Is your video call transcription of evidential quality?

A transcription expert is urging organisations to ensure content is of evidential quality with the rise of video conferences and tools to capture conversations.

The increase in people using the likes of Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet to conduct online calls has naturally led to individuals exploring in-built and third-party transcription systems.

According to Christine Vaughan, director at Apple Transcription, the big challenge facing brands is the lack of accuracy when relying on artificial intelligence (AI).

And depending on the purpose of the transcription, this could lead to issues including securing out of court settlements or missing key information as part of research.

She said: “We frequently see problems arise as a result of organisations relying on the standard of the transcription that auto populates after a call.

“For example, in the medical sector, you have experts for both the claimant and defence team discussing unusual conditions or using jargon, with this conversation being used to help formulate a financial package. Often, the medical terminology is not accurately depicted in the write-up.

“In addition, HR teams face similar challenges when conducting disciplinary hearings or holding grievance meetings over a video call, which can cause huge ramifications if it escalates to a court or tribunal  hearing.”

Fellow director at Apple Transcription Dorothy Roberts added that there are nuances and grammatical concerns that affect all sectors regardless of how technical the conversation is.

She said: “When there are multiple people on the call, assigning words to the wrong speaker is a worrying outcome, as is the inability to portray how something was said, for example if  a description of non-verbal communication is not included.

“Whether quotation marks (“) or apostrophes (‘) are used in the sentence can also alter the way something is perceived, while using a full stop instead of a question mark changes the meaning, too.

“The incorrect use of commas is another common issue that causes problems. For instance, ‘I know, your honour’ and ‘I know your honour’ have two completely different meanings.

“This is where the benefits of using people rather than machines come in – the accuracy levels are much higher leading to peace of mind for the client.”

Apple Transcription has retained International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 9001 Quality and 27001 Data Security, as well as Cyber Essentials, for more than a decade.

To find out more about ensuring your transcription is of evidential quality, contact the Apple team here.