How to Use AI to Automate Your Meeting Notes and Follow-Ups
Meetings can be a productivity black hole—scribbling notes, losing track of action items, and chasing follow-ups eat up hours.
What if AI could handle it all while you sip coffee and actually focus?
I’ve been using this setup to cut my post-meeting busywork from 45 minutes to zero.
Here’s how to build your own AI-powered meeting assistant, step by step—let’s reclaim your time.
Step 1: Capture Notes with AI Transcription
What You’ll Need: Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai
Cost: Otter: Free tier (300 min/month); $8.33/month for more. Fireflies: Free tier (limited); $10/month for unlimited.
Manual note-taking is dead—AI transcription tools listen, record, and transcribe for you, catching every word.
How to Set It Up:
Sign up for Otter.ai (my pick for simplicity) or Fireflies.ai (great for Zoom integration).
Join your next meeting via Zoom, Google Meet, or in-person (use the app’s recorder).
Otter’s bot joins as a participant—hit “Record” and let it roll.
Example Output: A searchable transcript with timestamps—e.g., “10:32: Sarah assigns budget review to Tom.”
Time Saved: 15-20 minutes per meeting—no more frantic scribbling.
Pro Tip: Train Otter with your voice (takes 2 minutes) for sharper accuracy.
Step 2: Extract Action Items with ChatGPT
What You’ll Need: ChatGPT
Cost: Free tier; $20/month for ChatGPT Plus
Transcripts are great, but you need tasks, not just text. ChatGPT can sift through and pull out what matters.
How to Do It:
Copy your Otter transcript (export as text or paste from the app).
Paste into ChatGPT with this prompt: “Extract action items from this meeting transcript [paste]. List them as ‘Who: Task, Deadline’—keep it concise.”
Example Input: “Sarah: We need the budget by Friday. Tom: Update the slides.”
Output:
Who: Sarah, Task: Finalize budget, Deadline: Friday
Who: Tom, Task: Update slides, Deadline: None (ask for clarification)
Time Saved: 10-15 minutes of parsing.
Pro Tip: Add “Flag vague deadlines” to the prompt—ChatGPT will nudge you to clarify “soon.”
Step 3: Automate Task Assignment with Zapier
What You’ll Need: Zapier + a task app (e.g., Trello, Todoist)
Cost: Free tier (100 tasks/month); $19.99/month for multi-step
Why manually assign tasks when Zapier can do it? Link your AI outputs to your workflow.
Zap Setup:
Trigger: “New Google Doc” (paste ChatGPT’s action list here post-meeting).
Action 1: “Formatter by Zapier” (split text into tasks—e.g., “Who: Task” lines).
Action 2: “Create Trello Card” (map “Who” to Assigned, “Task” to Title, “Deadline” to Due Date).
How to Set It Up: Connect Google Docs and Trello to Zapier. Test with a sample list—e.g., “Who: Sarah, Task: Budget” becomes a Trello card assigned to Sarah.
Time Saved: 10-15 minutes of task entry.
Pro Tip: Add a “Filter” step—only assign tasks if a deadline’s set, avoiding clutter.
Step 4: Send Follow-Ups Automatically
What You’ll Need: Zapier + Gmail
Cost: Free tier works
Don’t let follow-ups slip—let AI draft and send them for you.
Zap Setup:
Trigger: “New Trello Card” (from Step 3).
Action 1: “ChatGPT – Generate Text” (prompt: “Draft a polite follow-up email for [Task] assigned to [Who], due [Deadline]”).
Action 2: “Gmail – Send Email” (to assignee, with ChatGPT’s draft).
Example Output:
Subject: Budget Review – Due Friday
“Hi Sarah, just a heads-up—you’re on for finalizing the budget by Friday. Let me know if you need anything! Thanks, [Your Name]”
Time Saved: 5-10 minutes per email.
Pro Tip: Add a delay (e.g., 24h) before sending—gives you a review window.
Step 5: Review and Refine
What You’ll Need: 5 minutes post-meeting
Tool: Your brain + AI outputs
Check your AI’s work—tweak as needed to keep it sharp.
How to Do It: Skim Otter’s transcript for missed context, adjust ChatGPT’s task list if off, and test Zapier runs smoothly.
My Tweak: I added “Highlight decisions” to my ChatGPT prompt—e.g., “Decision: Budget capped at $5k.”
Time Saved: Cuts future fixes—5 minutes now saves 20 later.
Pro Tip: Save your ChatGPT prompt in a note—consistency is key.
Your Meeting Superpower
Start with Otter for notes, then layer in ChatGPT and Zapier over a week—suddenly, meetings are productive, not punishing.
My last call? AI handled it all while I brainstormed the next big thing.
Premium Bonus: Want my exact ChatGPT prompts and Zap templates? They’re in this month’s subscriber vault—upgrade to grab them!
What’s your meeting pain point?