It has become ubiquitous that any online meeting is accompanied by at least as many AI notetakers as human participants in the virtual room. Yet, in some high-pressure environments that require accurate notes, they are conspiracy absent. Thus, let us dive into the advantages and disadvantages of AI notetakers and why they are unwanted in some situations, such as board meetings or medical appointments.
Why Everyone Likes Notetakers
Before the advent of computers, it was common to have a secretary in the room to take meeting notes. Yet, with the role of personal assistant disappearing, it has become less and less common to have a dedicated notetaker or stenographer in the room. Yet the advantages are numerous.
Most importantly, it allows all participants to focus on the meeting. No member must divide their attention between engaging in the discussion and recording the decisions and to-dos. Consequently, one can gain a better understanding, discussions, and more meaningful contributions.
Notetakers are also a prudent investment, leading to significant cost savings. Employee time is precious and expensive. Compiling and editing notes takes time and slows down the follow-up process. This slowdown is especially noticeable if the organization expects the notetaker to highlight critical tasks and extract to-do’s from the meeting. With AI notetakers, this process is streamlined, making the most of the resources at hand.
Lastly, artificial intelligence compiles the notes without trying to interpret the meeting topics on the fly. Thus, it can lead to more accurate results and more detailed recordings of what was said.
The Shortcomings of Digital Secretaries
Yet, interpretation-free notetaking is also the biggest downside of AI notetakers. AI continues to struggle to understand emotional undertones, especially if sarcasm or humor lace the statement. For instance, a sarcastic comment about a project’s progress might be misinterpreted as a serious concern. Consequently, if the context is too condensed, that can lead to a loss of meaning. Bad audio quality or connection errors can worsen the problem, especially if AI does not notify the participants that it cannot process a statement.
Privacy and security concerns are further essential considerations against AI notetakers. In settings where participants expect and value privacy, we should leave AI notetakers outside the (virtual) room. While data breaches are possible even without AI, the technology brings additional security risks and considerations, particularly if developers use AI notes to train the next model.
Lastly, it creates another dependency on software that may not be advantageous. Especially when AI notetakers join physical meetings, technical issues such as software crashes or internet connectivity problems can needlessly disrupt meetings. Even in virtual meetings, where most problems would be an issue on their own, an unavailable AI notetaker might leave teams without notes if an outage goes unnoticed. Further, trust in technology might reduce the care and time spent reviewing and correcting the minutes.
Deciding Whether To Use AI
The participants’ comfort is the most significant deciding factor in whether to allow AI notetakers. If meeting participants don’t feel they can speak freely, you should banish the artificial intelligence from the room. Discussions with lawyers, doctors, or HR are some of the likely places for this to happen.
Organizational practices and legal concerns are another consideration. For example, board members are highly discouraged from taking notes outside the formal minutes. Thus, an AI notetaker would never be acceptable on any of the boards I serve on.
Lastly, consider the value of the notes. Suppose you expect to leave the meeting with a concrete plan or multiple to-dos. In that case, a notetaker can be extremely valuable. However, for a social affair, the additional notes become digital noise that disrupts productivity and clogs our inboxes.
AI Notetakers, It Depends
Given the wide range of advantages and disadvantages, it is no wonder that AI notetakers are a controversial topic. Better notes help maintain productivity and carry over the impulses set by an excellent meeting. Yet, they can also lead to a loss of privacy and legal implications. Finding the right balance and consciously deciding whether or not to allow them in a given meeting is key to making everyone comfortable and getting the most out of this new technology.