Google's experimental Foresight app takes AI meeting notes without leaving the Mac

Foresight is pitched at a compliance lead whose policy keeps client-call audio off third-party servers. A sales team has asked her for AI meeting summaries. Google says files, meeting audio and notes "never leave your computer," The Verge reported ^[6]. The Verge also says running on-device sets the app apart in a growing field of AI note-takers ^[13].

Google's other claim is about output. Users jot shorthand bullets during the meeting, and the app turns them into "polished notes" based on the transcript, the company says ^[7]. The Verge calls the app experimental ^[12]. TechCrunch goes further and suggests it may exist mainly to show what Google's Gemma series of offline models can do ^[14].

The only usage evidence available belongs to this team's previous release. That was an AI dictation tool built on local models, released in April, and TechCrunch says it never made it to mainstream use ^[10]. A privacy guarantee gets a tool through procurement. Whether people still open it a month later depends on the quality of the notes, and neither outlet reports Foresight's transcription accuracy or any usage figures.

Google is entering a crowded category. Wispr and Calendly each released a note-taker in the past few months, and Superhuman, formerly Grammarly, bought the YC-backed Fathom last month, according to TechCrunch ^[11]. TechCrunch also expects Google could release a consumer note-taker through its Gemini apps that works across video-calling apps and relies on cloud models ^[15].

Two conditions sort the decision for most teams. One is whether policy requires meeting audio to stay on the machine. The other is whether the notes would become the team's working record.

If audio must stay local and the notes live somewhere else, Foresight is a low-cost pilot. The Verge says it is free ^[12], so a failed trial costs only staff time. A team with the same audio rule whose notes would become the official record can still pilot it. I'd keep the minutes in a system the team controls, because an experimental app can be pulled. Teams cleared for cloud tools learn the most from a side-by-side test: the same meeting through Foresight and through the current note-taker, counting which summary needs fewer corrections. For a cloud-cleared team whose current tool already holds the record, nothing in the reporting argues for switching.

Track two numbers in any of these pilots: how many people still open the app in week four, and how many summaries go out without edits.