Workflow · Office and admin

Turn notes and records into minutes or a report with AI

A good first version of routine paperwork that you were there to check.

Try with checksIt is worth trying only with the checks on this page.

For: Anyone who attended the meeting or did the work being reported

Go to the steps Test it on your own work

What the evidence says

Studied directly. Studies look at this task or something very close to it.

Notes and records with AI: not enough evidence yet (evidence strength 0 of 5)
Office work with AI: not enough evidence yet (evidence strength 0 of 5)

Too few strong studies to rate, and time savings aren't assured.

Also worth knowing (not yet graded by us):

In a pre-registered randomised trial with 85 police officers and 755 reports, AI help did not significantly change how long reports took to write. The authors say not to expect time savings, while noting other effects were not tested. Adams et al., Journal of Experimental Criminology, 2024

This workflow itself is our recommended way of working, not a tested method. Studies searched to 2 November 2026.

Before you start

Tell people if a meeting is being recorded or transcribed, and follow the consent law where you are.
Check that the tool is approved for what was discussed. Don't record private staff, legal or medical matters without clear approval.
Keep your own notes, so that you can compare.

The steps

Replace the words in square brackets with your own.

You
Straight after the meeting, note the decisions, who does what and by when, from memory.

Ask for a draft in your usual format, using only your notes or transcript.

Prompt

From the notes or transcript below, write [minutes or report] in this format: [paste your format].

Use only what is here. Keep decisions separate from discussion. List actions as: person, action, date. Where a person, date, number or decision is missing, unclear or disputed, write CHECK. Don't work out dates from words like 'next Friday'. Do not add reasons people didn't give, or hide disagreements.

[paste]

You
Compare it with your own list. Clear every CHECK, and correct who said what.
You
Send it to the people involved so they can correct it, as you would with any record.

How to catch its mistakes

Names, dates, numbers and decisions match what happened.
Nobody has been credited with something they didn't say. Speaker labels are often wrong.
A disagreement hasn't been smoothed into an agreement.
Delete recordings and transcripts when your retention rules say to.

When not to use this

Disciplinary, legal, safety or medical records, unless your rules specifically allow it and a responsible person signs off.
You weren't there, and no one who was will check it.
Anyone in the meeting has objected to being recorded.

Tools

A note-taker built into your meeting software. Examples: Google Meet with Gemini, Microsoft Teams with Copilot, Zoom Workplace AI. We chose these because they are common in workplace software, not because they are the best. We leave out Claude products as examples, because we draft this site with Claude. AI meeting note-takers compared has them all, with dated facts. Use whichever your employer has approved. The steps work with any tool of this type. We take no money from AI companies.

Find out if it works for you

People often misjudge how much AI helps them. Try this on your next 10 similar tasks, letting a coin flip decide which ones use AI. What to measure: Minutes from meeting end to agreed record, including corrections. Your results stay in your browser. Start the self-test →

If you manage people

Don't use transcripts to monitor people. Say so up front, or people will stop speaking freely.

Written by AI Adoption's editors as our own recommendation, last checked 5 November 2026. It has not been reviewed by an outside practitioner. Before publishing, we ran its prompts once on made-up samples with a second AI model, also from Anthropic. That is a check on the wording, not a test of whether the workflow works for you. Disclosure: AI Adoption uses AI tools in its research and editorial work, including Claude from Anthropic. No company has any say in this page. Reuse under CC BY 4.0. Spotted an error? Tell us.