Cluely Alternatives: 10 Professional AI Meeting Assistant Options for 2026

Cluely markets itself as an “invisible” AI copilot that feeds you answers in real time during interviews, sales calls, exams, and even dates. It listens to your audio, reads your screen, and suggests what to say without appearing in the meeting UI or recordings.

That mix of stealth and real-time coaching has made it go viral in interview and sales circles, but it has also triggered a wave of criticism about ethics, reliability, and security. Multiple reports describe a 2025 breach that exposed data from over 83,000 users, after credentials were left in a public GitHub repo, along with leaks of internal system prompts.

So it is not surprising that more professionals and companies are asking a very simple question:

“How do I get AI help in meetings without risking my job, my reputation, or my customer data?”

This guide walks through the main reasons people look for Cluely alternatives, then profiles 10 AI meeting assistants that focus on professional note-taking, transcripts, and summaries instead of hidden “cheat” overlays.

Why people look for Cluely alternatives (based on online reviews)

Public reviews, Reddit threads, comparison articles, and think-pieces on Cluely paint a pretty consistent picture. The tool is clever, but it introduces serious tradeoffs around performance, ethics, and risk.

1. Ethical and professional risks

Cluely has leaned heavily into “cheating” as a marketing angle, which is exactly why many professionals want distance from it.

• Branding centered on cheating: Business Insider and TechCrunch both frame Cluely as an AI app that “helps you cheat” in conversations and interviews, not as a standard productivity assistant.

• Policy violations: Some companies now treat tools like Cluely as violations of honesty policies if they are used in assessments, coding interviews, or proctored exams.

• Detectability in practice: Despite “ghost mode” claims, experienced interviewers can spot the pattern: delayed responses, eyes darting to a second monitor, or suddenly polished phrasing. Some reviewers explicitly warn that it is not as undetectable as marketing suggests.

For professionals who care about reputation and long-term trust, this is more than a minor concern.

2. Privacy and security concerns

• Documented data breach: According to Google Gemini, there was a 2025 incident in which data from over 83,000 Cluely users, including sensitive meetings and personal information, was exposed after credentials were left in a public GitHub repository.

• Leaked internals and prompts: Security researchers have shown that Cluely’s internal prompts and logic were shipped in plaintext inside the app, which is not what you want from a tool sitting on top of confidential calls.

For many teams, that combination is a non-starter, especially in regulated industries.

4. Feature and workflow limitations

Compared with more mature AI meeting assistants, reviewers also point out some practical gaps:

• Limited speaker separation: Transcripts often label participants in a basic way, which makes it harder to scan who said what later.

• Language support: Many reports describe Cluely as mostly English-centric, with limited support for other languages.

• Weak editing and collaboration: You do not get the same level of collaborative editing, workflow integration, or team-wide insights that dedicated meeting assistants offer.

For individual users such as students, those compromises might be acceptable. For professionals and companies, they usually are not.

10 Alternatives to Cluely for AI Meeting Assistance in 2026

Below are 10 tools that focus on more transparent transcription, summaries, and collaboration. All pricing references come from each product’s public pricing page as of late 2025.

1. Fellow

Fellow is a professional AI meeting assistant and notetaker focused on secure, policy-driven AI meeting notes for teams that run professional Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams meetings.

Instead of hiding in the background, Fellow is built around clear disclosure, governance, and collaboration, which makes it an option for mid-sized and enterprise companies that care about compliance as much as convenience.

In terms of live meeting assistance, you can use Ask Fellow during meetings to pull up decisions from previous calls, clarify who owns which action items, or generate follow-up drafts while the conversation is still happening, not just afterward.

Key features

• Bot and botless recording: Capture meetings with either a visible bot or a bot-free desktop capture, both governed by the same admin policies and internal disclosure rules.

• Enterprise-grade security and compliance: SOC 2, GDPR and HIPAA support, admin control over retention and access, redaction, and a no-training policy on customer data.

• Ask Fellow for live assistance: Ask questions like “What did we decide about pricing last week?” during a call and get answers pulled from your past meetings and notes.

• Deep workflow integrations: Connect meeting outcomes into tools like CRM and project management systems, plus an API, Zapier, and MCP server support for custom pre- and post-meeting workflows.

• Multi-surface collaboration: Shared agendas, action items, and recap workflows that work across recurring meetings and cross-functional teams.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $7 per user per month on the Team plan when billed annually.

See Fellow's pricing plans

Start a free 14-day trial of Fellow

2. Granola

Granola is a Mac-only AI note-taking app that turns your typed notes into structured AI summaries without recording full audio. It is popular amongst venture capitalists and analysts who want a no-bot assistant that lives on their laptop.

Key features

• Bot-free, on-device experience for Mac users.

• Enhances your own notes with AI to generate clean, structured summaries.

• Works across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and other tools because it listens to your microphone and speakers rather than joining as a participant.

• Templates and prompts tuned for different meeting types such as sales calls or one-on-ones.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $14 per user per month.

Explore other Granola.ai alternatives for meeting notes

3. Krisp

Krisp started as a noise-cancellation tool and has grown into an AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes calls while cleaning up background noise. It runs as a desktop app and offers a bot-free experience that does not need to join your calls as a separate participant.

Key features

• AI meeting transcription with a “bot-free" experience

• Automatic AI summaries, tasks, and action items after each call.

