How AI will revolutionise the way you run meetings

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we organise, plan and run meetings. Here is how it can change the dynamics of business meetings, from preparation to follow-up, and what precautions to take.

Before the meeting: planning and preparation

Optimising planning

AI can help plan meetings more efficiently by suggesting time slots and locations based on participants' availability. AI-enabled virtual assistants can even coordinate the diaries of several people to find the best time for the meeting.

Automated reminders

Forgotten meetings and unprepared participants are a common source of frustration. AI can send automated reminders before the meeting, with the documents to read, so that everyone arrives informed and ready to participate.

Agenda management

AI systems can help create an effective agenda based on the objectives of the meeting and the needs of participants. They can analyse previous discussions, documents and emails to propose relevant items, including actions from the last meeting that are still open.

During the meeting: transcription, translation and notes

Automatic transcription and archiving

AI can record and transcribe the discussion automatically, providing a written record for future reference. Important details are captured, and information is easier to find later.

Real-time translation

At international meetings, AI can translate in real time, removing language barriers and making it easier for multicultural teams to communicate.

Assistance with note-taking

AI-based assistants can take notes during the meeting, identifying key points, actions to be taken and decisions made. This lightens the load on participants, and in particular on the person usually in charge of the minutes, who can take part in the discussion instead of writing. It also reduces the risk of overlooking something.

Chatbots for virtual meetings

During online meetings, AI-powered chatbots can help manage attendance, answer frequently asked questions and facilitate interactions.

Analysis of engagement

Some tools analyse participant engagement during the meeting, for example speaking time. Other approaches go further, interpreting body language or facial expressions: they raise serious questions of privacy and consent, and in Europe they are subject to the GDPR and the European AI Act. Use them with great caution, if at all.

After the meeting: minutes, actions and analysis

Automatic minutes

After the meeting, AI can analyse the discussion to extract the relevant information and draft structured minutes: summary, decisions and actions. What used to take an hour of writing becomes a few minutes of review. Our article What if your debriefings wrote themselves? describes how this works in practice.

From discussion to action

The most useful step is turning the discussion into concrete actions more quickly. AI identifies the next steps, proposes an owner and a due date, and feeds the action plan. Discussions no longer stay in the minutes: they become tracked tasks.

Decision-making assistance

Using data and analysis, AI can help participants make more informed decisions by providing relevant information and possible scenarios. It can, for instance, recall what was decided on the same subject at a previous meeting.

Personalisation

AI can tailor meetings and their follow-up to participants' needs: a short summary for those who were absent, a list of actions for each person, the points that concern a given department.

Overview: what AI does at each stage

Limits and precautions

AI makes meetings more efficient, but it does not replace the people who run them.

• Validation remains human. A transcript can contain errors, and an AI may misunderstand a decision. Someone must check the minutes before they are sent.
• Confidentiality matters. Meeting content is often sensitive. Check where data is processed and stored, and inform participants when a meeting is transcribed.
• The meeting must still be useful. AI improves a well-prepared meeting with a clear purpose. It does not make a pointless meeting useful.

Where to start

Rather than equipping every meeting at once, start with a recurring meeting where minutes are often missing or late, such as a weekly team meeting or a project review. Measure the time saved and the follow-up of actions before extending. As with any AI project, a clear need and a limited pilot are the best guarantees of success, as explained in our article on the successes and failures of AI projects.

Overall, AI is transforming meetings by making them more efficient, improving productivity and saving time. Teams can focus more on decisions and innovation, with less administrative work around meetings. For an overview of AI use cases in companies, see AI at the service of our organisations, and for the basics of good minutes, our meeting minutes page.