On 10 September, The AI Advantage Academy brought together professionals at its Business Growth Collective to discuss the growing role of AI notetakers in business meetings with a view to creating the UK’s first social guidelines.

The session highlighted the importance of transparency, consent, accuracy and data privacy. Participants discussed best practices, including limiting meetings to one AI notetaker, circulating notes within 24 hours with a transparent review process and establishing data retention policies in advance. Attendees also emphasised the need to respect objections to AI notetaking, except in specific cases, such as supporting accessibility needs.

Social Guidelines for AI Notetakers: Building Trust in Meetings

There is no denying the benefit of AI notetaking. They help enterprises capture conversations, highlight action points and reduce the pressure on participants to keep detailed notes. With an enterprise spending an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, yet 70-80% of knowledge vanishes without documentation, they can play a vital role*.

But what happens when a notetaker isn’t welcome? How do we prevent the embarrassing situation of refusing a notetaker, and what should those guidelines include?

On 10 September, the Business Growth Collective, hosted by The AI Advantage Academy, invited Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai, m.ai, MeetGeek and Krisp to attend a collaboration meet-up with professionals to discuss and create social guidelines.

Although no vendors attended, it was encouraging to see that just five days later, on 15 September, Fireflies released the industry’s first Responsible Guide to AI Notetakers, as reported by BusinessWire.

Emma Shepherd, founder of The AI Advantage Academy, says: “It is encouraging to see that tech companies are aware of the issues of end users. I would welcome more collaboration so that we can increase trust and ensure everyone is using AI safely and transparently.”

Professionals attending the Business Growth Collective discussed the following priorities for guidelines.

1. Prioritising Transparency and Consent

Before a meeting begins, everyone must be aware that an AI notetaker is present. Transparency fosters trust and serves as a foundation for the ethical use of AI.

• Announce the tool: The meeting organiser should inform attendees that a notetaker will be used. This can be done in the meeting invitation or at the start of the meeting. Some tools, like Notion, even have a feature that can play a consent message to all attendees.
• Explain what is being recorded: Be specific about what the tool records, whether it’s audio, video, or both.
• Outline how notes will be used: Explain how the notes will be shared and their purpose, whether for an internal record, external minutes, or a summary.
• Pressure for a consent option: When a meeting is being organised, the AI notetaker should have a built-in consent option. Some tools offer this functionality, but it’s important to request it from the developers of your chosen tool.
• Respect a “no”: If any participant objects, respect their decision and switch to human notetaking if necessary.

2. Ensuring Accuracy

AI-generated notes are a great starting point, but they are not a replacement for human judgment.

• Treat notes as a draft: Always treat the AI-generated notes as a “draft”.
• Human review is mandatory: A human must review, edit, and approve the notes before they are distributed.
• Include attendees in the process: Share the notes within a specific time frame, like 24 hours, and allow attendees to request any revisions or amendments.

3. Protecting Data Privacy

The data captured by AI notetakers can be sensitive. It is your responsibility to ensure it is handled with the utmost care.

• Don’t use data for training: A key question to ask is whether the provider uses your data to train their AI models. Many responsible providers, like Fireflies.ai, have a “zero-data retention” policy for this purpose.
• Know where data is stored: Ask about the data storage location (e.g., UK/EU/outside) and whether the provider is compliant with regulations like GDPR.
• Set retention policies: Ensure you can delete notes securely when they are no longer needed.

Suggested Content for Your Meetings

Here is some example content you can use to communicate the use of an AI notetaker to your meeting attendees.

Meeting Organiser Message: “Dear all, For this session, we’ll be using an AI notetaker to record the meeting audio and facilitate a summary with action points. A human will review all notes before being circulated within 24 hours of the meeting. The notetaker will record. Approval of notes will be assumed unless attendees provide amends within 24 hours of receiving them. Thank you for helping us keep the process transparent, accurate, and respectful.”

Message for attendees: “Please confirm whether an AI notetaker will be used in this meeting? If so, please explain what is being recorded, how the notes will be stored and whether we will have the chance to review them before distribution.”

Suggested Checklist When Selecting an AI Notetaker:

• Transparency: Can attendees see when the notetaker is active? Can the notetaker be removed from the meeting at any time?
• Consent: Does the notetaker have an option for attendees to consent to recording? Is there an easy way to communicate its use before meetings?
• Accuracy: What elements are included in the notes? Does it provide timestamps, speaker labels or summaries?
• Data Privacy: Where is the data stored? Is the provider GDPR-compliant? Is data used for training the model, and can that be disabled? How long are notes retained? What’s the protocol in case of a data breach?

The Business Growth Collective

The Business Growth Collective from The AI Advantage Academy is a community designed for professionals who want to leverage the power of AI together. Join here

Members come together to share their experiences, expertise and practical knowledge. The focus is on learning how to use AI safely, effectively and in ways that add real business value.

 Why join the Business Growth Collective?

The Collective combines learning with peer collaboration. Members benefit from:

Industry Expert Sessions: Monthly sessions led by recognised AI voices.

AI Action Labs: Hands-on workshops to sharpen skills with practical tools.

Member Spotlights: Case studies of professionals applying AI in their business.

Coffee Mornings: Drop-in sessions to exchange ideas on live topics.

Please note: These guidelines are provided for general informational purposes only; all users are responsible for ensuring that any AI notetaker they adopt complies with their own company’s policies, legal requirements and data privacy standards.

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*Source fireflies.ai