Granola AI Ships SOC 2 Compliance for Legal Meeting Transcriptions
Serge Bulaev
Granola AI is now a trusted tool for lawyers to record and transcribe long meetings, making note-taking much faster and easier. The app gives highly accurate transcripts, though it doesn't label who is speaking, so users may need to tag speakers themselves. Granola is secure enough for private boardrooms, but lawyers should always get written consent before recording. Compared to other tools, it's easy to use and saves a lot of time. Experts expect more law firms will use AI tools like Granola for meetings in the next few years.
With its recent SOC 2 compliance, Granola AI for legal meeting transcriptions has become a practical staple for attorneys managing witness prep, board strategy, and client updates. Independent analysis shows 90-92% accuracy in clear audio conditions, outperforming other live transcription tools in a tldv comparative review. A key limitation, however, is that transcripts lack speaker labels, requiring manual tagging for direct quotations, as noted by the Krisp benchmark.
Granola AI as a meeting recorder for long legal meetings - key performance notes
Granola AI provides secure transcription for legal meetings, leveraging its SOC 2 Type 2 compliance to operate in confidential settings. While its 90-92% accuracy rate is effective for daily work, the service does not identify individual speakers, and legal teams must secure explicit consent before use.
Granola achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance in late 2024, clearing its use in confidential boardrooms previously off-limits to AI recorders. While accuracy is consistent across ten major languages, heavy accents can reduce quality. For privacy, Granola captures device audio without storing the raw voice data. However, firms should negotiate an enterprise opt-out, as the service trains its models on transcript text by default. Ethical guidelines from the New York City Bar Association mandate securing explicit written consent before any AI transcription and performing a line-by-line review of the output.
Where it shines - and where it stalls
Flawless transcription for official testimony remains the domain of hybrid services like Rev AI, which combine automation with human review. Granola's strength lies in routine legal tasks where efficiency outweighs the need for deposition-grade precision. Lawyers using the tool report significant benefits, including a 40-60% reduction in note-taking time during extended negotiations. A popular workflow involves exporting the raw transcript into a large language model to draft issue lists, identify action items, or simulate legal arguments, turning a static record into an interactive tool.
Competitor snapshot for legal practitioners
| Tool | Reported accuracy | Speaker ID | Security badge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granola | 90-92% | No | SOC 2 Type 2 |
| Sonix | 95%+ | Yes | ISO 27001 |
| Rev AI (human review) | 99%+ | Yes | HIPAA ready |
Sonix is the preferred choice for firms requiring automatic speaker labels, while Rev AI leads for depositions where absolute accuracy is non-negotiable. Granola excels on price and frictionless setup: a simple desktop widget delivers a searchable transcript within seconds per minute of recorded audio.
Practical compliance checklist
Before using Granola AI in any legal proceeding, attorneys must complete the following steps:
1. Announce the use of the tool and obtain written consent from all parties.
2. Verify the jurisdiction's all-party consent requirements.
3. Use enterprise data-retention settings or manually export and purge sensitive text segments.
The American Bar Association predicts that by 2026, over half of all midsize firms will use AI-assisted transcription for internal meetings. Granola is well-positioned to meet this demand, but its effectiveness hinges on users remaining aware of its limitations and supplementing every automated transcript with professional legal judgment.