What Hedy AI is and who the meeting coach is for
Hedy AI is an AI meeting coach and assistant. Most meeting tools record the call and hand you a transcript and summary when it ends. Hedy does that too, but its main job happens during the conversation: it listens through the app on your phone or computer and puts suggested questions, talking points and follow-ups on screen while you are still talking.
The vendor pitches it at business professionals, coaches, recruiters and hiring managers, journalists, students, job seekers and patients who want to remember what a doctor said. In practice I think it makes most sense for people whose work is conversations: consultants, salespeople, recruiters and coaches. If you have one meeting a week, a simpler note taker is probably enough.
Hedy is a small company. Its AppSumo listing says it was founded in June 2024, is based in Portland, Oregon, has 1 to 10 staff and is bootstrapped. Hedy’s own site claims more than 30,000 active users.
Hedy features
Real-time AI coaching in meetings
This is the reason to look at Hedy. During a session the live transcript runs alongside an AI coaching panel with quick actions such as summarise, smart reply and draft reply. Hedy describes the suggestions as context-aware prompts: the right question, the sharp follow-up or the detail you might otherwise miss. You can also create your own quick prompts.
Session types
You pick a session type before you start, and it tunes what the coaching looks for. The AppSumo listing names Business, Coaching and Mentoring, Job Interview (Candidate), Negotiation, Journalism, Healthcare, Spiritual Teaching, Recruitment, Personal Conversations, Lectures and Solo Brainstorming. Pro adds custom session types and custom vocabulary for names and jargon.
Topics and cross-session memory
Topics group related sessions, for example every call with one client. You can then chat across those sessions, ask what was decided last time, and get automatic prep notes before the next meeting. The free plan allows one Topic; Pro is unlimited.
Notes, highlights and imports
After each session Hedy produces a summary, detailed notes, action items and a recap email. Highlights let you mark a key moment with one tap. On Pro you can import recordings, transcripts and online videos (including YouTube), merge sessions, regenerate summaries and share sessions by email or link. Chat, transcript editing and data export are available on every plan.
Privacy and data
Hedy says speech recognition runs on the device by default, cloud analysis is transient and not stored, and your data is never used to train AI models. Local AI Processing moves summaries, notes and suggestions on to the device as well, on capable hardware. Pro and Team accounts can choose US or EU data residency. The vendor says it has completed a SOC 2 Type I examination and a HIPAA assessment, and offers a DPA.
Apps, languages and integrations
There are apps for iPhone and iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, the web and Apple Watch, with cloud sync between them. Hedy says it understands conversations in more than 30 languages, which helps international teams. It also supports Siri Shortcuts on Apple devices. For automation Hedy lists Zapier, Make, a REST API, webhooks and an MCP server, so session data can be pushed into a CRM, project tool or inbox.
Hedy pricing, Pro and Team plans
Hedy publishes its prices in US dollars. At the time of writing:
| Plan | Price | Main limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Up to 5 hours a month, live suggestions for the first 30 minutes of each session, 1 Topic |
| Pro | $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year | Unlimited sessions and length, live suggestions for the first 120 minutes of each session, imports, integrations |
| Pro Lifetime | $299 one-time | Same features as Pro, including future updates |
| Team | $12.99 per seat a month or $99.99 per seat a year | Pro for every seat, shared Team Topics, admin dashboard, 2 to 200 seats |
| Enterprise | Custom | 200-seat minimum, SSO, private cloud or on-premises AI models |
Lifetime deal. At the time of writing, AppSumo lists a Hedy AI Pro Plan lifetime licence for $179 (against a $299 list price), with a 60-day refund window. The deal terms say it covers all future Pro Plan updates, is not stackable, and the code must be redeemed within 60 days. Refunds for purchases on Hedy’s own site are limited to 14 days.
Hedy app limits and drawbacks
- Live coaching has a time cap. Even on Pro, live suggestions cover the first 120 minutes of a session. That is fine for most calls, but long workshops will run past it.
- Hardware requirements. The deal terms list iPhone 12 or newer, Android 12 or newer, an M1 Mac on macOS 15 or newer, and Windows 10 or newer with a dedicated GPU recommended. Older devices are out.
- Built around your own device. Hedy describes capture and speech recognition as happening on your device. If your team wants a shared recorder that joins every video call as a participant, check that Hedy fits that workflow before buying.
- Consent and etiquette. You are running an AI that listens to a live conversation. Make sure the other people know, and check the rules for your industry and country.
- Company size. A bootstrapped team of under ten people is not a problem in itself, but it is a real risk with any one-off lifetime payment.
Hedy AI alternatives
- Otter.ai focuses on transcription, meeting notes and search, with a bot that can join calls.
- Granola is a notepad-style meeting tool that combines your own notes with the transcript after the call.
- Fireflies.ai is aimed at teams that want meeting recording, analytics and CRM sync across the whole company.
Verdict
Hedy is one of the few meeting apps built around coaching during the conversation, and the feature set backs that up: session types, Topics with cross-session chat, prep notes and on-device processing. The free plan is generous enough to try it properly, and Pro is reasonably priced.
I would try the free plan first. If the live suggestions are actually useful in your calls, the $179 AppSumo lifetime licence is cheaper than two years of Pro at the yearly price, which makes it good value as long as you are comfortable with the small-company risk.
