Cluely: AI Meeting Assistant Product Description

Overview

Cluely is a desktop-based AI meeting assistant designed to provide real-time transcription, live meeting notes, and instant insights during virtual meetings, sales calls, and professional conversations. Unlike traditional meeting tools such as Otter or Granola that provide post-meeting analysis, Cluely operates during active conversations to deliver in-the-moment assistance. The platform distinguishes itself through its invisible operation model, functioning as a translucent window overlay that does not join meetings as a visible participant or appear in meeting recordings.

Core Product Features

Real-Time AI Transcription and Note-Taking

Cluely provides live meeting notes and real-time transcription by listening to system audio and generating comprehensive notes as conversations unfold. The platform captures spoken dialogue and converts it into searchable text, allowing users to reference earlier discussion points without interrupting the flow of conversation. This real-time capability ensures that important details, commitments, and action items are documented immediately rather than relying on post-meeting memory or manual note-taking.

The AI-powered note-taking system structures information automatically, identifying key themes, decisions, and takeaways from conversations. Users receive live insights during meetings, with the system processing audio and providing contextual information as discussions progress.

Invisible Operation and Stealth Mode

Cluely operates as a translucent and hideable window that appears over all other applications, and never shows up in shared screens, recordings, or external meeting tools. This invisibility feature represents the platform’s primary differentiator from conventional meeting assistant tools. The application never joins meetings as a bot, meaning there are no additional participants on guest lists.

The translucent interface can be moved, resized, or hidden entirely based on user preference, maintaining screen visibility while providing access to AI assistance when needed. The overlay design allows users to reference transcripts and insights without switching between applications or disrupting their workflow.

Pre-Meeting and Post-Meeting Intelligence

Before every meeting, Cluely provides background information on attendees and surfaces details from past conversations. This contextual preparation helps users enter meetings with relevant historical information and relationship context readily available.

After every meeting, Cluely generates follow-up emails and meeting notes based on the conversation content. The automated follow-up capability reduces administrative work and ensures timely communication with meeting participants. The platform also provides improvement feedback after calls, offering guidance whether users are interviewing for jobs, selling products, working on assignments, or participating in general conversations.

Sales-Specific AI Assistance

Cluely positions itself as an AI sales copilot, providing real-time conversation guidance, objection handling, and persuasive insights during sales calls. The sales functionality includes several specialized features:

Real-Time Prompts and Talk Tracks: The system delivers AI-powered prompts while users speak, including pitch suggestions, follow-up questions, and dynamic talk tracks. These prompts help sales professionals maintain conversation momentum and ensure comprehensive coverage of key selling points.

Objection Handling: Cluely listens for objections during sales conversations and instantly surfaces appropriate responses, competitor comparisons, and rebuttals without requiring users to switch between tabs or applications. This immediate response capability helps sales representatives address concerns confidently without conversational delays.

Document Integration: Users can upload sales briefs, one-pagers, or PDF documents, and Cluely scans these materials to automatically pull relevant information into calls. This knowledge base integration ensures that product specifications, pricing details, and technical information are accessible during live conversations.

Communication Coaching: The platform tracks live communication metrics across clarity, conviction, and engagement, providing personalized coaching to help users improve their performance during active calls.

Automated Follow-Up: Cluely auto-drafts personalized follow-up emails based on call content, listening to conversations, summarizing key takeaways, and generating tailored messages ready for review or sending after calls conclude.

Screen Reading and Contextual Assistance

Beyond audio processing, Cluely includes screen reading capabilities that extend its utility beyond meetings. The system can provide AI suggestions and assistance even without audio input, by reading screen content. This functionality supports various use cases including coding assistance, research support, document review, and study applications.

The screen-aware design means Cluely can provide contextually relevant suggestions based on visible content, whether users are working in development environments, productivity applications, or web browsers.

Supported Platforms and Technical Specifications

Cluely operates as a desktop application available for both macOS and Windows operating systems. The platform integrates with popular online meeting services including Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. The application links to system audio for live insights and transcription capabilities.

