The trifluoromethyl group (CF3) is present in commercially available drugs of various therapeutic classes owing to its ability to modify and frequently improve their biological activities. Efavirenz is a trifluoromethylated inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT) that shows good results in anti-HIV chemotherapy. With the objective of developing efficient non-nucleoside compounds, we have designed and synthesized some new 3-hydroxy-2-oxo-3-trifluoromethylindole as potential RT inhibitors. We used different substituted isatins as starting materials. The final products contain the group CF3, present in Efavirenz, and a pharmacophoric group, oxoindole. We have used molecular docking with HIV-1 RT as a tool to design putative non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). Based on the calculation results obtained, a series of new 3-hydroxy-2-oxo-3-trifluoromethylindoles were synthesized as a novel class of potential RT inhibitors. The results showed that these compounds are capable of important interactions with the NNRT binding site, which encouraged us to submit them for biological assay. All compounds studied are significantly active in the RNA-dependent DNA-polymerase (RDDP) assay, and were not toxic toward the Vero cell line. Hence, the designed molecules represent good starting structures for further modification and structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies.