AI meeting tools and event platforms are the fastest-growing category in B2B software and the one most likely to stall in a German security review. The reason is rarely the features — it is that recording a call or hosting a webinar creates two obligations US-built tools tend to gloss over: a lawful basis and consent for the data collection, and a defensible answer to where the data is processed. This briefing leads with those questions, because for a DACH team they decide deployment.
The practical split: AI note-takers that join and transcribe calls; scheduling and calendar-defence tools that protect focus time; webinar platforms for one-to-many engagement; and the consent and works-council process that has to wrap any of it in Germany. A tool that clears the Datenschutz review in a week beats a more featured one that stalls for a quarter.