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The Promise – and Perils – of AI Meeting Recaps
Before asking a copilot to summarize meetings, look at the AI capabilities offered as well as the total cost of ownership, considering the upfront cost, as well as what you pay down the line.
2 Min Read
.jpg?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=95&format=jpg&disable=upscale "coworkers talking during business meeting")
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The evolution of AI-aided meeting summary technologies offers significant potential for enhancing productivity and collaboration. These tools can transform meetings by transcribing and summarizing discussions, in theory, allowing participants to focus on active listening and idea-sharing instead of notetaking. Among the vendors who are offering meeting summary tools:
Zoom boasts AI-powered tools that can transcribe meetings in real time, generate concise summaries of key points, and even highlight important action items.
Microsoft Teams, a staple in many organizations, has also embraced AI to enhance its meeting capabilities.
Otter.ai goes beyond simple transcription by offering smart summaries that capture the essence of meetings, identifying and emphasizing critical points and action items, and its integration with Zoom and Microsoft Teams allows users to automatically generate and share meeting notes.
While AI can streamline information sharing and democratize access to meeting insights, it is essential to address the potential shortcomings, such as imperfect summaries and specific formatting needs, to fully realize its benefits and foster innovation in team collaboration.
Cresta CMO Russell Banzon explained participants can be most engaged in a meeting by focusing on the person they are listening to in the conversation, noting AI meeting recaps can help improve active listening by eliminating note taking.
"While we can’t lean entirely on AI to perfectly summarize all of our meetings, the technology can help by transcribing and summarizing to allow for increased engagement and idea-sharing," he said.
Banzon said when implementing this type of technology for the first time, he typically recommends starting with a specific group in the organization that are more likely to be the "innovators" of the group.
From there, highlight the value to them, get them implemented quickly, and nurture the success stories.
"With the group that’s seeing success, you can have them share the stories with the rest of the organization to have both a leader-driven and grassroots approach," he said. " This will drive the fastest and most effective change when implementing."
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