Write meeting minutes from an audio recording

Executive assistant · Time: 20 min · Meetings

Tools that fit this task

• ChatGPT $20/mo
• Microsoft 365 Copilot $20/mo
• Notion AI $10/mo
• NotebookLM $14/mo
• Fireflies $10/mo
• Otter $8.33/mo

Prompt

Role: you are a meeting secretary writing minutes from a transcript.
Context: meeting on {{topic}} held on {{date}}, participants {{list of participants with roles}}. Agenda: {{items}}. The transcript is below; speaker names may be recognized with errors.
Task: write the minutes. Identify decisions made, tasks with an owner and deadline, and open questions. If a deadline or owner is unclear from the transcript, write [clarify] instead of guessing. Add to each decision a short quote from the transcript it comes from.
Format: a heading with date and topic, list of attendees, sections Decisions, Tasks (table task | owner | deadline | quote), Open questions, Next meeting. Business style, up to 400 words.
Transcript:
{{transcript}}

Steps

1. Tell participants about the recording at the start of the meeting and record their consent
2. Get a transcript from a meeting notetaker or upload the audio to NotebookLM or a chat that accepts audio
3. Give the assistant the transcript with the agenda and a prompt for the minutes
4. Get the minutes: decisions, tasks with an owner and deadline, open questions, and quotes from disputed points kept separately
5. Check every task, deadline and owner against the transcript, because the model mixes up speaker names
6. Send the minutes to participants the same day and ask them to confirm or correct within 24 hours

How to check the result

Every task in the minutes has an owner and a deadline, participants confirmed the minutes with no substantive corrections, and they went out on the day of the meeting

Pitfalls

• The model credits a decision to whoever spoke last instead of whoever made it
• A recording that discusses salaries, dismissals or deals goes into a public service only after the transcript is anonymized

Data that stays out of public AI tools

• The executive's correspondence with partners and investors: into a public service only as anonymized fragments
• Personal data of the executive and family: passports, tickets, addresses, medical records, never into third-party services
• Meeting recordings and decisions before they are announced: anonymize the transcript and restrict access to the notebook

Other tasks for executive assistants

• Write a business letter
• Write an email to a foreign partner in their language
• Write a weekly report to your manager
• Build a quarterly results presentation
• Summarize a long PDF
• Draft an internal company order
• Write a customer FAQ
• Keep a contract register and track deadlines
• Get a spreadsheet formula from a plain-language request

AI tools for executive assistants · Prompt: Write meeting minutes from an audio recording