Turn meeting notes into action items

What you'll need

• Your meeting notes, a transcript (Teams, Zoom and Google Meet can generate one), or even bullet fragments
• Any free AI assistant your workplace allows

Step 1: Clean up what you have

Remove anything confidential your company wouldn't want in an AI tool. Replace sensitive names with roles if needed, like "Client A" or "Finance lead."

Step 2: Paste the notes with this prompt

You are my executive assistant. Below are my notes from a meeting about [topic] with [who attended].

Turn them into:
1. A 3-sentence summary
2. Decisions made
3. Action items as a table: task | owner | deadline | status
4. Open questions nobody answered

Rules: Don't invent owners or deadlines. If something is unclear, write "UNCLEAR" and tell me what to confirm.

Notes:
[paste notes here]

Step 3: Fix the gaps

Look for every "UNCLEAR." Fill those in yourself, or ask the person who'd know. This is where you add the judgment AI doesn't have.

Step 4: Turn it into a follow-up email

Now write a short follow-up email to the attendees with the summary and the action-item table. Friendly, professional, under 150 words plus the table. Ask everyone to reply if anything is wrong.

Director check

Before you hit send, ask yourself:

• Did AI make anyone responsible for something they didn't agree to? Remove any owner or deadline that wasn't actually said.
• Is the tone right for this group? Would your manager or client be comfortable reading it?
• Is anything missing? AI only knows what's in the notes. Add what you remember that wasn't written down.
• Would you stand behind every line? It goes out under your name, not the AI's.