Review which meetings should use AI notes
AI notes get switched on for one meeting, and one day they're on by default for a recurring series nobody has looked at since March. It takes about ten minutes to find out what your meetings are actually capturing.
What you'll make
a short list of your recurring meetings, each with its current capture settings and a decision (covered, pause for review, or not allowed), plus the questions that need someone else’s answer.
What you'll need
organiser access to your own recurring meetings, your organisation’s recording or AI policy if one exists, and a privacy, HR or records contact for the exceptions. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot in your work account is optional for checking the list. About 30 minutes.
Example result.
Weekly project planning AI notes on Covered by policy. Keep notice.
Supplier renewal AI notes on Pause: external approval missing.
Monthly one-to-one AI notes on Pause: ask HR before capturing.
Candidate interview Off Pause: ask HR and privacy first.
Service-incident review Unknown Ask incident lead what to record.1. Open five recurring meetings and check each one
Recording, transcription and AI notes are different kinds of capture, and turning one off can leave another running. For each series you organise, check all three, plus any automatic joining and who receives the output.
- Google Meet: in Google Calendar, open the event, select Edit event › Video call options › Meeting records and look at Take notes with Gemini. Then check Automatic note taking for all future meetings in Meet’s own settings, which can switch notes on for every meeting you host. Work accounts may also have it turned on by your administrator.
- Zoom: check the Recording tab in your Zoom settings, including Create audio transcript under cloud recording, and the AI Companion settings. Set up Zoom AI meeting summaries and tell attendees what happens covers those.
- Teams: recording and transcription are controlled by Meeting policies in the Teams admin centre, so ask your administrator which policy applies to you.
Write down what each setting is, not what you think the team usually does.
Why this works: “we don’t usually record this” is an intention. “Automatic notes are on” is a setting, and the setting is what runs on Tuesday.
What you should see: five rows, each with recording, transcription and AI-notes status, and who gets the output.
2. Sort each meeting by what your policy supports
Give each series one of three outcomes:
- Covered: your policy or a specific approval covers this capture, information and audience. Check the conditions, such as notice to attendees.
- Pause for review: the purpose, audience or permission is unclear. Keep optional AI notes off while the right person decides.
- Not allowed: your policy or a decision rules it out. Note who decided and what to use instead.
If your organisation has no recording or AI policy, treat every series as Pause for review, keep optional AI notes off, and send your list to whoever owns data protection with one question: “Which of these meetings may use AI notes, with what notice, and who should receive the output?”
Some meetings need a specialist before any capture: one-to-ones, candidate interviews, complaints, health matters, legal advice and incidents. That isn’t a rule that they must never be recorded. Where recording or record-keeping is required, that requirement comes first. Don’t switch off mandatory capture or delete records to make a matter less visible.
Why this works: “pause” is a safe default that doesn’t pretend to be a decision.
What you should see: every meeting with an outcome, and a short list of questions for named people.
3. Ask AI to find the gaps in your list
Paste your policy extract and a minimal description of each meeting. Use general labels like “routine internal project review” rather than real titles or attendee names. Removing names alone may not anonymise a distinctive situation.
Review my proposed capture decisions using only the policy and meeting descriptions below. For each row, identify missing facts or an apparent mismatch with the policy, and quote the policy passage.
Do not decide legal compliance, infer permission from a meeting title, or recommend recording or deletion without a policy basis. Keep recording, transcription and AI notes separate. Keep any mandatory recording or record-keeping requirement.
Return: meeting label, my proposed outcome, missing fact, policy wording, and the role that should decide. If the policy is silent, say so.
POLICY: [policy extract]
MEETINGS: [meeting descriptions and proposed outcomes][policy extract] is the relevant section of your policy. [meeting descriptions and proposed outcomes] is your list from step 2.
Why this works: quoting the policy makes each point checkable. A missing-fact column becomes the agenda for your conversation with the policy owner.
What you should see: a row-by-row list of gaps, each tied to policy wording or marked “policy is silent”.
4. Apply the decisions and check again a week later
Take the open cases to the right person with the current setting and the meeting’s purpose. When you change a setting, change it for the series, not just the next occurrence, and open a future occurrence to confirm. Then check again a week later: settings applied by an administrator’s policy can come back. If a locked setting blocks the agreed change, ask the administrator. Don’t switch to a personal account or another notetaker to get round it.
Tell co-hosts which rule applies and what to do if the subject changes mid-meeting.
Why this works: a setting you checked once can be quietly reset, and co-hosts can’t follow a rule they haven’t seen.
What you should see: settings that still match your list a week later.
Check the result
- Each meeting lists recording, transcription and AI notes separately.
- Every “Covered” outcome points to a policy passage or a named approval.
- One-to-ones, interviews and incident reviews have gone to a specialist, not been decided by you or the AI.
- Changed settings were confirmed on a future occurrence and again a week later.
The usual failure: permission inferred from a title. The assistant decides an internal-sounding meeting is covered by the policy for internal project work, when the meeting is a one-to-one about someone’s performance. Spot it by checking that every “Covered” row names the policy passage that covers that specific kind of meeting.
The policy does not establish [claim]. Remove that conclusion. Keep this row unresolved and state the exact question the policy owner must answer. Do not replace the gap with general legal guidance.[claim] is the assistant’s conclusion, such as “the one-to-one is covered by the internal-meetings approval”.
Worked example: five series at Alder Services
Fictional example. Alder Services has approved AI notes for routine internal project coordination, with restricted recipients and a notice to attendees. External meetings need separate approval. An incident process says how records must be kept.
A. Weekly project planning: internal team, work allocation. AI notes on.
B. Supplier renewal: external attendees, commercial terms. AI notes on.
C. Monthly one-to-one: manager and one team member. AI notes on.
D. Candidate interview: external candidate, two panel members. All capture off.
E. Service-incident review: incident lead owns the record. Settings unknown.The assistant’s first answer put C under “Covered: internal meeting, matches the project-coordination approval”.
- The failure. The approval covers routine project coordination. A one-to-one concerns an identifiable person and may touch performance or wellbeing. The title sounded internal, and the assistant treated that as permission.
- The repair. The repair prompt left C unresolved, with the question “Does the AI-notes approval extend to one-to-ones, and if so, who receives the output?” for HR. AI notes stay off until they answer. D went the same way: an external candidate needs HR and privacy to agree first.
- The incident review. E isn’t “never record because it might become evidence”. The organiser asked the incident lead what capture and record-keeping apply, and followed that. B paused for the missing external approval.
Task kit for this job: Download (ZIP) · Reusable instructions
Go deeper
Optional training: keep the rule usable for another organiser
Store each meeting-type rule where co-hosts can find it, without sensitive case details:
Meeting type:
Capture allowed, required or not allowed:
Conditions and notice:
Alternative record:
Decision owner and date:
What change triggers another review:A rule like “no bots” may not cover the platform’s built-in transcription. Name the kinds of capture the decision covers.
Optional training: deal with unexpected capture carefully
If optional capture starts unexpectedly, pause and involve the host. Find out what was captured, which outputs exist and who received them, then follow your incident-reporting process and ask the privacy or records lead what happens next. Stopping future capture doesn’t erase earlier material. Don’t delete or alter records yourself, especially where they may need to be kept.
Optional training: test controls without recording a real meeting
Check host controls with a fictional rehearsal rather than capturing a real sensitive meeting to see what a button does. Ask the administrator how guests, late arrivals and other participants’ own notetakers behave. For client calls, Explain a meeting notetaker before a client call covers the notice.