A custom insight answers a question you wrote, on every meeting that matches. I compared five AI notetakers on how you define one, what comes back, which meetings it runs on and where it goes.
Which AI notetakers pull custom insights from every meeting?
My pick is Circleback. Custom fields structure the output, automation conditions decide which meetings it runs on, and an Insights page shows results across meetings. For scheduled reads across many meetings, I'd pick Fireflies.ai.
- Circleback: structured fields, automation conditions and one Insights page.
- Fireflies.ai: scheduled skills and the widest destination list.
- Otter.ai: rule-applied templates with insights synced to CRM records.
- tl;dv: template sections mapped to CRM fields.
- Fathom: grading reps against a scorecard.
Custom insights vs summary templates
A custom insight is a named extraction with its own output, such as objections or customer and deal details. A summary template reshapes the whole summary instead.
What to check before you build one
- How you define it. A prompt, a template, scorecard items or custom fields.
- Output shape. Free text, structured fields, a chart or a grade.
- Which meetings it runs on. Conditions and rules, or every meeting.
- Where results go. Slack, a CRM field, a doc or a webhook.
- The view across meetings. One insight read across many calls.
- Past and imported meetings. Some run only on new calls or skip imports.
- What it costs to run. Fireflies charges AI credits per query.
The five notetakers
1. Circleback
Circleback treats a custom insight as an automation step. It runs after each meeting that matches your conditions, when an added tag makes a meeting match, or by hand.
How you define it: Add the Insight step to an automation. Start from a template or write your own, and use custom fields to structure the output. Conditions can use tags, title, participants, invitee emails and domains, or invitee count.
What comes back: Insights show in each meeting's Insights tab and on the Insights page across meetings. Screen content in saved video from the bot or the bot-free desktop app (no bot, no visible participant in the call) feeds AI insights, and uploaded recordings get insights like a live meeting.
Where it goes: You choose whether AI insights go to HubSpot, and Attio notes carry insights. Automations also reach webhooks, Notion and Salesforce.
Pros
- Conditions pick the meetings, and you can run it by hand.
- Custom fields shape the output.
Cons
- Custom insights don't run on the free plan.
- Meetings imported from Fathom, Fireflies, Granola or Read AI, or through the API, don't trigger insight automations on their own, but you can run one on them by hand if the import brought its notes over.
- No call scoring, only written Sales feedback and a speaking-time bar.
- Linear and monday.com get action items, not insights. HubSpot and Attio get insights on a record or note, with no CRM fields edited.
Pricing: Free has unlimited meetings and members. Pro is $15 per user per month billed annually or $18 monthly, Business is $25 or $29, and Enterprise is $35 billed annually only. See Circleback pricing.
Best for: teams that define fields once and review results in one place.
2. Fireflies.ai
Fireflies calls its custom extractions AI Skills (formerly AI Apps).
How you define it: Give a skill a name, a description and instructions for what to extract. Run it Per Meeting (after each meeting is processed) or Daily, Weekly or Monthly across many meetings, filtered by host, participants, title or internal versus external.
What comes back: Text or a chart in the Feed. Fireflies' example prompt: "Track all customer objections mentioned in sales calls and categorize by frequency and type."
Where it goes: Per-meeting skills send to HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Notion, Jira and more. Scheduled skills send to Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Notion, email and more.
Pros
- Scheduled skills read many meetings at once.
- Per-meeting skills reach more destinations than the others here.
Cons
- AI Skills use AI credits charged per query. One-time credits per account are 20 on Free and Pro, 30 on Business and 50 on Enterprise, shared across the team. Packs start at $5 a month for 50.
- The Custom participant filter covers internal team members only.
Pricing: On the Fireflies pricing page, Pro is $10 per seat per month billed annually or $18 monthly, Business is $19 or $29, and Enterprise is $39 billed annually only. The AI apps row is checked for Pro, Business and Enterprise.
Best for: scheduled reads across many meetings and many destinations.
3. Otter.ai
Otter builds custom insights into Custom Meeting Type Templates, available on all plans with usage limits that vary by plan.
How you define it: A template has Overview, Action Items, Insights and Outline sections plus one Custom Prompt. Each insight has a name and a prompt, capped at 128 characters. Selection rules apply a template by AI classification, title, host or participant email, or host department.
What comes back: Otter's insights page, marked as an Enterprise plan feature, says insights appear in the Summaries panel after the meeting, with default sales topics like BANT.
Where it goes: Template actions can share to a channel or send an email. Insights can sync to Salesforce or HubSpot, mapped to text custom fields on Salesforce Opportunities or HubSpot Deals only.
Pros
- Rules apply templates automatically.
- Insights map into CRM custom fields.
Cons
- 128 characters per insight.
