Draft meeting minutes automatically

The problem

Someone has to take minutes in every meeting, which means they're half-listening while frantically typing. Minutes take ages to write up afterwards and you're never sure if you caught everything. Trustees want proper records but nobody wants the job of minute-taker.

The solution

Record your meeting (with everyone's consent), get an automatic transcription, then use Claude or ChatGPT to turn the transcript into properly formatted minutes. The AI identifies: who attended, decisions made, actions assigned, key discussions. Everyone can participate fully and minutes are ready in minutes not hours.

What you get

Properly formatted meeting minutes including: date and attendees, apologies, matters arising from previous minutes, key discussion points by agenda item, decisions made, actions with owners and deadlines, date of next meeting. Written in formal minute style ('It was agreed that...', 'The Board noted that...').

Before you start

• Consent from all meeting attendees to record and transcribe
• A way to record meetings (Zoom, Teams, or your phone)
• A Claude or ChatGPT account
• Your organisation's minute-taking format/template

When to use this

• You need formal minutes for governance (board, committees)
• Taking minutes means someone can't participate properly
• Writing up minutes after meetings takes too long
• You want to ensure nothing gets missed or misremembered

When not to use this

• Meeting discusses highly sensitive/confidential matters - take manual notes
• People aren't comfortable being recorded
• You're meeting in person without good recording equipment
• The meeting is so informal that formal minutes aren't needed

Steps

1. 1

   Get consent to record

   Before the meeting, tell everyone you'll be recording and using AI to generate minutes. Check everyone's comfortable with this. This is essential for data protection and trust. People need to know the recording will be deleted after minutes are approved.

2. 2

   Record and transcribe the meeting

   Start your meeting recording (Zoom, Teams, or Otter.ai). Most platforms now have built-in transcription. For in-person meetings, use Otter.ai on your phone placed in the middle of the table. Let it run throughout the meeting.

3. 3

   Download the transcript

   After the meeting, download the transcript as a text file. If using Zoom or Teams, find it in the meeting recording files. With Otter.ai, export as text from the app. You'll have a long, messy transcript with timestamps and speaker labels.

4. 4

   Prepare your minute-generation prompt

   Create a structured prompt including: your agenda, who attended, your minute format preferences (formal/semiformal), any specific items that need emphasizing. Tell the AI what format to use for actions ('Action: [name] to [task] by [date]').

5. 5

   Generate draft minutes

   Paste the transcript and your prompt into Claude or ChatGPT. Ask it to create formal minutes covering: attendance, each agenda item with summary of discussion, decisions made (clearly marked), actions with owners. It'll pull out the key points and ignore the chat.

6. 6

   Review and correct

   Read through the draft minutes carefully. IMPORTANT: AI can misinterpret discussions, assign actions to wrong people, or miss nuance - treat the output as a first draft that needs verification. Check decisions are accurately recorded, actions are assigned to the right people with realistic deadlines, sensitive discussions are appropriately summarized. Add any context the AI missed from reading the room.

7. 7

   Remove transcript and circulate

   Once minutes are approved, delete the recording and transcript (data protection). Circulate minutes to attendees for comments. Chase actions before the next meeting. The whole process takes 30 minutes not 3 hours.

Tools

Resources

Part of this pathway