Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. CFAI: CFAI is a Windows desktop AI note taker that transcribes meetings and calls locally on-device with Faster Whisper, so audio never leaves the user's computer. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Balto when guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements matters most, and CFAI when transcribing zoom, teams, meet, or discord conversations entirely on-device for privacy-sensitive work matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls.
CFAI is a Windows desktop AI note taker that transcribes meetings and calls locally on-device with Faster Whisper, so audio never leaves the user's computer.
Balto is a contact-center AI platform centered on real-time guidance during live customer and sales calls. Rather than focusing on post-call review, Balto listens to conversations as they happen and surfaces dynamic prompts, objection-handling cues, compliance checklists, and knowledge-base answers to the agent in the moment. Its Agent Assist pulls relevant information so reps can respond to customer questions instantly, while real-time QA automatically scores interactions across all calls and flags compliance risk early, maintaining an audit trail for supervisors. Coaching automation tailors recommendations to each agent's performance, and real-time note generation produces call summaries without manual write-ups. Balto also offers voice AI agents to handle high-volume, repeatable calls and supports omnichannel context across voice and digital channels. It integrates with CRMs and telephony systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral. The platform is used across industries including healthcare, insurance, banking, collections, and home improvement, and is aimed at contact centers and sales teams that want in-the-moment guidance, compliance assurance, and automated quality management at scale. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
CFAI (Cognitive Flow AI) is a Windows desktop application that acts as a privacy-focused AI meeting and call note taker. Instead of sending a bot into the call, it captures both microphone and system audio at the operating-system level, so no "recording started" notification appears and the tool works across Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Discord, and any other call. Transcription runs locally on the device using Faster Whisper, with support for many languages, and CFAI states that the audio never leaves the user's computer. From the live transcript it produces speaker-labeled notes, AI summaries, and action items, and it can build a real-time "Cognitive Map" that visualizes the conversation's topics. Summaries can be generated by Claude in the cloud, or users can keep everything offline by connecting a local LLM through Ollama, LM Studio, or Jan.ai. It is aimed at professionals, educators, recruiters, and others who want meeting notes without bots or cloud audio uploads. CFAI is distributed via the Microsoft Store with a free trial and credit-based subscription tiers.
Best suited for
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); CFAI is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Balto | CFAI |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Real-time, in-call guidance with dynamic prompts and objection cues | Local on-device transcription using Faster Whisper, so audio never leaves the computer |
| Standout feature | Agent Assist that surfaces knowledge-base answers live | Bot-free capture of microphone and system audio at the OS level (no 'recording started' notice) |
| Team usage | Automated quality assurance scoring across 100% of calls | Speaker diarization with automatic speaker labels in transcripts |
| Integrations | Real-time compliance monitoring with audit trails | AI summaries and action items, generated by Claude or a local LLM |
| Languages & capture | Automated call summaries and coaching recommendations | Real-time 'Cognitive Map' that visualizes conversation topics and flow |
| Best-fit workflow | Integrations with CRMs and phone systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral | Works across any call platform including Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, and Discord |
Balto
Choose Balto if you need guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements — strengths include guides agents during the call rather than only analyzing afterward.
CFAI
Choose CFAI if you need capturing private meeting notes and summaries without a recording bot joining the call — strengths include local faster whisper transcription keeps meeting audio on-device for strong privacy.
Balto
CFAI
It depends on your workflow. Balto is strong for guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements, while CFAI is strong for capturing private meeting notes and summaries without a recording bot joining the call. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades and CFAI is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
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