Write meeting minutes from an audio recording

Secretary · Time: 20 min · Meetings

Tools that fit this task

• ChatGPT $20/mo
• Microsoft 365 Copilot $20/mo
• Copilot in Teams $10/mo
• Fireflies $10/mo
• Notion AI $10/mo
• NotebookLM $14/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

• Executive letters on personal and HR matters: into a public service only as anonymized text
• Passport data, phones and addresses of travel and meeting participants: replace them with [Participant 1]
• Letters from government bodies and courts with case numbers and details: add the details locally

Other tasks for secretaries

• Clear your morning inbox in half an hour
• Log incoming correspondence with a short summary
• Prepare a cover letter for a document pack
• Find a meeting time with several participants
• Send action items to participants after a meeting
• Write a business letter
• Turn a scanned document into editable text
• Write an email to a foreign partner in their language
• Plan your week in the calendar with focus blocks
• Turn a finished document into a presentation
• Find a document in your drive by its content

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