If you Google “Free AI Transcription,” you’ll find dozens upon dozens of tools and services that offer just that. Simply upload your audio, and they’ll transcribe it for you – no fuss, no muss. With those, you no longer need to pay for transcription companies.
Yet, is it really that simple?
Beyond the per-minute or hourly rates of transcription, these services offer several advantages over free AI tools – some of which are non-negotiable for specific industries. Besides, anyone who’s been around the internet for a while can tell you that there’s no such thing as a free anything on the Web.
So, exactly how much are you paying for “free” AI transcription, and what are you giving up in exchange?
In this article, you’ll learn how:
- Free AI transcription tools have problems with hallucinations, poor audio quality, lack of formatting, security risks, and more. Paying for transcription services despite free AI options is the better choice.
- Paid transcription offers a level of quality and accountability that free AI tools cannot match. However, not all paid transcription services are created equal.
- Ditto’s transparent pricing structure, accuracy guarantees, fast turnaround times, quality deliveries, and world-class customer service puts it ahead of the competition.
Why Free AI Tools Are Not Ideal for Transcription?
Transcription can be a tedious (and expensive) task, which is why some people turn to free AI transcription instead of paying for it. However, “free” doesn’t mean it’s without cost – at least, not in the ways you might think.
While you may not be handing over your credit card details, you’re often paying with your data, your time, or the accuracy of the transcription itself. Here are the reasons why free AI transcription is not ideal.
Prone to Hallucination
Hallucination, the technical term for when an AI produces incorrect information, is a significant issue in the industry. A recent New York Times article suggested that AI may hallucinate as much as 27% of the time.
Your free transcription tools are, like it or not, powered by AI. So, that puts you at risk of hallucinations.
Now, that’s not an issue for the individual user, the one who spoke into the recording app and fed it to the tool. They’ll be able to spot the issues with a quick read.
However, transcription is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and organizations require transcripts at an enterprise scale.
Imagine the hundreds of man-hours wasted scraping through automated transcripts and then cross-checking them against the original audio.
The point of hiring a reliable company or service is to reduce transcription errors, not create them. Plus, I’ve been in the industry since 2010, and I’ve heard every kind of audio recording there is. And let me tell you, the files we get don’t exactly have the best audio quality, making it even worse for AI. Speaking of audio quality —
Dependent on Crystal-Clear Audio Quality
Look, no client will always send us 100% crystal-clear audio quality. That’s why there’s a margin of error for services.
Human-powered services often depend on their professional transcriptionists’ experience in the language and industry to intuitively understand the conversation, even if the audio is a bit jerky. (Of course, inaudible audio will always be tagged as <inaudible>. We’re not in the business of making things up.)
Meanwhile, AI transcription work is often hindered by the slightest of background noises, multiple speakers, varying accents and dialects, and poor quality in general. It cannot identify nuance and utilize context to create an accurate verbatim transcription — things that come naturally to experienced human transcriptionists.
In a statement to IBM, Julia Hirschberg, a professor and chair at the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University, explained why voice recognition software isn’t as accurate as some may think. Hirschberg says, “The ability to recognize speech as well as humans do is a continuing challenge, since human speech, especially during spontaneous conversation, is extremely complex.”
No Formatting
Free AI transcription systems still approach lecture content like a machine on autopilot, recording words while missing the big picture. What I mean is that automatic transcription systems tend to produce continuous streams of text from audio and video – in a single block of text. Yes, that means little punctuation or paragraph breaks.
Have you seen those social media posts that are one big text wall and thought, “Reading this is more trouble than it’s worth.”? Now imagine feeding an audio or video file into a free transcription tool and getting that as a result.
Without proper formatting, clients are left with what essentially amounts to additional work that requires more effort to restructure, effectively negating whatever “convenience” you get from those free AI transcription tools.
Technical Vocabulary Issues
Like oil and water, jargon and AI transcription don’t mix. “Sophisticated” algorithms stumble over niche terms despite their “highly advanced” training. Remember, AI is trained on whatever audio the company gets its hands on – and most audio transcription for critical, confidential industries, such as medical, legal, and law enforcement, is protected from AI use.
So, it wouldn’t surprise me if the free AI transcription software stumbled on industry-specific jargon that, by all metrics, should have been easy for a transcriptionist to catch.