• Strong noise cancellation and accent conversion for clearer audio.

• Runs at the device level.

• Option to use Krisp with or without a bot for recording in some setups.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $8 per user per month, billed annually.

See more Krisp.ai alternatives

4. Bluedot

Bluedot is an AI meeting note-taker that focuses on bot-free capture for Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. It listens on your device instead of joining as a visible participant and provides concise summaries and action items after the meeting.

Key features

• Bot-free recording from your computer, without adding a participant to the call.

• Summaries that highlight key decisions, risks, and follow-ups.

• Lightweight interface aimed at individuals and small teams.

• Mobile support and browser-based access.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $18 per user per month for the Basic plan.

Discover other alternatives to Bluedot AI for notetaking

5. Jamie

Jamie is a bot-free AI meeting assistant that records and summarizes calls without adding an AI attendee. It is often mentioned by users who want the convenience of an AI note-taker while avoiding the optics of bots in the participant list.

Key features

• Bot-free meeting capture on desktop.

• AI meeting summaries and action items in multiple languages.

• Works with major conferencing tools through desktop capture.

• Built-in AI chat to ask follow-up questions about your calls.

• Options focused on individual professionals and small sales teams.

Pricing

Paid plans start at €25 per user per month on the Plus plan.

Explore other Jamie.ai alternatives (bot and bot-free)

6. Read.ai

Read.ai combines AI meeting notes, analytics, and highlights. It can record via a bot that joins your call, or through a bot-free desktop recorder that listens directly from your device.

Key features

• AI summaries and topic breakdowns for each meeting.

• Live transcript with the ability to ask questions about what is being said.

• Analytics on talk time, pacing, and meeting patterns.

• Support for video platforms and calendar integrations.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $15 per user per month, billed annually on the Pro plan.

See other Read.ai alternatives for AI meeting assistance

7. Otter.ai

Otter is one of the oldest AI transcription tools in this space. It started with live notes for students and reoporters on Zoom and has expanded to Google Meet and Teams. Alongside its classic meeting bot, Otter offers a Chrome extension that can capture browser-based meetings without adding a bot.

Key features

• Live transcripts and searchable notes during meetings.

• AI summaries and key points after each call.

• Chrome extension that can capture Google Meet in the browser, without a bot appearing in the participant list.

• Support for uploading audio files for transcription.

• Team features such as shared folders and workspaces.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month, billed annually on the Pro plan.

Learn what other alternatives exist for Otter.ai

8. Fireflies.ai

Fireflies is a meeting assistant that combines bot-based recording with a bot-free Chrome extension. Many teams use the bot for structured workflows, while bot-averse users rely on the extension instead.

Key features

• AI note-taking bot that can join meetings across Zoom, Meet, and Teams.

• Chrome extension that records directly from your browser “no bot needed”.

• Summaries, topics, and search across meeting history.

• Support for uploading audio and video files for transcription.

• Collaboration features for sharing notes and comments with teammates.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $10 per user per month, billed annually on the Pro plan.

Curious to learn more? Check out this list of Fireflies.ai alternatives

9. Fathom

Fathom is an AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls, with a strong focus on summaries and action items. It currently relies on a meeting bot to join your calls, although the company has publicly said bot-free recording is on their roadmap.

Key features

• Automatic recording, transcription, and summaries for online meetings.

• AI-generated action items, follow-up emails, and deal-centric views for sales teams.

• Ask Fathom conversational assistant to query past calls.

• Team-oriented features such as shared playlists, search across calls, and coaching metrics.

• Integrations with CRM, Slack, and workflow tools.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $20 per user per month on the Premium plan.

See other alternatives to Fathom for AI notetaking

10. Tactiq

Tactiq runs as a browser extension that captures live captions from Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, then turns them into summaries and talking points. Because it hooks into the caption stream, Tactiq is naturally bot-free: there is no AI participant joining your call.

Key features

• Live, in-meeting transcript panel that shows what is being said in real time.

• AI summaries, action items, and follow-up notes after the call.

• Works directly from the browser without installing a desktop app or adding a bot.

• Support for saving notes into connected tools through exports.

• Multi-platform support for Zoom, Meet, and Teams.

Pricing

Paid plans start at $8 per user per month, billed annually on the Pro plan.

Explore more alternative tools to Tactiq.io

Comparison table

*Here “live support” means the tool can assist during the meeting itself through real-time transcription, note-taking, or in-meeting AI features, not just post-call processing.

Conclusion

Cluely is part of a new category of “invisible” AI tools that promise real-time coaching in high-stakes conversations. The problem is simple: ethical questions and documented security issues create risks that most professionals and companies do not want to carry.

If you want AI support that you can actually defend to your manager, legal team, or board, the tools above offer more transparent approaches. They focus on clear disclosure, reliable transcription, and structured summaries instead of secret overlays that try to outsmart interviewers or proctors.

Within that landscape, Fellow stands out as a strong alternative for mid-sized and enterprise companies that want a secure, policy-driven, and integrated meeting assistant. It was selected by New York Times Wirecutter as the best solution to summarize and transcribe meetings in 2025.

If the goal is to raise meeting quality and reduce admin work without putting your reputation or customer data at risk, shifting from stealth coaching tools toward professional AI meeting assistants is a straightforward upgrade.