The meeting notes nobody writes: AI minutes in 2 minutes.
Record the meeting, feed AI the transcript, get decisions and action items in two minutes. The exact prompt — and the one rule that keeps it honest.
Every small business runs on meetings where decisions are made out loud and then evaporate. Who was supposed to call the supplier? Did we agree on Friday or "end of week"? Three weeks later, two people remember two different things, and the decision gets remade — badly. The fix isn't discipline. Nobody is going to start loving minute-taking. The fix is a workflow so cheap you'll actually do it: record, transcribe, prompt, done.
The 2-minute workflow
Most phones transcribe voice recordings for free now, and every major AI app accepts long pasted text. The workflow: record the meeting on your phone (on the table, out in the open), get the transcript, paste it into AI with this prompt:
These are the transcripts of a business meeting. Write concise meeting minutes with:
1. Decisions made (one line each — what was decided, not what was discussed)
2. Action items: what, who, by when. If no owner or deadline was stated, mark it "UNASSIGNED" or "NO DEADLINE" — do not invent one.
3. Open questions we didn't resolve.
Keep it under one page. Use names as they appear in the transcript.
[paste transcript below]
Note the deliberate instruction: do not invent one. AI loves to fill gaps — it will assign an owner who merely mentioned the topic, or turn "soon" into "Friday." Telling it to mark gaps explicitly is what makes the minutes trustworthy instead of plausible.
AI minutes are a draft, not a record. Send them to everyone who was in the meeting within 24 hours with one line: "Here's what I captured — reply with corrections." People correct what they read; they forget what they don't. This single step converts AI's plausible output into an agreed record, and it takes less time than writing the minutes yourself ever did.
Tell people you're recording
This part isn't optional, practically or legally. Say it at the start, every time: "I'm recording this so I can get proper notes out — okay with everyone?" In many places, recording without consent creates real legal exposure, and even where it doesn't, secret recordings poison trust. Said openly, nobody minds — most people are relieved someone's finally writing things down.
Don't feed it what you wouldn't email.
Transcripts go to the same place your chat history goes. Keep client confidentials, staff salary discussions, and anything legally sensitive out of consumer AI apps — take those notes by hand like you always have. A good rule: if the meeting needed a closed door, the transcript doesn't go into a chatbot.
Done right, this changes the texture of a small business. Decisions stop evaporating. "I thought you were doing that" arguments get shorter, because there's a page. And the person who used to dread being assigned note-taker — usually you — gets their time back. Record openly, prompt precisely, circulate within a day. Two minutes of work, and the meeting finally counts for something after it ends.
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