Security Issues
Arguably, one of the most significant risks associated with AI transcription across any profession is the potential compromise of sensitive or confidential information.
Since the rise of AI, many organizations have increasingly relied on it for everyday tasks, such as transcribing meetings. While AI may seem like a convenient and efficient solution, it also presents a range of risks that companies need to evaluate.
For example, Alex Bilzerian posted about an incident on X, which got over 5 million views when shared on the platform.
One could argue that the information didn’t fall into the “wrong hands.” Otherwise, Alex would have just used the private information for his gain.
However, anyone with security training will tell you that if someone shouldn’t have access to something but does, they’re already considered “in the wrong hands.”
Regardless of intent, no one should see anything they have no business looking at. That’s the risk you take with free AI transcription tools.
Too Much Risk For Too Little Gain
Current research indicates that the accuracy rate of speech recognition and AI transcription is 61.92%. That level of accuracy may be acceptable for taking notes or setting up reminders – anything that doesn’t require professional or procedural use.
However, 61.92% accuracy is simply unacceptable for anything used in a professional setting.
If you don’t agree, ask yourself this: Would you trust a police transcript if 40 out of every 100 words are completely and utterly wrong? How about a medical consultation transcript? Or a business meeting transcript?
If that’s not enough for you, here’s a shortlist of the consequences of inaccurate transcripts across any industry and use case:
- Misinterpretation of Data
- Loss of Credibility
- Declining Patient Care
- Ethical Implications
- Resource Wastage
- Legal Consequences
- Impact on Future Research
- Compromised Decision Making
Why Pay For Transcription?
If AI doesn’t work for you, then yes, you can transcribe your audio and video files yourself. However, know that most experienced transcriptionists take about three to four hours to transcribe one audio hour. Specialized types of transcriptions can even take longer.
Transcription is more than just finding someone with basic typing skills. It requires skill, training, dedication, and industry knowledge to produce quality transcripts that can be used for business, legal, medical, academic, or general matters.
That’s why the transcription industry exists. We specialize in various sectors and focus on one thing: transcription. This allows us to do massive amounts of work at scale while offering competitive rates and quick turnaround times.
You don’t need to settle for shoddy free AI tools or build your transcription department. We’ve got you covered.
Why Ditto Is The Industry Standard
While it’s true that some transcription providers offer cheaper rates, standard rates for professional transcriptionists are often higher. And cheaper options don’t come with the advantages Ditto Transcripts offers.
All our transcriptionists are U.S.-based, native English speakers, making them inherently better at understanding the language’s complexity and nuance. On top of that, they are college-educated and are experts with years of proven experience in their respective transcription fields. That’s why we’re confident in offering 99% accuracy guarantees.
Furthermore, our pre-employment tests are among the most challenging in the industry, and we only hire those who pass with flying colors. All our transcriptionists have passed rigorous criminal background checks and strictly adhere to our security protocols.
The result?
Our transcriptionists consistently produce high-quality results and are fairly compensated for their skills and expertise.
That’s why here at Ditto, we don’t do cheap; we do affordable.
Ditto’s Transcription Pricing Structure
For general transcription, here’s what you can expect to pay for Ditto’s services:
This is how we break down each category:
Category A:
- Single-person narrative or standard one-on-one interview recorded in digital format (video or audio files)
- This includes audio or video files with little to no background noise, easy-to-understand accents and dialects, and clear audio.
- Prices start at $1.50 rate per audio minute for extended (6-10 business days) pricing.
Category B:
- Any audio with three or more people, any audio with significant noise in the background, and any audio with voices that are difficult to understand (i.e., poor recording, soft voices, etc.)
- The difficulty of transcribing these challenging audio recordings results in a higher rate. Still, our prices are average for the industry’s transcription rates.
If you need more information, contact us and we’ll be glad to help.
You can also calculate your transcription charges using our handy-dandy calculator.
Ditto Is The Transcription Service You Can Trust
Why pay for our transcription when AI is free? Well, you know you’re getting your money’s worth and more with Ditto’s services. We offer faster deliveries for rush jobs and more economical prices to fit tighter budgets.
Regardless of price, all our services come with our 99% accuracy guarantee, high-quality transcription, secure channels, and the best customer service in the industry.
Ditto Transcripts is a HIPAA-compliant and CJIS-compliant Denver, Colorado-based transcription services company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcripts for individuals and institutions of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote and ask about our free five-day trial.