What Is Call transcription?

Text derived from spoken audio

Transcription converts speech into written text. A person can create it manually, or automatic speech recognition can generate it from an audio stream or recording. The result is an interpretation of speech rather than the original conversation itself. Names, specialized vocabulary, numbers, accents and overlapping speech can produce errors even when the transcript reads smoothly.

Separate transcription from speaker diarization, summarization and business-field extraction. A transcript can contain the right words assigned to the wrong speaker. A summary can omit a condition, and an extraction model can misread a tentative date as a commitment. Those are different failure modes that should not be hidden behind a single claim about AI accuracy.

Check the words that change decisions

For a sales workflow, review amounts, dates, company names, negation and agreed next steps against the underlying audio. A small error in one of those items can matter more than several harmless wording differences. Preserve timestamps and the recording reference where the approved system supports them so the reviewer can return to the relevant passage instead of trusting a copied excerpt without context.

Measure on representative calls

Google's speech guidance recommends comparing recognition output with accurate human ground truth from relevant conditions. Apply that principle to the languages, call types and audio routes the team actually uses. A provider's generic benchmark or confidence score does not establish the quality of the business fields that will enter a CRM.

Handle access and retention according to the approved call-processing workflow. A transcript can expose the same sensitive conversation content as a recording, while being easier to search and copy. Keep the source and review state attached to important conclusions. The useful result is a searchable aid with a route back to evidence, not an unchecked document treated as a perfect account of what each participant said.