The software functions as a standalone desktop client rather than a browser extension or web application, providing system-level audio capture and screen monitoring capabilities necessary for its real-time assistance features.

Pricing Structure

Cluely offers a free plan that includes all essential features, allowing users to access the platform at no cost. For users requiring additional functionality, the pricing structure includes a Pro tier with unlimited access and everything included in the Starter plan, plus custom knowledge capabilities for teams.

The platform currently has approximately 70,000 active users with a subscription rate of $20 per month for premium features. The free-to-start model allows users to evaluate core functionality before committing to paid plans.

Enterprise Features

For organizations, Cluely provides enterprise-level meeting AI and meeting assistant capabilities designed for sales, customer support, and recruiting teams. Enterprise features include:

• CCPA compliance working toward meeting California’s privacy protection standards
• Data encryption at rest and in transit to protect stored and transferred information
• Dedicated workspace isolation ensuring organizations maintain separate, secure team data environments

Enterprise functionality includes the ability for sales managers to silently observe and coach representatives in real-time using AI-tagged insights, flag important moments, add coaching comments, and track team performance without interrupting live calls.

Use Case Applications

Sales and Business Development

The platform’s sales-focused features make it particularly relevant for business development representatives, account executives, and sales teams. The real-time objection handling, competitive positioning support, and conversation guidance help sales professionals navigate complex discussions and close deals more effectively. The automated follow-up generation reduces administrative burden while maintaining consistent prospect communication.

Meetings and Negotiations

For general meetings and negotiations, Cluely enables seamless note-taking and instant insights to help teams stay aligned, track discussion points, and make informed decisions in real-time. The comprehensive transcription and note generation ensure accurate records of meeting outcomes, decisions, and commitments.

Customer Support

Customer support representatives can leverage Cluely to access instant recall of company knowledge, helping resolve complex customer issues during live support calls. The knowledge base integration ensures support staff have access to technical documentation, troubleshooting guides, and product information without placing customers on hold or searching through multiple systems.

Recruitment and Interviewing

For recruitment professionals, Cluely supports interviewers by generating relevant questions, evaluating candidate responses, and recording detailed notes discreetly during interview conversations. This capability helps hiring teams maintain consistent evaluation criteria and comprehensive candidate records.

Technical Architecture

While exact technical details of Cluely’s operation remain proprietary, the system appears to function by monitoring screen content and audio throughout online interactions, providing contextual suggestions and responses in real-time. The tool operates as a hidden or concealed layer that remains invisible to other meeting participants, presumably running in a separate window within the user’s system.

The architecture enables system-level audio capture without requiring meeting platform integrations or bot participants, distinguishing its technical approach from competitors that rely on meeting platform APIs and visible bot attendance.

Company Background

Cluely was developed by Columbia University graduates Chungin “Roy” Lee and Neel Shanmugam. The platform evolved from their earlier college project called “Interview Coder,” which was originally built to assist students with technical interviews. The company has received seed funding of $5.3 million from investors.

The founders have taken a distinctive marketing approach, with the company openly acknowledging its controversial positioning in the market for AI-assisted professional tools. This has generated significant attention and debate within the technology and business communities regarding the appropriate use of AI assistance in professional contexts.

Competitive Positioning

In the crowded market of AI meeting assistants, Cluely differentiates itself primarily through its invisible operation model. While competitors like Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, and Gong provide meeting transcription and analysis, these platforms typically function through visible bot participants that join calls and appear in participant lists.

Cluely’s approach of operating as a translucent window overlay that records audio and screen content without joining calls or appearing to other participants creates a fundamentally different user experience compared to traditional meeting bots.

The real-time assistance focus also distinguishes Cluely from post-meeting analysis tools. Rather than providing insights after calls conclude, the platform delivers support during active conversations when users need guidance most immediately.

