What the real executives are using for their meetings.
.png)
Reading time: ~13 min
AI meeting tools are everywhere in 2025, but not all of them are built for the same purpose. To really compare Shadow and Granola, you have to understand the difference between an AI Notepad and an AI Meeting Assistant.
Granola is an AI Notepad. It focuses on documenting your meetings with transcripts and summaries in a clean, minimal interface. Shadow is an AI Meeting Assistant. It captures your discussions and then helps with the work that follows by providing structured outputs, custom templates, and even a way to chat with your notes so you can make them do more.
Understanding this distinction is the key to choosing the right tool for your workflow.
.png)
Shadow is an AI Meeting Assistant. It is bot-free, gives you structured notes in Markdown, lets you set custom templates, and allows you to chat with your notes like ChatGPT. It is best for anyone who sees meetings as just the beginning, with the real work happening afterward.
Granola is an AI Notepad. It provides transcripts and AI-generated summaries with a distraction-free design. It is best for individuals who want clean notes without extra features.
Bottom line: Shadow is built for outcomes. Granola is built for documentation.
Shadow is designed to ensure meetings do not just end with a transcript. Unlike tools that join your calls as a bot, Shadow captures everything quietly in the background. Conversations feel natural and private, with no awkward extra participant on the screen.
When the meeting ends, Shadow delivers more than notes. You get structured outputs in Markdown, which makes it simple to drop them into Notion, Obsidian, or any note-taking system. You can also create custom templates so your notes are always formatted the way you need them, whether that is action items, key decisions, or follow-up questions.
And because meetings are only the starting point, Shadow lets you chat with your notes afterward. You can ask it to draft an email from a client call, summarize a series of stand-ups, or extract tasks for your project tracker. Instead of digging through transcripts, you can interact with your meeting history the same way you would with ChatGPT.
Shadow is an AI Meeting Assistant, not an AI Notepad. Its strength lies in helping you take the next step after the discussion by turning conversations into outcomes rather than leaving you with text on a page.
TL;DR
Granola takes a different approach. Think of it as an AI Notepad for your meetings. Its focus is on capturing conversations and providing clear summaries you can revisit later. The design is simple, modern, and polished, which makes it easy to use without setup or training.
Granola gives you transcripts, highlights, and summaries, but it does not try to manage tasks or feed into your workflow. It does not offer exports in multiple formats or advanced customization. Instead, it keeps things light and distraction-free.
That makes it perfect for individuals, freelancers, or small teams who do not need automation or integrations. If all you want is a reliable recap of what was said, Granola is an excellent fit.
TL;DR
Shadow and Granola are both valuable tools, but they solve different problems.
Granola is an AI Notepad. It is all about documentation. You get transcripts and summaries in a simple, easy-to-use package. If clarity is all you need, Granola does the job.
Shadow is an AI Meeting Assistant. It does not stop at notes. With Markdown outputs, custom templates, and the ability to chat with your notes, Shadow helps with the follow-up work that really matters. It is for people and teams who want meetings to actually move projects forward.
The question is not which tool is better. It is about what you need. If you want clean notes, choose Granola. If you want outcomes, choose Shadow.
.png)
.png)
.png)