5 AI Video Transcription Tools to Boost Accessibility

The weekly strategy meeting is over, but a wave of confusion washes over your team. Some missed the meeting entirely, others struggled to keep up, and a few are too hesitant to ask for clarification. This is a far-too-common scenario that hinders progress and creates information silos. 

In these situations, capturing decisions, action items, and that “eureka!” moment with the full context of video recordings isn’t enough. You also need to ensure that everyone can access and grasp the details.

AI video transcription converts speech to text so that every team member can access crucial information equally. Discover how video transcription software captures every detail, plus which AI video tools include automatic transcription. 

Video transcription enhances communication, productivity, and the overall effectiveness of screen recordings. Additional benefits of video transcripts include:

• Improved accessibility: Video transcripts make content accessible to more people, including those with hearing difficulties, non-native speakers, neurodivergent teammates, and even those who can’t attend meetings.

• Efficiency and searchability: Converting video content into transcripts helps coworkers quickly find specific information without watching an entire recording.

• Increased engagement: Video transcriptions allow meeting participants to focus on discussions rather than taking notes. This improves understanding and encourages active participation.

• Language support: Transcripts let any teammates who speak English as a second language review meeting notes in their native language to avoid misunderstandings.

Combined with video and audio recordings, transcripts provide a greater depth of knowledge for your entire team.

Should you use manual transcription, which involves humans reviewing your videos and transcribing your audio word for word, or let AI tackle the job? AI video transcription is speedy and budget-friendly, while manual transcription is more accurate.

The correct approach depends on your needs.

AI video transcription

AI has the upper hand when it comes to the following:

• Speed and efficiency: AI is faster—it can transcribe hour-long recordings in a few minutes. 

• Cost: AI tends to be much less expensive, but be careful. You may spend more on AI transcription if you have to heavily edit the final transcript. 

• Scalability: AI workflows are more efficient even if you have multiple videos to transcribe.

Learning from past transcription projects can also continuously improve AI and machine learning.

Manual transcription

Human transcribers are best when it comes to the following:

• Accuracy: Humans better understand nuances, accents, industry jargon, and context. This helps them create more accurate transcripts.

• Handling complex audio: Humans can easily understand audio despite background noises and multiple speakers. 

• Data security: Manual transcripts are better-protected thanks to security standards, nondisclosure agreements, and secure communications.

While you’ll likely pay more for manual transcription, the high quality and accuracy means you’ll spend less time editing it.

How does AI video transcription work?

AI video transcription services use algorithms to recognize speech and convert audio into written text. This usually involves the following steps:

1. The AI extracts the audio from the video file and pre-processes it to remove background noise, normalize volume levels, and segment the audio into bite-size clips.

2. The AI then converts spoken words into text.

3. Finally, the AI adds punctuation, formats the transcript, adds timestamps, and identifies different speakers.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to help AI transcribe your videos in minutes.

Many AI video transcription services claim anywhere from 90% to 95% accuracy, and some even claim 99% accuracy. A transcription accuracy rate, or word error rate (WER), of 99% means there’s only a 1% chance there are errors in every batch of 1,500 words. But are these claims valid?

It depends on the AI you use. 

Because each AI trains on different datasets and uses different automatic speech recognition (ASR) services, each one’s accuracy is different—and it can even change over time.

AccessiBe and 3Play Media analyzed the accuracy of different AI transcription tools and compared their 2022 accuracy ratings to their 2023 scores. While some improved, others saw accuracy decrease from 2022 to 2023.

AccessiBe also found that AI transcription is prone to punctuation and capitalization errors, which affect readability. Results showed the OpenAI model was most accurate when it came to punctuation and capitalization, but even then, it was only 85% reliable.

As AI continues to learn by transcribing videos and working through new datasets, its accuracy generally improves.

Choosing the right AI video transcription tool requires you to pay attention to a few key features:

• Accuracy: Look for tools known for high accuracy rates of 95% or better with clear audio. Checking user reviews and benchmarks can also give you an idea of how accurate a tool actually is.

• Speed: Ensure the AI transcription service can meet your deadlines. Most transcribe hours of content within minutes, but turnaround times can still differ depending on the tool.

• Cost: You’ll likely spend a lot less on AI transcription than you would on traditional human transcription. Different tools offer different pricing models, so compare whether a per-minute cost would save you money over a monthly subscription.

• Translation support: Check whether the AI tool accurately transcribes accents and technical jargon and can translate into the languages your team needs.

• Integrations: Look for AI transcription tools that work with your existing toolkit, including video conferencing software, productivity apps, and video marketing tools.

• Customization: Some AI video transcription tools include customization features that allow you to change the appearance of the final transcript.

You might also consider video transcription tools with both AI and human services. This can help you transcribe at scale with AI while reserving some content for more accurate human transcription.

These AI transcription services offer some of the best features, prices, and quality.

1. Loom

If you need to transcribe team documentation and client-facing content, Loom is ideal. It’s one of the best screen recorder tools for capturing anything from team updates to sales outreach messaging, and it automatically transcribes your video’s spoken content into text.