User Experience and Interface

The platform emphasizes minimal disruption to existing workflows through its overlay interface design. Users can scroll through the application to see Cluely in action, with the system listening to audio and providing live insights as content is displayed. The translucent window design maintains visibility of underlying applications while providing access to AI-generated content, transcripts, and suggestions.

The movable and hideable nature of the interface allows users to position the assistant according to their preferences and screen layouts, accommodating various monitor configurations and workflow requirements.

Privacy and Data Considerations

As an application that monitors audio and screen content, Cluely operates with access to potentially sensitive business and personal information. The platform implements data encryption for information at rest and in transit. For enterprise users, dedicated workspace isolation ensures organizational data remains separate and secure.

Users should be aware that the platform’s functionality requires system-level permissions to capture audio and screen content. Organizations considering Cluely should evaluate these capabilities against their security policies, compliance requirements, and privacy frameworks. The invisible operation model, while providing user experience benefits, also raises questions about transparency with meeting participants and potential recording consent issues depending on jurisdiction.

Recording individuals’ audio or video without their consent may infringe upon privacy rights in various jurisdictions. Users and organizations should ensure compliance with applicable laws and organizational policies regarding meeting recording and AI tool usage.

Target Customer Segments

Based on its feature set and positioning, Cluely targets several primary customer segments:

1. Sales Organizations: Companies seeking to improve sales team performance, consistency, and conversion rates through real-time AI assistance
2. Small Business Owners: Entrepreneurs and small business leaders managing multiple roles who need efficient meeting documentation and follow-up
3. Remote-First Companies: Organizations with distributed teams requiring comprehensive meeting records and asynchronous communication support
4. Customer-Facing Teams: Support, success, and account management professionals who need instant access to knowledge bases during customer interactions
5. Professional Services: Consultants, agencies, and service providers conducting frequent client meetings requiring detailed documentation

Integration and Workflow

The platform’s desktop application architecture means it operates independently of specific meeting platforms, providing consistent functionality across Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, and other video conferencing tools. This platform-agnostic approach ensures users experience the same capabilities regardless of which meeting technology their clients or colleagues prefer.

The knowledge base integration allows teams to upload proprietary documentation, product information, competitive intelligence, and other reference materials that inform the AI’s responses and suggestions during meetings. This customization capability makes the platform adaptable to specific organizational needs and industry contexts.

Performance Considerations

User testing indicates that response speed represents a key area for platform improvement, with some users noting that faster processing would enhance the real-time assistance experience. The delay between spoken content and AI-generated suggestions can impact the tool’s utility during rapid-fire conversations or highly dynamic sales discussions.

The platform experience may vary between operating systems and subscription tiers, with free plan users potentially experiencing different performance characteristics compared to paid subscribers.

Market Position and Growth

With approximately 70,000 active users, Cluely has achieved meaningful market traction in the competitive meeting assistant category. The platform’s controversial positioning and distinctive invisibility feature have generated significant discussion in technology and business communities, contributing to awareness and adoption.

The company’s venture backing provides resources for continued product development, sales and marketing expansion, and enterprise feature enhancement. As the AI meeting assistant market continues evolving, Cluely’s unique approach to invisible, real-time assistance positions it as an alternative to traditional transcription-focused competitors.

Conclusion

Cluely represents an innovative approach to AI meeting assistance through its invisible operation model, real-time transcription, and in-meeting support capabilities. The platform addresses specific pain points around meeting documentation, sales conversation guidance, and instant knowledge access that many professionals face in remote and hybrid work environments.

The application’s core value proposition centers on providing AI assistance without the social friction, transparency issues, or user experience limitations associated with visible meeting bots. For sales professionals, customer-facing teams, and meeting-intensive roles, the real-time objection handling, contextual prompts, and automated follow-up features offer tangible productivity benefits.

Organizations and individuals considering Cluely should evaluate the platform’s capabilities against their specific workflow requirements, privacy policies, and compliance frameworks to ensure appropriate implementation and usage within their professional contexts.