How do you use AI for meeting notes?

Meeting notes are a good AI task: the input is bounded, the output structure is predictable and it is easy to check. The weak point is usually the input.

For the complete workflow with copyable prompts, see the guide AI meeting notes that turn into action items.

Step 1: Get a usable input

Options:

• Your own bullet notes typed during the call.
• A transcript from your meeting platform, if your company has enabled transcription. In Google Meet, “Take notes for me” is recommended for meetings of 15 minutes to a maximum of 8 hours.
• A recording transcribed by a tool your employer approves.

Rough notes plus a transcript beat either alone. Put a header at the top: date, attendees, purpose.

What the built-in meeting tools do

• Google Meet “Take notes for me” supports one language at a time, and multiple languages spoken in the same meeting aren’t currently supported. Check this before using it on a bilingual call.
• In Google Meet, an administrator can require all participants to give explicit consent before “Take notes for me”, Record or Transcribe starts.
• In Microsoft Teams, when an organizer turns off Copilot for a meeting, recording and transcription are also turned off.
• Depending on your organization’s Microsoft Purview retention policies, Copilot prompts and responses during meetings might be retained for compliance purposes, even if recording and transcription are turned off.

Step 2: Ask for a structured output

Below is a transcript of a project meeting. Produce: (1) a three-sentence summary; (2) decisions made; (3) action items in a table with owner, task, due date (write “not stated” if unclear); (4) open questions; (5) risks raised. Do not invent owners or dates.

The last sentence protects you. Otherwise the model may assign tasks to whoever sounds plausible.

Step 3: Produce audience versions

From the same notes, ask for:

• A two-line Slack update for the wider team.
• A follow-up email to attendees with the action list.
• A status line for your weekly report.

Step 4: Review before sharing

1. Compare the actions to what you remember. Did someone actually agree, or just discuss?
2. Confirm dates and amounts.
3. Remove sensitive tangents that shouldn’t be in the record.
4. Send it promptly, so people can correct errors.

Step 5: Build a habit

Save your prompt as a template. If you run the same recurring meeting, add previous open actions to the input and ask, “Which of last week’s actions were completed, and which are still open?”

Consent, policy and privacy

• Laws about recording conversations vary by location, and some require everyone’s consent. Check yours. The United States Code says a person may intercept a communication where that person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties has given prior consent to such interception.
• Company policy may limit transcribing external or sensitive meetings.
• A transcript is a document: sending it to an AI service is the same as sending any company data. See whether it is safe to put company data in ChatGPT.
• If notes go through a company Microsoft Copilot account, Microsoft says admins can use Content search or Microsoft Purview to view and manage the stored Copilot prompts and responses; see whether your employer can see your AI chats.

Accuracy limits

Transcripts contain errors, especially names, acronyms and overlapping speakers. Ask the assistant to list terms it was unsure about.

Scaling up

If you take notes from many meetings or recordings, you can automate the pipeline. Learn AI Fast includes a lab on summarizing a provided meeting transcript and extracting action items. For summarizing in general, see summarizing long documents.

Sources

• Google Meet “Take notes for me” supports one language at a time, and multiple languages spoken in the same meeting aren’t currently supported: “recommended for meetings of 15 minutes to a maximum of 8 hours”
• Google Meet “Take notes for me” supports one language at a time, and multiple languages spoken in the same meeting aren’t currently supported: “supports one language at a time”
• Google Meet “Take notes for me” supports one language at a time, and multiple languages spoken in the same meeting aren’t currently supported: “may require all participants to provide explicit consent”
• Microsoft Learn, Manage Microsoft Copilot in Teams meetings and events: “When organizers turn off Copilot for their meeting or event, recording and transcription are also turned off”
• Microsoft Learn, Manage Microsoft Copilot in Teams meetings and events: “Depending on your organization’s Microsoft Purview retention policies, Copilot prompts and responses during meetings might be retained for compliance purposes, even if recording and transcription are turned off”
• Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 18 U.S. Code 2511: “is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception”
• Microsoft Learn, Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot: “admins can use Content search or Microsoft Purview”