AI Meeting Note-Taker: How It Works and Features to Look For

In a world where so much information is communicated through meetings, notetaking is an underrated and often neglected activity. This is where an artificial intelligence (AI) meeting note-taker can make a huge difference in empowering you to stay present during meetings, while ensuring you leave with the right takeaways. 

Learn how an AI meeting note-taker works, what features can drive productivity and faster decision-making, and tips for choosing and implementing one in your workflow.

Evolution of AI capabilities for meetings

In the past, scheduling a meeting involved back-and-forth emails. Now, AI assistants can connect to calendars, see available meeting times, and automate invites and reminders.

As natural language processing advanced, meeting transcriptions became more accurate. Some AI note-takers can even identify speakers and translate conversations into various languages. But still, teams needed more post-meeting assistance than transcription tools alone could offer.

PwC found that 35% of CEOs felt time spent in decision-making meetings was inefficient, and 40% felt the same about informational sessions. Today’s AI meeting note-takers can boost meeting productivity by going beyond simple transcription. They can extract action items and share meeting summaries to collaborative workspaces. This next step empowers teams to coordinate and connect with one another after a session ends.

Looking forward, AI meeting assistants are likely to evolve even further, acting as true collaborative partners and empowering humans to reach new levels of productivity.

How AI meeting note-takers work

Think about the tools you use for audio and video conferencing. These might have built-in features, add-ons, or integrations for taking meeting notes. While capabilities and accuracy vary, an AI meeting note-taker relies on core technologies, such as artificial intelligence, voice and speech recognition, and machine learning, to provide meeting summaries and action items.

Here’s how an AI meeting note-taker works:

1. Enable AI. Many AI assistants require a meeting host or participant to start the tool. This action typically informs attendees that AI is recording the session.
2. Record the meeting. AI note-takers use voice recognition technology to capture audio, and some tools, like Slack’s huddle note-taker, also save chat messages.
3. Generate transcriptions. Using voice and speech recognition technologies, AI assistants convert audio files into transcripts — a text version of the meeting.
4. Analyze text. The AI meeting note-taker uses natural language processing to put the conversation into context. This also helps identify important information, like who’s speaking.
5. Create meeting summaries. After processing and analyzing the session, the AI assistant summarizes the conversation, highlighting main ideas, action items, and key points.
6. Make notes accessible. An AI note-taker organizes and structures the data, saves the meeting minutes and transcription, and gives attendees access after the meeting. Slack’s AI note-taker automatically shares meeting notes on a canvas, or collaborative workspace, in the relevant huddle thread.

 

Choosing an AI meeting note-taker

Slack’s Workforce Lab research shows that AI tools improve productivity for 81% of employees. To get started, look for a user-friendly AI meeting assistant that’s compatible with your existing systems. Experts in a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services report recommend embedding generative AI into existing workflows to reduce app switching and increase adoption rates.

With use cases and workflows in mind, choose an AI meeting assistant that supports your company goals, including customer success, operational efficiency, and employee experience.

Key features to look for in an AI note-taker

Think about the people in your organization who handle and attend meetings. What do they need once the meeting is over? For instance, an executive assistant might need a list of attendees to write up the minutes, while a team member who couldn’t make it will want a summary of the discussion, key takeaways, and action items.

Ask yourself how an AI note-taker can help your team move work forward faster. For instance, if you share files or chat during meetings, look for tools that save messages and files with meeting summaries. This simplifies the post-meeting workflow, giving attendees the resources to easily make decisions or follow up on action items.

Create a short list of AI meeting assistant tools by assessing the following features:

• Meeting summaries. Consider tools that automatically summarize meeting notes and transcripts. This helps teams quickly review important information later or catch up on missed sessions.
• Recording alerts. This feature shows all attendees when the AI note-taker is recording the session. It helps organizations meet privacy standards while encouraging trust and transparency.
• Meeting transcriptions. Accurate text transcriptions capture key meeting details, which can help readers discern between speakers and offer additional context about topics for better decision-making.
• Source citations. This feature lets employees verify important information. It cites the section in the transcription or message where the AI note-taker generated the content so anyone can check for accuracy.
• Action items. Meeting recaps with action items let everyone know what’s expected post-meeting. For internal teams and external partners who use Slack, AI note-takers will post key information in a shared workspace that everyone can access.
• Editing capabilities. Some AI note-takers let hosts or attendees edit and add to the meeting notes after the session ends, which can improve fact checking, accuracy, and follow-up reporting.
• Attachments. If your meetings include multimedia files, look for an AI meeting note-taker that can attach media to a meeting summary to provide context and resources for teams in one place.
• Access controls. Consider what permission levels an AI meeting assistant offers and how the vendor handles conferencing security so you can control who has access to post-meeting summaries.

Tips for comparing top AI meeting assistant tools

Effective meeting notes can speed up decisions and spur action after a session ends. But adding another digital tool may increase the time employees spend toggling between apps and cause them to lose focus. That’s why it’s important to look for an AI meeting assistant that supports workflow automation and is easy to use with minimal training.

Here are four topics to think about when comparing AI note-takers:

• Automation: One AI meeting assistant may require the host to share a third-party link for teams to access meeting notes. Another may automatically send meeting summaries to team channels for instant access. Automating workflows can maintain momentum so employees don’t lose focus between a meeting and the next task.
• Integrations: For automation to work, an AI note-taker must integrate with your team’s digital workspace. Look for tools that connect to video conferencing software and can send meeting summaries directly to your work operating system. To improve team productivity, consider a work OS that centralizes meetings, chat, AI, and data.
• Usability: When testing AI note-taking or transcription tools, get feedback from your teams about how it works across different devices and in various apps. For example, teams that use AI in Slack can access AI features and capabilities in different languages on both desktop and mobile apps.
• Output quality: While AI technologies have improved, some are trained on public datasets, which sometimes return inaccurate or misleading meeting summaries. Learn how the vendor trains its AI note-taker tool, and see if it provides sources so teams can confirm important information and make changes if needed.

 

Implementing AI note-takers in your meetings

More than one-third of employees say they spend too much time in meetings, according to Slack’s State of Work report. Show teams how an AI meeting note-taker can help them get more out of meetings with less effort:

• Implement tool-testers. Before widespread implementation, introduce your AI meeting assistant to a small group of team members to test the tool and identify any challenges. Record short video and audio clips to demonstrate how the tool works, specific use cases, and employee benefits.
• Create guides. Your testing team should record important information about the tool, including FAQs, to help others get up to speed quickly. For example, employees may want to know if the AI meeting assistant will work with their software, if the data is private or shared company-wide, or how to edit AI notes.
• Designate a support channel. Help teams stay educated and connected throughout implementation. Add how-to guides, tips, and tutorials to encourage employees to explore features. Consider implementing an AI-powered search tool so they can find answers fast.
• Host training sessions. Provide training on specific AI meeting note-taker tools and use cases, such as pausing the recording, accessing a transcription, or populating a meeting minutes template.

 

Focus on what matters with an AI meeting assistant

Virtual meetings help organizations collaborate, share information, and strategize. But when a speaker shares important information and people are frantically trying to capture notes, it’s easy to miss details. Pass this role to an AI meeting note-taker. After the session, let your AI assistant deliver meeting summaries and key points so everyone can stay present and on the same page.

Learn how AI in Slack can help teams collaborate and stay productive long after the meeting ends.