How to Use AI to Automate Your Meeting Notes and Follow-Ups

Meetings can be a productivity black hole—scribbling notes, losing track of action items, and chasing follow-ups eat up hours.

What if AI could handle it all while you sip coffee and actually focus?

I’ve been using this setup to cut my post-meeting busywork from 45 minutes to zero.

Here’s how to build your own AI-powered meeting assistant, step by step—let’s reclaim your time.

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Step 1: Capture Notes with AI Transcription

What You’ll Need: Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai

Cost: Otter: Free tier (300 min/month); $8.33/month for more. Fireflies: Free tier (limited); $10/month for unlimited.

Manual note-taking is dead—AI transcription tools listen, record, and transcribe for you, catching every word.

How to Set It Up:

Sign up for Otter.ai (my pick for simplicity) or Fireflies.ai (great for Zoom integration).

Join your next meeting via Zoom, Google Meet, or in-person (use the app’s recorder).

Otter’s bot joins as a participant—hit “Record” and let it roll.

Example Output: A searchable transcript with timestamps—e.g., “10:32: Sarah assigns budget review to Tom.”

• Time Saved: 15-20 minutes per meeting—no more frantic scribbling.
• Pro Tip: Train Otter with your voice (takes 2 minutes) for sharper accuracy.

Step 2: Extract Action Items with ChatGPT

What You’ll Need: ChatGPT

Cost: Free tier; $20/month for ChatGPT Plus

Transcripts are great, but you need tasks, not just text. ChatGPT can sift through and pull out what matters.

How to Do It:

Copy your Otter transcript (export as text or paste from the app).

Paste into ChatGPT with this prompt: “Extract action items from this meeting transcript [paste]. List them as ‘Who: Task, Deadline’—keep it concise.”

Example Input: “Sarah: We need the budget by Friday. Tom: Update the slides.”

Output:

• Who: Sarah, Task: Finalize budget, Deadline: Friday
• Who: Tom, Task: Update slides, Deadline: None (ask for clarification)
• Time Saved: 10-15 minutes of parsing.

Pro Tip: Add “Flag vague deadlines” to the prompt—ChatGPT will nudge you to clarify “soon.”

Step 3: Automate Task Assignment with Zapier

What You’ll Need: Zapier + a task app (e.g., Trello, Todoist)

Cost: Free tier (100 tasks/month); $19.99/month for multi-step

Why manually assign tasks when Zapier can do it? Link your AI outputs to your workflow.

Zap Setup:

Trigger: “New Google Doc” (paste ChatGPT’s action list here post-meeting).

1. Action 1: “Formatter by Zapier” (split text into tasks—e.g., “Who: Task” lines).
2. Action 2: “Create Trello Card” (map “Who” to Assigned, “Task” to Title, “Deadline” to Due Date).

How to Set It Up: Connect Google Docs and Trello to Zapier. Test with a sample list—e.g., “Who: Sarah, Task: Budget” becomes a Trello card assigned to Sarah.

Time Saved: 10-15 minutes of task entry.

Pro Tip: Add a “Filter” step—only assign tasks if a deadline’s set, avoiding clutter.

Step 4: Send Follow-Ups Automatically

What You’ll Need: Zapier + Gmail

Cost: Free tier works

Don’t let follow-ups slip—let AI draft and send them for you.

Zap Setup:

Trigger: “New Trello Card” (from Step 3).

1. Action 1: “ChatGPT – Generate Text” (prompt: “Draft a polite follow-up email for [Task] assigned to [Who], due [Deadline]”).
2. Action 2: “Gmail – Send Email” (to assignee, with ChatGPT’s draft).

Example Output:

Subject: Budget Review – Due Friday

“Hi Sarah, just a heads-up—you’re on for finalizing the budget by Friday. Let me know if you need anything! Thanks, [Your Name]”

• Time Saved: 5-10 minutes per email.
• Pro Tip: Add a delay (e.g., 24h) before sending—gives you a review window.

Step 5: Review and Refine

What You’ll Need: 5 minutes post-meeting

Tool: Your brain + AI outputs

Check your AI’s work—tweak as needed to keep it sharp.

• How to Do It: Skim Otter’s transcript for missed context, adjust ChatGPT’s task list if off, and test Zapier runs smoothly.
• My Tweak: I added “Highlight decisions” to my ChatGPT prompt—e.g., “Decision: Budget capped at $5k.”
• Time Saved: Cuts future fixes—5 minutes now saves 20 later.
• Pro Tip: Save your ChatGPT prompt in a note—consistency is key.

Your Meeting Superpower

Start with Otter for notes, then layer in ChatGPT and Zapier over a week—suddenly, meetings are productive, not punishing.

My last call? AI handled it all while I brainstormed the next big thing.

Premium Bonus: Want my exact ChatGPT prompts and Zap templates? They’re in this month’s subscriber vault—upgrade to grab them!

What’s your meeting pain point?

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