AI for meetings: notes, actions and follow-ups
Use AI before, during and after a meeting to get a sharper agenda, notes you don’t have to take, and actions with owners and dates. Just ask before you record.
Video transcript
Meetings take up your week, and then the notes and follow-ups take up the rest. Here’s how AI can help before, during and after.
Think of it in three stages: get ready before the meeting, capture what’s said during it, and turn it all into action afterwards.
Before the meeting, give an assistant the papers and ask for an agenda with timings, or a one-page briefing with the questions worth asking.
During the call, a note-taker such as Otter, Fireflies or Granola, or the assistant in your office software, can write down what’s said and summarise it.
But tell everyone, and get their agreement, before anything is recorded or transcribed. And don’t record sensitive meetings at all, such as HR, health or legal conversations.
Afterwards, paste in the transcript or your rough notes. Ask for the decisions, every action with an owner and a due date, and a short follow-up email.
Then read it properly before you send it. AI can mix up who said what, or invent an action that nobody agreed to.
Copy the prompts from the full guide below, and try them after your next meeting.
In 30 seconds
- Before: turn the papers into an agenda and a one-page briefing.
- During: a note-taker can transcribe, but tell everyone and get agreement before anything is recorded.
- After: get decisions, actions with owners and dates, and a follow-up. Check names and numbers.
You leave an hour-long meeting with a page of scribbles, three half-remembered promises and no idea who’s sending the follow-up. AI can take the notes, pull out the actions and draft the email, if you set it up well.
Your meeting, with AI
- BeforeTurn the papers into an agenda with timings and a one-page briefing.
- DuringTell everyone and get their agreement, then let a note-taker transcribe and summarise.
- AfterGet the decisions, actions with owners and dates, and a draft follow-up email.
- CheckRead it before you send: numbers, names and who agreed to what.
Before: arrive prepared
Most Jargon busterAI assistant: A chat app such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini that answers questions and does tasks you describe in plain language. can read documents you upload. Give one the papers, such as last month’s minutes, a report or a long email thread, and ask it to get you ready.
I have a [length] meeting about [topic] with [who’s attending and their roles]. Using the documents I’ve attached, draft an agenda with timings and the decision we need on each item. Then write a one-page briefing: the key facts and figures, where people are likely to disagree, and three questions I should ask.
During: let a note-taker listen
AI note-takers such as Otter, Fireflies and Granola listen to a call and turn it into a Jargon busterTranscript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said in a recording, a call or a meeting. and a summary. Your video-call or office software may have an assistant built in, such as Microsoft Copilot. Use whichever your work has approved.
Tell everyone, and get their agreement, before anything is recorded or transcribed. Mention it in the invite, check again at the start, and if anyone objects, don’t record. Data protection law expects people to be told how their information will be used.
Many note-takers can join every meeting in your calendar automatically. Switch that off, so yours only joins the meetings you choose.
After: decisions, actions and the follow-up
Afterwards, paste in the transcript, or just your rough notes if nothing was recorded, and ask for three things: the decisions, the actions with an owner and a due date, and a short follow-up email.
Here are my rough notes from a meeting about [topic] with [names and roles]: [paste your notes or the transcript]. Write: 1) the decisions we made, one line each; 2) a table of actions with the task, owner and due date; 3) a short, friendly follow-up email to everyone who attended. Only use what’s in my notes. If an action has no owner or date, write “not agreed” instead of guessing.
Check before you send
AI summaries are useful, not perfect. They can drop a caveat, mix up who said what, or confidently list an action nobody agreed to, a kind of Jargon busterHallucination: When AI states something false as if it were true, because it predicts plausible words rather than checking facts..
Read the summary against your own memory before it goes out. Look hardest at numbers, names and who agreed to what: those are the mistakes that cause trouble later.
Then send it round and ask people to flag anything that’s wrong. To make the email sound more like you, see Write better at work with AI. And keep confidential details out of unapproved tools: here’s how to use AI at work safely.
Check yourself
3 quick questions nothing is savedTools in this guide
- OOtter.aiRecords and transcribes meetings, with summaries and action items.
- FFireflies.aiJoins calls, transcribes them and sends notes to other apps.
- GGranolaMeeting notes that combine your own jottings with an AI transcript.
- MMicrosoft CopilotMicrosoft’s assistant across Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365 apps.
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