Turn meeting notes into actions
A practical way to use AI for this job in a small business, with a prompt you can copy.
You walk out of a meeting with a page of scribbles and a vague sense that someone agreed to do something. A week later nobody's done it, because nobody wrote down who.
The prompt
Here are my rough meeting notes: [paste]. Turn them into: a 3-line summary, a list of actions with who owns each and when it's due, and any decisions made. Flag anything unclear.
Replace everything in [square brackets] with your own details. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't want stored by the AI provider.
Steps
- Paste notes or a transcript.
- Run the prompt.
- Fix owners and dates.
- Send to attendees or drop into your task tool.
A worked example
A small marketing agency in Fremantle has a Monday team meeting. Someone types rough notes as they go: 'website for Coastal Physio, Sam to chase logo files, launch moved to 14th, Jo worried about budget'. After the meeting, those notes go into ChatGPT with the prompt.
Out comes a tidy list: decisions (launch moved to the 14th), actions with owners and dates (Sam: chase logo files by Wednesday), and open questions (Jo to confirm budget with the client). It goes straight into the team's chat. Five minutes, and nobody can say 'I didn't know that was me'.
Where it goes wrong
AI assigns actions to whoever's name appears nearby, which isn't always right. If your notes say 'Jo mentioned the budget', it may make Jo the owner of the budget problem. Check owners and dates before sending. It also loves to invent tidy deadlines; if no date was agreed, write 'date TBC' rather than letting a made-up one stand.
Time saved
Writing up and sending meeting actions by hand takes 20 to 30 minutes. With AI it's about five, plus a quick read. These are my estimates for a typical small business, not measured results.
What it costs (AUD)
Zoom, Teams and Google Meet all have AI summary features, usually on paid business plans or add-ons. Check what your current plan includes before paying for anything new.
The free plans of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini handle this fine. If you end up using AI every day, the paid plans are roughly: ChatGPT Plus approx. A$30 a month, Claude Pro approx. A$29 a month billed monthly (US$20, or about A$24 a month if you pay yearly), and Google AI Pro approx. A$33 a month through the App Store. Prices approx., October 2026. Some are billed in US dollars, so your bank may add a foreign transaction fee. Check the vendor's pricing page before you buy.
Australian notes
If you record meetings, tell everyone first. Recording laws vary between states, and the safest habit is to get everyone's agreement at the start. Client meetings may include personal or commercially sensitive information, so think about where the recording and transcript are stored.
Privacy: the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) cover most businesses turning over more than $3 million, plus some smaller ones such as health providers. Even if you're under the threshold, treat customer details with care: strip names, phone numbers and addresses before you paste anything into an AI tool.
Want this to happen automatically? See the step-by-step guide on our sister site: How to set up a meeting notes bot.
My verdict
Very good. The 'flag anything unclear' line catches loose ends.
Common questions
Can AI join the meeting and take notes itself?
Yes, Zoom, Teams, Meet and tools like Otter.ai can. See the meeting notes bot guide for setup.
What if the AI gets an action wrong?
Whoever ran the meeting should skim the list before sending. It takes one minute.
Do I need to record the meeting?
No. Rough typed notes work fine with the prompt.
Do this today
After your next meeting, paste your rough notes into the prompt and send the action list to everyone within ten minutes.
More admin use cases
Next: Write a standard operating procedure (SOP) · All admin · Want a bot to do this automatically? See bot setup guides.