Upskillin AI

How to summarise meetings with AI

To summarise a meeting with AI, give the tool a transcript or your own notes and ask for decisions, actions with owners and dates, and open questions, then check the summary against what was actually said. Always tell people, and get their agreement, before you record or transcribe a meeting.

This guide covers the ways to capture a meeting, the prompt that gives useful notes, and the consent and privacy points to get right first.

Key facts about our free AI workshop

What are the ways to summarise a meeting with AI?

There are three common routes:

Do I need permission to record a meeting?

Ask first, every time. Say at the start that the meeting will be recorded or transcribed and what the notes are for, and give people a chance to object. Many meeting tools show a notice when recording starts, but a clear spoken request is better manners and better practice.

In South Africa, a recording or transcript that identifies people is personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), so it should be collected for a clear purpose, kept safe and not kept longer than needed. This is general information and not legal advice, so confirm your obligations with your employer or an attorney. Our guide to POPIA and AI at work covers this in more detail.

The quickest way to get good at this is to do it live, with someone answering your questions. Our free workshop runs every weekend on Zoom, 12:00-15:00 SAST (10:00-13:00 UK, 11:00-14:00 CET). Save my free seat.

What prompt gives the best meeting summary?

Ask for a fixed structure, so every summary is easy to scan:

  1. Three-sentence overview of what the meeting was about.
  2. Decisions made, one line each.
  3. Actions, as a table with the task, the owner and the due date.
  4. Open questions and who will answer them.

Add: "Only use what is in the transcript. If an owner or date was not stated, write 'not agreed' instead of guessing." That one line prevents the most common mistake.

How do I check an AI meeting summary?

Send the summary to attendees and ask them to correct anything wrong within a day.

What should stay out of AI meeting notes?

Be careful with meetings about staff performance, health, disciplinary matters, legal advice or confidential client deals. For these, do not record unless your organisation has a clear policy that allows it, and write the notes yourself. For HR and legal teams, our guides to AI for HR and AI for lawyers cover the extra care needed.

Can AI write the follow-up email too?

Yes. Once the summary is checked, ask the AI to turn it into a short follow-up email to attendees: one line on the purpose of the meeting, the decisions, and the actions table with owners and dates. Ask it to keep the email under 150 words and to leave out anything marked confidential. Read it once more before sending, because a follow-up email is often the only record people look at later. Our guide to writing emails at work with AI covers how to make the wording sound like you.

How do I make meeting summaries a habit?

  1. Save your summary prompt somewhere you can copy it in seconds.
  2. Agree with your team where summaries are stored and who can see them.
  3. Delete recordings and transcripts once the summary is agreed, unless you have a reason to keep them.

What does the free workshop cover?

Over three hours on Zoom you work through choosing the right tool, writing prompts that work, researching and drafting quickly, getting answers from your own documents, making images and slides, building your own AI assistant, automating a repetitive task, making a simple web app without code, and understanding AI agents. You leave with a 30-day plan. Our hosts have taught more than 12,000 people.

It runs every weekend, on Saturday and again on Sunday, so you can pick the day that suits you. The times are set for South Africa, and the UK and Europe times above work for learners there too.

The quickest way to get good at this is to do it live, with someone answering your questions. Our free workshop runs every weekend on Zoom, 12:00-15:00 SAST (10:00-13:00 UK, 11:00-14:00 CET). Save my free seat.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI summarise a Teams or Zoom meeting?

Yes. Teams and Zoom can offer transcripts and AI summaries depending on your licence and settings, or you can paste a transcript or your own notes into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini if your employer allows it.

Do I need consent to record a meeting?

Tell everyone at the start that the meeting will be recorded or transcribed and why, and give them a chance to object. In South Africa, recordings that identify people are personal information under POPIA. This is general information, not legal advice.

Can I summarise a meeting with AI without recording it?

Yes. Type rough notes during the meeting and ask an AI assistant to turn them into decisions, actions and open questions.