- Custom template use is capped at 5 meetings per user on Basic, 15 on Pro, 30 on Business and unlimited on Enterprise.
- Personal templates can't be shared.
Pricing: On the Otter pricing page, Pro is $8.33 per user per month billed annually or $16.99 monthly, and Business is $19.99 billed annually.
Best for: rule-based templates and insights written into CRM deal fields.
4. tl;dv
tl;dv's route is meeting templates: a custom note structure with sections and a description for each.
How you define it: Write the sections. Automation Criteria (internal or external, plus a title filter) apply the template after every new meeting, and Team templates follow rules such as titles or participants.
What comes back: Notes that follow your sections. tl;dv's own CRM example uses "Client objections", "Next steps" and "Action items".
Where it goes: Notes can be pushed to integrations in the template's structure, and each section or tag can map to a CRM field.
Pros
- Sections map to CRM fields.
- A "Client objections" section suits sales calls.
Cons
- Team templates aren't available on the Free plan or on an account with a public domain.
- Automation Criteria cover internal or external and a title filter.
Pricing: Free includes automatic AI notes on the first 10 meetings, then only the first 10 minutes of each. See tl;dv's template guide.
Best for: sales teams mapping note sections like objections into CRM fields.
5. Fathom
Fathom's route is AI Scorecards, which grade calls against criteria you set, plus summary templates.
How you define it: Each scorecard item has a topic, a question and grading criteria such as Yes, Partial or No. You get one scorecard per Meeting Type, and Team admins define Meeting Types that classify calls automatically.
What comes back: Matching internal-hosted calls are scored automatically after the call, and a new scorecard backfills up to five calls from the past seven days.
Where it goes: Results show in Top Performers and Lower Performers views. The pricing page separately lists CRM field sync on Business.
Pros
- Scoring runs automatically by Meeting Type.
- You write the grading criteria.
Cons
- Built to score internal employees, "not intended to score external attendees."
- Scorecards are available only on the Business plan.
Pricing: Scorecards are available only on the Business plan, and the Team plan gets them for 30 days after the trial. See Fathom pricing.
Best for: managers who want to grade reps against a scorecard.
The five side by side
| Tool | How you define it | Structured fields | Runs automatically by rule | View across meetings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circleback | Template or custom | Custom fields | Yes, automation conditions | Insights page |
| Fireflies.ai | Name, description, instructions | Text or chart output | Yes, per meeting or scheduled | Scheduled multi-meeting skills |
| Otter.ai | Template insight: name and prompt | 128 characters per insight | Yes, template rules | AI Chat across meetings |
| tl;dv | Template sections | Sections map to CRM fields | Yes, automation criteria | Per meeting notes |
| Fathom | Scorecard items by Meeting Type | Graded scorecard items | Yes, by Meeting Type | Top and Lower Performers views |
Example: pulling objections from every sales call
- Set conditions so the automation runs on customer calls only, such as invitee email domains, invitee count, a tag or the meeting title.
- Add the Insight step. The Sales feedback template gives written coaching on opening, discovery, pitch, objection handling and closing, but it doesn't list the objections raised. To pull out the objections themselves, write a custom insight set to Multiple, with fields for the objection details you want.
- Pick a destination, such as HubSpot or Attio.
- Let it run after each matching meeting, or run it by hand on an existing one, then read the insight on the Insights page.
How to choose
Three more tools deserve a sentence. Read AI has custom report templates, built from scratch or by duplicating a pre-built one, plus CRM auto-push to HubSpot or Salesforce with a chosen template. Granola's templates reshape your enhanced notes, and its recipes are saved prompts you run from chat on one meeting or several. Gong scores calls automatically.
FAQ
Can AI automatically summarize customer objections during sales calls?
Yes. Circleback's Sales feedback insight template gives written coaching on objection handling but doesn't list the objections raised, and a custom insight set to Multiple can pull out the objections themselves. Fireflies' multi-meeting AI Skills guide uses an objections prompt as its example.
Do custom insights run on meetings I import from another tool?
On Circleback, not on their own. Meetings imported from Fathom, Fireflies, Granola or Read AI, or through the API, keep their original notes and transcript but get no new notes or action items and don't trigger automations on their own. You can still run an automation on them by hand, as long as the import brought its notes over. Uploaded audio or video files do get insights.
Can I see one insight across all my meetings?
Yes on Circleback, through its Insights page. Fireflies' scheduled skills analyze many meetings daily, weekly or monthly, Otter has AI Chat across meetings, and Fathom has Top Performers and Lower Performers views.
Can custom insights fill CRM fields?
Otter maps insights to text custom fields on Salesforce Opportunities or HubSpot Deals, and tl;dv maps template sections to CRM fields. Circleback sends insights to HubSpot and Attio on a record or note without editing fields.