Audio to Text Transcription – Choose the Best Online Tool

‍Managing various types of meetings involves documenting them using transcription. In situations where time and good organisation count, the manual transcriptions are not efficient enough. The AI-based tools for automatic transcription has relieved users from the burden of time-consuming tasks, paving the way for more efficient operations.

Applications of transcription

Transcription, i.e. conversion of speech or sound from recordings into text, has a wide range of applications – from live broadcasts and summarising long conversations to providing accurate translations. It is essential, among others, in:

• business – documenting conferences and meetings;
• media – playing radio and television interviews or podcasts;
• education – recording lectures, webinars or instructional films;
• law and judiciary – playing hearings and court hearings;
• research – analysis of scientific research.

Transcriptions facilitate the review of critical discussion points, provide accurate records, and reuse content in other settings or platforms, increasing the accessibility and reach of audio and video content.

There are two main ways to do this: manually or automatically. The goal is the same: to convert spoken language into text, allowing for easier processing, analysis, and storage of the information contained in the recording.

Manual transcription

Manual transcription involves a person listening to a recording and writing down the speech on paper or in digital form – from words to sounds to pauses – documenting it in text form.

It has its advantages because the human mind is skilled at recognising attributes of language and subtleties of communication, such as intonation, emotion, and mood of the speaker. But it assumes speakers speak slowly and clearly, avoiding filler words and interruptions. In reality, however, this is not the case, which often creates difficulties for the manual transcribers.

Manual transcription is time-consuming and requires a lot of human effort, especially in the case of long and complex recordings. As a reproducible, tedious, and mechanical task, it can cause typos, omissions, or failure to notice nuances, which can lead to misinterpretation, which affects the accuracy and objectivity of the recording.

The disadvantages of manual transcription:

• human factor errors (fatigue, routine, burnout),
• extended processing time and high costs,
• difficulties with non-native languages,
• subjectivity and potential stereotypical approach,
• reluctance to handle challenging content (e.g. violent descriptions).

These problems can lead to:

• misunderstandings,
• delays in project implementation,
• financial losses.

AI-automated transcription – the new standard

Due to time and resource constraints, as well as the limited ability of traditional methods to precisely capture content and distill key insights from it, automatic transcriptions are becoming increasingly common.

In business, they streamline meeting documentation and facilitate task management. In education, they enhance the learning experience by providing accurate lecture transcripts. In law and research, they expedite the analysis of complex data.

Modern AI-based methods, including GenAI and LLM, are replacing manual transcriptions across these sectors.

AI-powered automation is a key to resolving traditional transcription challenges

There are two steps to automatic speech-to-text conversion: speech recognition and automatic transcription.

Automatic speech recognition – how does it work?

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a machine learning technology that uses AI algorithms to identify and transcribe spoken words in a recording. It processes audio streams and generates their textual representation.

Depending on the service used, ASR is available in real-time or asynchronous (sending the recording file for transcription after the meeting). Data processing speed in automatic transcriptions is particularly beneficial when handling large amounts of information.

The disadvantage, however, may be the difficulty in recognising specific accents or dialects and the challenge of understanding the context of the speech, which can lead to inaccuracies in the transcription.

Automatic transcription – how does it work?

Automatic transcription involves using specialised software that not only converts speech to text but also recognises the speakers and understands the context of the discussion. This convenient process is particularly beneficial when recording with many people, providing ease and comfort in managing complex recordings.

Transcription and LLMs

Speech recognition and automatic transcription are possible thanks to integration with technologies based on large language models (LLM). They are currently among the most modern tools for processing and analysing natural language due to their deep understanding of context, semantics and linguistic complexities and the ability to generate text at a high level of sophistication.

They allow for real-time transcription with extraordinary precision, efficiency and accuracy. The ability to convert audio to text based on LLM is the basis for other applications, instilling confidence in the accuracy of the process. As a result, most contact centre solutions also include transcription as part of their offering.

