your own free Google Gemini key, and your projects, notes, documents and transcripts stay on your computer.

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