Transcribing Depositions, Hearings and Consultations: When Video Conferencing Solutions Fall Short
AI transcription can help law firms save time and money, but are video conferencing tools the right solution? Explore the pros and cons around data privacy and features compared to using AI tools like Trint.
*All information contained in this article is accurate at the time of publishing.
You’re caught up in constant client consultations, depositions, witness preparations and strategy meetings - not to mention hearings! Typing up and summarizing notes from all of these calls is tedious and slow, draining the scarce time of lawyers and their teams when they should be focused on higher value client work.
Far from ideal when big-money clients are increasingly demanding greater speed, transparency and value for money. Or when management is under pressure to overcome rising operational costs and deliver profitability.
This is where using AI to automate transcription has offered tangible benefits, taking care of manual, low value tasks like note taking and summarizing after the fact. In turn, this frees up legal teams to focus on high impact work like case strategy, client updates, legal advice or crisis management.
A number of dedicated AI transcription solutions have emerged over the past decade offering organizations time and cost savings. And in more recent years, the likes of MS Teams, Zoom and Google Meet have also launched in-built live transcription capabilities within their video conferencing platforms, which law firms have turned to in search of the aforementioned efficiency gains.
It may initially seem sensible to leverage your existing video conference solution for transcription. Users can view captions live during video calls and download transcripts after, while you might gain friends in Procurement or Finance by consolidating your tech vendors and, in theory, reducing spend.
However, first of all, it’s important to note that these transcription features are often available only as an add-on or as part of the highest value packages, meaning the cost savings may not be as tangible as expected. It’s worth checking before you commit.
There are also a number of scenarios where the built-in transcription capabilities of video conference tools don’t necessarily meet the need:
They use customer data to improve transcript accuracy The likes of Zoom and MS Teams are known to improve transcript accuracy by learning from users’ meeting recordings and transcripts. For organizations that don’t handle sensitive data, then this is not going to be much of a concern. However, for law firms safeguarding the sanctity of attorney-client privilege and navigating a highly regulated landscape, then this suddenly becomes a data privacy red flag.
Unlike many transcription technologies out there, Trint uses external data sets to train our AI models, meaning no one sees your data but you. In sum, your (and your client’s) data is safe and client confidentiality is protected.
Their transcripts are generally static This means users cannot seamlessly do something with them afterwards. A lawyer or legal assistant can download the call transcript (provided your organization is paying for the right plan) but there’s no synchronized playback along with the audio/video. And if you need to make changes, you’ll need to convert the transcript file into a suitable format before editing and collaborating. So it can become a fairly arduous process.
With Trint, teams of lawyers, paralegals and legal secretaries can simultaneously edit, highlight, comment and collaborate just like a doc, all while the audio/video simultaneously plays back for you - and it’s all in the same interface, making for a far more streamlined experience that quickly handles the admin so your team can focus on the more important stuff.
Their mobile apps have limitations with regards to transcription With MS Teams and Google Meet, there’s no option at all to transcribe on mobile, while at the moment users can only transcribe in English via Zoom’s mobile app.
Trint’s mobile app lets lawyers transcribe live on mobile in 30+ languages and share the feed with colleagues in real time, who can remotely playback, verify and pinpoint any key statements or insights before the call is even over. Our technology even automatically detects the language being spoken, and transcribes every word in the same doc. That way, wherever you are, you can capture (multi-lingual) calls accurately and quickly turn them into something meaningful for expectant clients.
If you want to explore how Trint’s AI can transform legal workflows and deliver significant efficiency gains for your firm, speak to our team and book a demo today.
