From meeting transcript to clear decisions and action items

Most meetings end with good intentions and no record of who agreed to do what. A transcript captures everything, which is exactly the problem: nobody will read 9,000 words. Here's how to turn it into something useful.

1. Get a transcript

If you recorded the meeting, Audio Transcription turns the recording into text. Many video-call tools can also export a transcript directly. Make sure everyone knew the meeting was being recorded.

2. Structure it

Good meeting notes have four parts:

1. Summary: three to five sentences on what the meeting was about and where it landed.
2. Decisions: what was agreed, stated plainly.
3. Action items: task, owner and due date, in a table.
4. Open questions: what's still unresolved and needs follow-up.

AI Meeting Notes produces exactly this structure from a transcript. Where nobody was named as owner, or no deadline was set, it says so ("Unassigned", "Not set") instead of guessing, which highlights the gaps you need to close.

3. Close the gaps

An action item without an owner usually doesn't get done. Before sending the notes:

• Assign an owner to every "Unassigned" item.
• Add dates to anything marked "Not set".
• Check that the decisions are worded the way the group actually agreed.

4. Send within the hour

Notes are most useful while the meeting is fresh. A short email with the summary and the action table, sent soon after, does more than a perfect document sent next week.

Finding commitments in other documents

Action items also hide in long email threads, contracts and project documents. Extract Action Items lists every task, owner and deadline in a document, with a reference to where each one came from.