Advances in natural language processing have also enabled transcript cleaning using a language model to automatically fix errors and disfluencies in the transcript.

LLMs transform speech to text with remarkable precision, then condense, translate and analyse it

Advantages of automated transcription

Instant transcripts after meetings or events fully automate the speech-to-text process, improving accessibility and usability, facilitating effective communication, and overcoming language barriers. They also make content more accessible to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or non-native speakers.

Advantages of automatic transcription:

• reduces the waiting time for transcripts,
• excludes human error,
• minimises workload,
• eliminates the costs of manual handling of recordings,
• precisely documents records.

Creating insightful summaries

A very important feature of automated transcription is the ability to create summaries and extract key information from them. New AI solutions offer the generation of complete, ready-to-use meeting summaries, which:

• reduce the time it takes to read the content of the recording,
• facilitate the exchange of information for interested parties,
• improve task management,
• speed up decision-making processes,
• increase work efficiency.

Diarisation – an innovative function of automatic transcription

Automatic transcription tools go beyond just converting speech into text – they make it more usable thanks to recognising people participating in the meeting.

Diarising is the process of identifying and marking different speakers in a recording, which is key to understanding the course of the conversation.

The diarisation function is proper wherever analysis of team conversations, interviews with many people at once, panel discussions, negotiations, mediations or court hearings is needed in transcription.

Which tools offer diarisation?

A tool that includes this valuable function is proNote, which also analyses the meeting recording and creates a precise summary containing:

• a list of participants identified during the meeting,
• a summary of each participant's activity – a list of topics, comments and activity time,
• assignment of tasks to be performed by individual participants,
• key findings from the entire meeting.

All facts, findings and tasks from the meeting can be assigned timestamps referring to a specific minute/second of the meeting, allowing the recording to be played at a given moment rather than tracking the entirety.

proNote – intelligent transcription with full security

proNote is a transcription tool designed for high-trust organisations that operate on sensitive data and require the highest level of information security. This tool meets the highest cybersecurity standards. It includes full data encryption in accordance with the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) standard, ensuring data control, privacy and security. It is a solution for companies and institutions where:

• confidential conversations and meetings of strategic importance are conducted;
• recordings containing sensitive information are processed;
• data protection is a key legal and ethical requirement.

proNote supports many audio/video formats. It not only transcribes recordings into a text file but also creates a summary. It correctly recognises the Polish language. Today, automated transcription is becoming an indispensable tool in environments and industries where meetings are held regularly. The following can benefit from proNote:

• employees of administration and HR departments who deal with meeting documentation;
• managers and leaders of small companies struggling with competitiveness in the industry, gaining a solution that increases efficiency and reduces costs;
• companies and institutions in regulated industries, where data accuracy and security, such as law, judiciary, finance, public administration or health, are of the utmost importance.

Example use of proNote: qualitative research

Specifically with the research industry in mind, there was created a tool proNote Research. It understands the specifics of interviews and focus groups, combining research methodology with automatic analysis. Its functions are perfect for situations that require transparent capture of discussed issues and drawing coherent summaries.

Key features of proNote Research:

• Creation of comprehensive qualitative research reports;
• Accurate identification of key findings based on qualitative research methodology;
• Transcription with diarisation – speaker separation in recordings;
• Implementation of timestamps – precise timing of each speaker's utterance.

Summary

Transcription of recordings is a handy tool for processing and analysing speech content. Automatic transcriptions make it easy to summarise and search content, accelerating processes in many industries. Choosing the right transcription tool is a key step here.

proNote, as a comprehensive automatic transcription tool, meets these diverse needs in many areas. Its full AES data encryption make it particularly useful in industries that value data security – law, medicine, or market research. With other features, such as or diarisation and automated reports, it's a reliable, fast, and highly useful tool.

‍Sign up for a free trial and test all proNote features: Try proNote for free.