Microsoft Teams can now summarise a meeting automatically. So why do so many firms still have someone spending an afternoon writing up the minutes? Because a recap and a set of minutes do different jobs. Here’s the difference, and how to automate the minutes themselves.
A recap is not a record
A meeting recap is a summary for the people who were there: what was discussed, roughly who said what, and some suggested actions. It’s useful for catching up.
Formal minutes are a record. In a project meeting, a board meeting or a client meeting, minutes need to:
- follow your own template, with your headings and numbering
- state decisions clearly, so there’s no argument later about what was agreed
- list actions with owners and dates
- be filed in the right place, every time, so anyone can find them
- be checked by a person before they’re issued
That’s why the write-up still lands on someone’s desk, and why it takes hours.
What automating minutes properly looks like
- The meeting is recorded in Teams, or the audio is uploaded if it happened in a room.
- The automation transcribes and drafts the minutes in your template, pulling out decisions and actions.
- A person checks the draft. It takes minutes rather than hours, and the record stays yours.
- The minutes are filed in the right SharePoint folder or project, and actions can go straight into your task list.
For one Cardiff construction and QS consultancy, this took the write-up of a set of meeting minutes from about four hours to 15–20 minutes. See how Meeting Minutes AI works.
Before you start recording
- Tell people. Everyone in the meeting should know it’s being recorded and transcribed, and why. Teams shows a notice when recording starts, but it’s good practice to say so too, especially with clients.
- Know where the data goes. Recordings and transcripts contain personal and often confidential information. Make sure any AI service processing them is a business service covered by a data processing agreement, not a consumer tool.
- Check your settings. Recording and transcription need to be allowed in your Microsoft 365 setup. Your IT provider can confirm.
- Decide how long to keep things. Set a retention period for recordings and transcripts rather than keeping everything forever.
- Be careful with sensitive meetings. Meetings covering health or other highly sensitive information may need extra care, or processing that stays in-house.
Is it worth it for your firm?
Count the meetings that need proper minutes each week and the time each write-up takes. Two or three a week at three or four hours each adds up to hundreds of hours a year. Our AI savings calculator will put a figure on it.
Meeting minutes are one of the standard automations included in our Monthly AI Support plans. To see whether it would work for your meetings, book a free automation audit.