Session and Call Transcription with Otter.ai

1. Go to otter.ai.
2. Click Sign up and register with your email, or sign in with Google or Microsoft.
3. Walk through the initial setup, selecting the option closest to "coaching" or "one-on-one meetings" if asked how you'll use it.

What you should see: An empty dashboard ready to receive your first recorded conversation.

1. From the dashboard, find the calendar connection prompt, usually under Settings.
2. Choose Google Calendar or Outlook, whichever holds your session and call bookings.
3. Grant the requested calendar permissions.

What you should see: A confirmation message, and your upcoming sessions with a video link start appearing inside Otter. Troubleshooting: If you keep client sessions on a separate calendar from your personal one, connect that specific calendar rather than a shared or family calendar, to avoid Otter seeing appointments that have nothing to do with your practice.

1. In Settings, look for the OtterPilot or meeting bot section.
2. Confirm it's enabled for whichever platform you run sessions on: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet.
3. Choose whether OtterPilot joins every calendar event with a video link automatically, or only ones you approve ahead of time. For client work, approving each one individually gives you a chance to double-check consent before it joins.

What you should see: A setting confirming which platforms OtterPilot will join and under what conditions.

This step matters more than any other in this guide.

1. Add a clause to your coaching agreement covering session recording and AI transcription: what tool you use, what happens to the recording afterward, and how long it's kept.
2. For each new client, get their explicit yes before the first recorded session, in writing or clearly stated and confirmed at the start of a call.
3. For stakeholder alignment and chemistry calls involving a manager or HR sponsor, add a line to the invite or say it out loud before the call starts: "I'll have an AI notetaker join to transcribe this call. Let me know if you'd rather it not attend." Every participant needs to hear this, not just your coaching client, since a sponsor never agreed to your client's own confidentiality terms.

Troubleshooting: Recording a conversation without informed consent isn't just a policy risk. The ICF Code of Ethics treats client confidentiality and informed consent as core obligations, and several U.S. states require every party's consent before a call can be recorded at all. When you're coaching someone in a state you don't know, default to asking everyone on the line rather than assuming a one-party rule applies.

1. Once consent is confirmed, start the session or call as usual.
2. OtterPilot joins as a visible participant if it's connected to your calendar and enabled.
3. Keep talking normally. The transcript builds live, viewable in Otter's app if you want to glance at it, though staying present in the conversation matters more than watching text scroll.

What you should see: OtterPilot listed among the call participants, with a live transcript building in your Otter dashboard.

1. After the call, open the conversation in your Otter dashboard.
2. Read the auto-generated summary and correct any misattributed lines, especially on calls with multiple similar-sounding voices.
3. Decide, per your coaching agreement, whether to archive the recording, delete the audio and keep only your edited notes, or delete everything once the recap is sent.

What you should see: A structured summary above the full transcript, with commitments or action items broken out separately.