Sembly AI

How much of your week is spent in meetings? And how much of that time is spent frantically typing, trying to capture every little detail, only to forget who was assigned what by the time you close your laptop? It's a tale as old as time, or at least as old as the conference call. For years, I've been on a personal quest for the holy grail of productivity: a way to be fully present in a discussion without the dread of post-meeting admin looming over my head.

I’ve tried everything. Fancy notebooks. A dozen different note-taking apps. Even roping in a junior team member to be the designated scribe (sorry, Dave). Nothing quite stuck. Then, I started hearing the buzz about AI meeting assistants. Skeptical? You bet I was. But the promise was too good to ignore. So, I took the plunge with a tool that kept popping up on my radar: Sembly AI.

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So, What Exactly is Sembly AI?

On the surface, Sembly AI is an AI-powered tool that joins your online meetings on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. It records, transcribes, and creates a summary. Simple enough. But calling Sembly just a transcription service is like calling a smartphone just a telephone. It misses the whole point.

Think of it less as a tape recorder and more as a brilliant, slightly nerdy, and incredibly efficient team member who attends every meeting for you. This assistant—they even call it a “Semblian”—doesn't just type out what's said. It understands the conversation. It identifies topics, pulls out key items, and most importantly, figures out who needs to do what. It's the difference between getting a raw block of text and getting an actionable intelligence report. And frankly, that’s a game-changer.

Getting Started: Easier Than I Thought

My first thought was, “Great, another complicated tool to set up.” I was pleasantly surprised. I started with the Chrome extension, which was a straightforward install from the Web Store. After linking my Google Calendar, Sembly automatically knew about my upcoming meetings. You can configure it to auto-join or to ask for permission each time. I went with auto-join because, well, I’m lazy.

The first time the little “Sembly AI is attending this meeting” notification popped up in my Zoom call, I felt a strange mix of futuristic excitement and the fear of a robot uprising. But within minutes, I forgot it was even there. That’s the beauty of it. It’s a silent partner, doing its work in the background.

The Core Features That Actually Move the Needle

A lot of SaaS tools are packed with features that look great on a pricing page but you never actually use. Sembly has its share of bells and whistles, but a few core functions are where it truly shines.

AI-Generated Notes and “Glance” Summaries

This is the bread and butter. A few minutes after a meeting ends, you get an email. Inside, you find a link to the meeting's dashboard. You get a full, time-stamped transcript, which is great. But the real magic is the “Glance View.” It’s a beautifully structured summary with bullet points of key topics discussed. No more sifting through an hour of conversation to find that one sentence about Q3 budget adjustments. It’s right there. The accuracy can depend on audio quality—if everyone’s talking over each other with bad mics, the AI is going to struggle. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say.

Task and Action Item Identification

This, for me, is its main feature. How many times has an action item been lost in the ether? Sembly’s AI is impressively good at spotting phrases like “I’ll send that over by Friday” or “Can you take the lead on the client report?” It pulls these out into a dedicated “Tasks” section, complete with the person it was likely assigned to. It’s not 100% perfect, but it’s about 95% perfect, and that’s a whole lot better than my human brain at 4 PM on a Thursday. This single feature has probably saved me more follow-up emails than I can count.

The Power of Multi-Meeting AI Chat

Okay, this part is pretty cool. Sembly has an AI chat feature, kind of like a private ChatGPT for your meetings. You can ask it questions like, “What did we decide about the marketing campaign in our last three meetings?” and it will search across those transcripts to give you a synthesized answer. It’s like having a searchable, collective memory for your entire team. For long-running projects with multiple check-ins, this is just incredible.

Integrations: Does It Play Nicely?

A tool is only as good as its ability to fit into your existing workflow. Sembly nails this. It works natively with the big three: Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams, plus Webex. But it also has integrations for Slack, Trello, Asana, and various CRMs through Zapier. So, those tasks it identifies? You can have them automatically sent to your project management board. That’s when you start feeling like you're living in the future.

Let's Talk Turkey: Sembly AI's Pricing Structure

Alright, the all-important question: what’s this going to cost me? Sembly has a few tiers, and I think they're pretty reasonably structured.

"The cost of a tool should be measured against the time it saves you. For me, Sembly pays for itself in just a couple of hours of avoided admin work each month."

Here’s a quick breakdown of their plans. Prices are per month when billed annually.

The Personal plan is a great, no-risk way to see if you like it, but the 60-minute limit means you’ll hit that wall fast. The Professional plan at $10 is the sweet spot for individuals. Unlimited online meetings is huge. The Team plan makes sense once you want to share workspaces and get that collective meeting memory I talked about.

Who Should Use Sembly AI? (And Who Can Probably Skip It)

After a solid month of use, I have a pretty clear idea of who gets the most out of this.

This is a dream tool for:

• Project Managers & Team Leads: Keeping track of deliverables and deadlines across multiple projects becomes almost automatic.
• Agencies & Client-Facing Roles: You can focus 100% on the client conversation, knowing every detail is captured perfectly for your proposals and reports.
• Fully Remote or Hybrid Teams: It's the great equalizer. Everyone gets the same perfect notes, whether they were in the room or dialing in from a coffee shop.

You might not need it if:

• You have very few meetings: If your calendar is mostly empty, the value proposition obviously drops.
• Your meetings are highly informal: For quick, casual chats, bringing in an AI assistant might feel like overkill.
• You work in a super high-security environment: While Sembly is SOC 2 compliant, some organizations will just have a blanket ban on third-party tools in meetings, and that's a hurdle you can't clear.

My Final Verdict

So, is Sembly AI worth it? For me, it's a resounding yes. It's not just another tool; it's a fundamental shift in how I approach my workday. The mental space it frees up is enormous. I'm more engaged in conversations, I'm not worried about missing things, and my follow-up game has never been stronger.

It's not perfect. It's an AI, not a mind reader. But it’s one of the first AI productivity tools I’ve used that feels less like a gimmick and more like a genuine, indispensable assistant. That tireless intern I was looking for? I think I finally found them. And they don't even need a desk.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does Sembly AI actually join the meetings?

Once you sync your calendar (Google or Outlook), Sembly sees your scheduled meetings. You can set it to auto-join calls that have a Zoom, Google Meet, or MS Teams link, or you can manually invite it by adding `[email protected]` to the invite list.

2. Is Sembly AI secure for confidential meetings?

Security is a big deal, and Sembly seems to take it seriously. They are GDPR compliant and SOC 2 Type 2 certified, which is a high standard for data security and privacy. Of course, you should always check your own company's policies before using any third-party tool.

3. Can I use Sembly AI for meetings in languages other than English?

Yes, it supports multiple languages. The list is always growing, but it includes major world languages like Spanish, French, German, and more. You can typically set the language for the meeting before it starts to ensure the best transcription accuracy.

4. What happens if the audio quality of my meeting is bad?

The quality of the transcription is directly tied to the audio quality. If people have poor microphones, a lot of background noise, or are speaking over one another, the AI's accuracy will decrease. For best results, encourage participants to use good mics and speak clearly.

5. Can I upload and transcribe existing meeting recordings?

Yes! This is a great feature. All paid plans come with a monthly allowance for uploading pre-recorded audio or video files. Sembly will process them just like a live meeting, giving you the transcript, summary, and task list.

References and Sources

• Sembly AI Official Pricing Page
• Sembly AI Chrome Web Store Extension
• Harvard Business Review - "Stop the Meeting Madness"