Loom offers transcriptions with all of its plans, including the free plan. Now, your teams can easily follow along with recorded design reviews, remote pair programming sessions, and even new hire orientation. You can also reach a wider audience with transcribed product launch videos, pitch decks, and video emails.

Features: 

• Multi-language support: Transcribe your videos in over 50 languages to ensure everyone understands the key takeaways in your recordings.

• Correct your transcript: Edit your Loom transcript as needed. You can correct a single instance of a word or multiple instances.

• AI summaries and titles: Add Loom AI to your paid plan and have it auto-generate video titles, summaries, and chapters to make it even easier for viewers to find the information they need.

• Edit your video with your transcript: Take the stress out of video editing thanks to Loom’s video trimmer, which makes it easy by letting you edit your transcript and automatically adjusting your video footage to match. 

Pros: 

• Free transcription is included for every video and screen recording.

• The paid Loom AI add-on offers additional AI transcription features that improve searchability and knowledge sharing.

• You can transcribe your videos in over 50 languages with marketing video software that supports diverse audiences.

• Loom creates shareable links so you don’t have to upload your videos.

Cons: 

• Accessing Loom AI requires you to purchase a plan plus the add-on.

• Loom doesn’t currently support special characters or diacritics like ü, ß, ñ, á, ç, ô, and è.

Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $12.50 per user per month when billed annually.

2. Rev

Rev offers a pay-as-you-go model that charges you by the minute. This makes it helpful for businesses with minor transcription needs.

Features: 

• Human and AI transcription: You can access both traditional and AI transcription and choose which approach best suits your needs.

• Interactive transcript editor: Add comments, edit text, and collaborate on transcripts in real-time with the Rev editor.

• Secure service: Comply with numerous privacy standards, including HIPAA, ADA, and SOC 2, with the Rev for Business plan.

Pros: 

• Rev promises AI transcripts in five minutes or less.

• Your entire team can benefit from the web-based, collaborative transcript editor.

• You can integrate Rev with multiple apps you already use, including YouTube, Zoom, and Dropbox.

Cons: 

• Rev charges 30 cents per minute extra to add timestamps.

Pricing: AI transcripts start at 25 cents per minute.

3. Otter.ai

Otter.ai focuses on transcribing meeting notes, but it can also convert video and audio files into text.

Features: 

• AI meeting transcription: Transcribe meetings on Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.

• Transcribes imported files: Create transcriptions for pre-recorded audio and video—Otter.ai supports AAC, MP3, WAV, and other common file formats.

• Transcript export: Save transcripts as a TXT, DOCX, or PDF file, or export as SRT and add them to your videos as captions.

Pros: 

• Otter.ai supports both live meetings and imported file transcription.

• You can add custom vocabulary to improve accuracy.

• When editing, you can modify both transcription text and speaker names.

Cons: 

• The free plan limits transcriptions to 30 minutes per conversation and 300 minutes per user per month.

• You’ll need a paid plan to transcribe more than three imported files.

Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month when billed annually.

4. Sonix

Sonix translates your transcriptions into more than 49 different languages and includes a customizable dictionary.

Features: 

• Browser-based editor: Add notes, edit grammar, and leave comments on your transcript without leaving your browser.

• Transcript exports: Export transcripts as text files or as subtitles to add to your video files.

• Customized dictionary: Improve transcription accuracy by adding industry terms, company jargon, and other special words to Sonix.

Pros: 

• Flexible pay-as-you-go and subscription plans suit a variety of business needs.

• Sonix conveniently realigns your audio track with the final version of your transcript.

• Paid plans include the ability to combine multiple speaker tracks into one transcript.

Cons: 

• The pay-as-you-go plan doesn’t include AI summaries and analysis.

• You’ll need a subscription plan to get folder- and file-level permissions.

Pricing: The Standard plan costs $10 per hour, while subscriptions start at $22 per user per month plus $5 per hour of transcription.

5. Fireflies.ai

Another transcription service focused on helping teams get the most details out of meetings, Fireflies.ai also offers a free plan that includes enough features to try AI video transcription without any risk.

Features: 

• Automatic meeting transcription: Record and transcribe meetings hosted in Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Webex, and more.

• Extensive search: Scan your library and meeting transcripts to find the information you need.

• Upload files for transcription: Use Fireflies.ai to transcribe podcasts, videos, and other audio files—it supports MP3, WAV, and MP4 formats.

Pros: 

• Fireflies.ai includes an easy-to-use web-based editor.

• You can easily add Fireflies.ai to your current tech stack since it supports multiple app integrations, including Salesforce, Dropbox, HubSpot, and Slack.

• The AI features help you summarize sentiment, questions, topics, and more.

Cons: 

• You’ll need a paid plan to transcribe files larger than 100 MB.

Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month when billed annually.

AI video transcription turns your team’s videos into a highly accessible and engaging source of knowledge. When teammates or customers don’t have to worry about taking notes, they can focus more on the topic at hand.

Loom gives you the best of both worlds: video recordings that capture essential context and AI-powered transcriptions that log all the details.