AI for Meeting Notes: Decisions, Tasks and Open Questions

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You can use AI for meeting notes to organize material where it is hard to quickly extract what was decided. You need decisions, tasks, and questions that remain open - kept separate. Do not ask for a general summary if you then need to act on it. First, determine what you will need the note for and what must remain in it.

Notes do not replace conversation transcripts

Separate the transcript from the summary. In the transcript, you look for what was said. In the note, you select information needed for further work. If you will return to the exact wording of statements, keep the source material alongside the summary.

Similarly, separate a proposal from a decision. The sentence “we could check another variant” does not mean assigning a task to a specific person. When the material does not contain an assignee or deadline, record the absence. Do not ask AI to fill in the table so it looks complete.

Solutions to consider

Google Meet offers a Take notes for me feature. The documentation describes note preparation and settings for recipients and content. Before a meeting, check availability, language, and who will have access to the document. Source: Google, notes with Gemini in Meet.

If you are working with already saved materials, consider Copilot in OneNote. Microsoft describes note summarization on the indicated page. This is a different starting point than recording an ongoing conversation. First you select the source, and only then do you request its organization. Source: Microsoft, summarizing notes in OneNote.

Do not choose a tool solely based on the length of the generated summary. You want to be able to check the basis of a decision and correct ambiguities. If you receive only an elegant paragraph without distinguishing decisions from ideas, ask for a change in structure.

How to organize a meeting

1. Determine whether you are using your own notes, a transcript, or a feature that works during the conversation.
2. When taking meeting notes, clearly inform participants about the tool being used.
3. Select the scope of the note: decisions, tasks, questions, and information needed to understand them.
4. Mark uncertain statements and matters requiring confirmation.
5. Compare the summary with the source, especially regarding responsibility and deadlines.
6. Check document recipients before sharing.

With your own loose notes, first improve the readability of names and abbreviations. Do not add details from memory without marking that they are your later addition. This way you know what comes from the meeting and what from further work.

Ready-to-use prompts

Direct these prompts to an assistant working on the provided text. If the material contains confidential information, select a tool according to the rules that apply to you when processing it.

Meeting notes

Help me organize meeting notes. First ask for the material and wait. Then separate decisions, tasks, ideas, and open questions. For a task, enter the assignee and deadline only when they follow from the source. For gaps, write what was not decided. Do not change a proposal into a decision. At the end, list fragments requiring my confirmation.

Test on a short example

Organize this sample note: "The form needs to be fixed. An idea was raised to simplify the fields. No assignee was chosen. The deadline will be set after checking the scope. Preparation of a problem list was approved." Separate the approved decision from ideas. Do not assign responsibility to anyone. List questions that need to be answered before starting changes. Do not add information from outside the example.

Summary verification

Check whether the summary matches the source material. Ask for the source and the note, then compare them point by point. Indicate omitted conditions, added decisions, and unjustified assignment of responsibility. For each observation, show the fragment on which you base it. If the source is ambiguous, mark the uncertainty. Do not fill gaps with your own interpretation.

What not to expect

• Do not expect reconstruction of decisions that were not included in the provided material.
• Do not treat a concise note as a complete record of the conversation.
• Do not consider a task assignment true just because it appeared in a table.
• Do not assume that automatic note-taking will be available in every language and on every account.
• Do not entrust the tool with independently selecting people who should receive confidential decisions.

What to do with notes after the meeting

With subsequent corrections, distinguish an editorial change from a new decision. Corrected spelling of a name does not have the same significance as an added assignee. If responsibility was determined after the meeting, mark it as a later addition. Do not change the conversation record this way as if the decision had been made earlier. Also preserve information about who confirmed the new decision.

First check points leading to action. If an assignee is missing, direct the question to the appropriate person. If no deadline was set, leave that information explicit. Do not hide the problem under a general statement about next steps.

In a note for learning, you would choose a different structure: concepts, explanations, and control questions. You would keep references to the source to return to a difficult passage. Do not mix this purpose with a meeting summary, where decisions and responsibility are more important.

If the starting point is a recording, first use the guide on AI for transcription. To communicate approved decisions, prepare a message according to the principles from the text on AI for writing emails. Do not automatically send the first summary.

You would choose AI for notes for selection and organization of information. You consider a result useful when it shows what was decided, what is missing, and what the summary is based on. Confirm decisions and tasks before passing the note on.

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