Make an AI Meeting Summary Preserve Decisions and Open Questions

A meeting summary becomes misleading when a suggestion is rewritten as a decision. Give the assistant explicit categories and test the result against the original notes. Use authorised material, and start with a fictional example before sharing a real transcript.

Define the categories

Decisions are actions the participants actually agreed to. Suggestions are proposals that were raised. Open questions still need an answer. Tasks require a stated owner, and deadlines should be recorded only when the notes supply them.

Try this fictional excerpt: “Maya suggested a Friday launch. The group agreed to test the form first. Leo will test it. No launch date was chosen.” A faithful summary records Leo's testing task and leaves the launch date unresolved. It must not assign Friday as the deadline.

Ask for evidence beside the summary

Request a table with Category, Summary, Owner, Deadline and Supporting phrase. Require “Not stated” for missing fields. The supporting phrase makes it easier to trace the extraction, but it is still necessary to compare that phrase with the full surrounding context.

Check negative statements carefully. “We did not agree to publish” cannot become “Publish.” Also inspect sentences with several speakers, ambiguous pronouns or a correction later in the discussion.

Review before circulation

Mark uncertain items for the meeting organiser instead of resolving them yourself. Keep tentative dates visibly tentative. If you edit a task after clarification, record the clarification separately from what the original meeting established.

Before sharing, remove unnecessary personal details and confirm that the recipients are appropriate. This workflow improves the review process; it does not establish consent to record, upload or distribute someone's conversation.