Otter.ai Launches Cross-Platform Search for Enterprise Tools

AI meeting notetaker apps have realized that simply transcribing conversations and providing summaries isn't enough to sustain their business models and valuations. They are now evolving into comprehensive workspaces where users can integrate data from various sources, search across everything, and make informed business decisions. Following the lead of notetakers like Read AI, Fireflies.ai, and Fathom, Otter is launching an enterprise search feature by becoming a Model Context Protocol (MCP) client. This allows it to connect to and pull data from external applications and services using a common standard that is gaining rapid adoption among AI tools.

Otter has been operating for nearly a decade, but it has actively shifted toward becoming an enterprise productivity tool in recent months. Last October, the company introduced a way for organizations to build custom MCPs to access Otter data outside the app. Its latest move focuses on bringing external data into the Otter platform.

With this launch, users can connect their Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Jira, and Salesforce accounts to query that data alongside their existing meeting records. The company announced plans to soon enable connections with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and Slack. Users will not only be able to search across these tools but also push meeting summaries to Notion or draft emails in Gmail.

The company also redesigned its AI assistant to be consistently available across the entire interface, allowing users to ask questions at any time. The assistant can understand the context of what's on screen—whether it's a specific meeting or a channel—and provide relevant answers.

Meanwhile, following a trend popularized by Granola, most notetakers are now supporting botless meeting capture—recording meetings using a device's system audio instead of having a bot join the call. Otter brought this feature to its Mac app late last year and is now launching a Windows app with similar functionality.

There has been ongoing debate about whether meeting notes should be taken by bots that join the call or through botless methods. Otter CEO Sam Liang stated that the company's enterprise customers generally prefer having a notetaker join the meeting.

"When we talk to enterprise customers, most actually prefer the notetaker to join the Zoom meeting because it provides transparency. They also prefer the meeting notes to be shared with all attendees, so the notes aren't limited to just one person," he explained to TechCrunch during a call.

Otter mentioned it has a deduplication feature to prevent multiple bots from joining the same meeting simultaneously, avoiding situations where bots outnumber human participants on a call.

Last year, the company reported having 25 million users and $100 million in annual recurring revenue. While it didn't provide updated financial figures, Otter stated that its platform now serves 35 million users.