Good meeting notes make the next step clear. A tidy summary is only part of that job: you also need to know what was decided, who agreed to do something, and which questions are still open. An AI assistant can help you prepare a draft to check against your notes.
Separate decisions, actions, and open questions. Leave an owner or deadline unassigned when the notes do not establish one.
1. Start with a small, clear source
Gather the notes for one meeting. Remove duplicate fragments, but do not rewrite uncertainties into decisions. ‘Maybe move the launch’ and ‘move the launch’ mean different things. Keep that distinction in the material you give the assistant.
For practice, use the fictional notes below. When working with real notes, follow your organisation’s rules for the AI service you use and include only material you are allowed to share. You can replace names and project details with labels while you try the method.
Workshop planning Mara: can check the venue availability by Friday. Theo: will send the updated cost estimate on Tuesday. Team agreed to keep the workshop to 20 people. Maybe offer a remote option? No decision yet. Need someone to prepare the invitation. Nobody assigned. Workshop date still to be confirmed.
2. Ask for decisions, actions, and questions
Do not ask only for a summary. Tell the assistant how you will use the result. In this case, you want to send a short follow-up that lets everyone confirm their responsibilities. Three separate sections make it easier to spot a suggestion that has been mistaken for an agreement.
Ask for the source wording beside each action. You can remove that column before sharing the final message. During review, it gives you a quick way to compare the proposed commitment with what your notes actually say.
Using only these meeting notes, draft a follow-up with three sections: 1. Decisions made. 2. Actions, with owner, deadline, and the supporting words from the notes. 3. Open questions. Use ‘unassigned’ for an owner and ‘not agreed’ for a deadline when the notes do not specify them. Keep tentative offers tentative. Do not turn a suggestion into a decision. [Paste the notes here.]
3. Review each commitment
With the sample notes, the decision is a workshop for 20 people. Theo has committed to sending an estimate on Tuesday. Mara has offered to check venue availability by Friday; that is not the same as agreeing to book the venue. Keep the distinction in the follow-up and confirm it with Mara.
The invitation has no owner. The workshop has no confirmed date. The remote option is an open question. If the draft assigns the invitation to Theo or describes the remote option as agreed, correct it before sending anything. Those details are not supported by the notes.
- Is each decision explicitly supported?
- Did an offer become a firm commitment?
- Did the draft add an owner or a date?
- Are the unassigned tasks and open questions still visible?
4. Turn the checked notes into a short message
Once the facts are right, ask for a concise message. Keep the decisions and next steps near the top. A useful opening might be: ‘We agreed to keep the workshop to 20 people. Theo will send the updated estimate on Tuesday. The workshop date and remote option are still open.’ This is a worked draft, not a record of a real meeting.
Follow it with a request to confirm the tentative venue check and assign the invitation. Read the final version yourself. If your audience needs calendar dates, resolve ‘Tuesday’ and ‘Friday’ from the meeting context first. Do not ask the assistant to guess which week the notes refer to.
5. Update the record when people reply
A follow-up is useful only if it reflects the current agreement. When someone corrects an action or accepts an unassigned task, update the record you actually use. Keep the original notes available so you can trace a disputed detail back to its source.
For the next meeting, reuse the three-part structure. Add a short review before sharing: decisions checked, owners confirmed, dates resolved. The aim is a reliable record of the conversation, not a longer or more impressive summary.
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