Zoom summarises Zoom. Driffle follows you off it.
AI Companion costs nothing on a paid Zoom account and Zoom does not train on your content. If every call you take is a Zoom call, that is hard to argue with.
The short version
Zoom includes AI Companion at no additional cost with the paid services on a Zoom account, and it summarises meetings, pulls out next steps and reaches across Zoom Meetings, Team Chat, Phone, Email and Whiteboard. Zoom also states plainly that it does not use customer content to train its models.
We will not pretend a free, competent, well-governed tool is bad. If your working life happens inside Zoom, start there.
The limit is the estate. It covers Zoom products, so a Teams call with a client, a Meet call with a candidate and the document you wrote afterwards leave no trace. Driffle listens on your Mac, so all of it lands in one memory.
Where we are the same
Worth saying plainly, because a comparison that pretends the other tool is bad is not much use to you.
- Neither adds a separate bot to a Zoom meeting.
- Both produce a summary and next steps without manual notes.
- Neither uses your content to train AI models.
- Both let you ask questions about what was captured.
Where Driffle is different
Not only Zoom
Driffle captures whatever your Mac can hear, so calls on Teams, Meet and conversations at a desk are not blind spots.
The work, not just the call
AI Companion summarises meetings and chats inside Zoom. Driffle holds the documents and threads around them in the same memory.
Yours, not your company's
AI Companion depends on the plan your organisation bought and what your admin enabled. Driffle installs on your own Mac.
Driffle and Zoom AI Companion, side by side
| Driffle | Zoom AI Companion | |
|---|---|---|
| How it learns about your work | Builds a running memory from your meetings and the work on your screen. | From activity across Zoom products on your account. source |
| What it captures | Meeting audio plus the documents, threads, and apps you actually work in. | Zoom meetings, Team Chat, Phone, Email and Whiteboard. source |
| Bot in your call | None. Driffle listens on your Mac, so nothing joins and no guest shows up in the participant list. | No separate bot. It runs inside Zoom itself. source |
| Before the meeting | A brief built from your whole week, not just the last call with these people. | Not stated as a pre-meeting brief. source |
| During the meeting | Transcribes quietly while you take your own notes or look something up. | In-meeting questions, with highlights and smart chapters on recordings. source |
| After the meeting | Summary and actions land seconds after the call, folded into memory you can question later. | “Post-meeting, hosts can receive an automated meeting summary to share with attendees.” source |
| Context beyond meetings | Yes. Meetings, documents, messages, and screen context sit in one memory. | Across Zoom products only. Work outside the Zoom estate is not covered. source |
| Where it runs | Mac, on Apple Silicon and Intel. Windows and Linux are request only today. | Inside Zoom Meetings, Team Chat, Phone, Email and Whiteboard. source |
| Trains AI on your work | Never. Models run inside our own AWS account with no training rights, and your work is not sent to any model company. | No. “Zoom does not use any customer audio, video, chat, screen-sharing, attachments, or other communications-like customer content to train Zoom’s or third-party artificial intelligence models.” source |
| Independent audit | GDPR and CCPA aligned with an Article 28 DPA. SOC 2 Type 1 audit underway, Type 2 to follow. | Zoom enterprise compliance programme. source |
| Where pricing starts | Free plan that never expires. Plus is $17 a month billed annually, $20 billed monthly. | “Included at no additional cost for customers with the paid services in their Zoom user accounts.” source |
Zoom AI Companion details compared as of August 2026, taken from their own pages. Products change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Which one fits
Choose Driffle when
- Your calls are spread across Zoom, Teams and Meet.
- You want the work around a meeting remembered alongside it.
- You want to start on your own without an admin or a plan change.
- You take conversations that are not on a video platform at all.
Choose Zoom AI Companion when
- Every meeting you take is already a Zoom meeting.
- You are on a paid Zoom plan and want nothing new to install or buy.
- You want summaries filed in Zoom Team Chat where your team already works.
- Your organisation will not approve another vendor.
Switching
There is nothing to switch off. Leave AI Companion on and run Driffle for a week alongside it. The gap shows up in what is missing: the calls that were not on Zoom, and the document nobody linked.
Security and your data
The parts that decide whether a tool is safe to put on your machine, stated without spin.
- Encryption
- AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit
- Hosting
- US AWS VPC
- Trains on your work
- Never, by design
- Bot in your call
- None
- Privacy law
- GDPR and CCPA aligned, Article 28 DPA
- Independent audit
- SOC 2 Type 1 underway, Type 2 to follow
Our SOC 2 Type 1 audit is underway and Type 2 follows it. Until those reports exist we describe our practices rather than point at an attestation, and we do not sign BAAs today. The full detail is on our privacy and security page.
Common questions about Driffle and Zoom AI Companion
Does Zoom AI Companion cost extra?
No. Zoom states it is included at no additional cost for customers with the paid services in their Zoom user accounts. Free Zoom accounts do not get it.
So why add Driffle?
Because AI Companion covers Zoom. Calls on Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, and conversations that happen at a desk, leave no record, and neither do the documents you wrote afterwards. Driffle listens on your Mac, so all of that lands in one memory.
Does Zoom train AI on my meetings?
No. Zoom states it does not use customer audio, video, chat, screen sharing or attachments to train its own or third-party AI models. Driffle does not train on your work either.
Does a bot join my Zoom call?
No. AI Companion runs inside Zoom, and Driffle listens on your machine. Neither adds a visible participant to the meeting.
Can I use both?
Yes, and in a Zoom-first company that is often the sensible answer. AI Companion covers the Zoom estate at no extra cost, and Driffle covers everything around it.
Do I need my admin to turn anything on?
For AI Companion, usually yes, since it depends on your Zoom plan and admin settings. Driffle installs on your own Mac.
Compare Driffle with something else
Your work does not happen in meetings alone
Driffle remembers the call and everything around it, then hands it back the moment you need it.