Spent $400 on an AI transcription tool and it made my work way harder

I run a small video production company in Austin and thought I'd save time by using an AI tool to transcribe my interview footage. The thing cost me $400 for a year subscription and claimed it could handle heavy accents and background noise. First project I used it on was a contractor talking about foundation repair, and it came back with gibberish like "crack sealant" instead of "rebar" and "concrete pour" turned into "concrete poor." I spent nearly two hours fixing every single error, which was longer than if I'd just typed it myself. The worst part was it flagged timestamps wrong too, so I couldn't even search by timecode. Has anyone found a transcription AI that actually handles construction jargon and Texas drawls without breaking the bank?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.linda2mo ago

Used to think these AI tools were a no-brainer for saving time (you know, like any new gadget that promises to make life easier), but your experience totally changed my mind. I tried a cheaper one for my own side hustle typing up customer feedback forms, and it kept turning "front door handle" into "frondoor handle" which drove me nuts. The timecode thing you mentioned is the real kicker - without that working right, the whole point of having a searchable transcript just falls apart.

mia7481mo ago

Hold on, I gotta push back a little here. I think people are too quick to blame the tool when the real issue is they grab the cheapest option and expect perfection. A free or super cheap transcription service is like using a dollar store calculator for your taxes, it might work but you cant be shocked when it messes up. I use one of the bigger paid ones for my work and it nails 'front door handle' every single time because it learns from how I talk. And the timecode thing is usually spot on for me, I've never had it drift unless the audio was super noisy or terrible quality. Maybe the problem is that people want AI to be magic instead of just a tool that you have to set up right and pay for properly.

the_nina2mo agoMost Upvoted

Did you end up testing any other transcription tools after that mess?