Why I'm not a fan of AI note takers

I see a lot of people really excited about AI note takers. These tools are often sold as the best way to have good meetings. Which of course is a bit of a joke.

The value of taking visible notes for all

To me the fact of taking notes during a meeting is one of the things that makes meetings not spiral into non sense blah blah sessions where we end in unhelpful rabbit holes.

This is especially true if the note taking is done visually and for all, like with sticky notes, a whiteboard or just a projector showing the notes app of the main note taker.

When someone is taking visible notes for everyone, it shows clearly when:

• the discussion goes nowhere: no more notes are taken;

• the discussion goes in a rabbit hole: no new sections are created, but one gets way too big with way too many details;

• the discussion goes in all directions: many new sections are open but have nothing in them.

• the discussion makes no sense and is unclear: the note taker says: "okay but what did we decide her?"

Meetings notes are not about what you capture, it's about what you don't capture

Conversations between people often are moments when people "think aloud", explore different ideas and negotiate. For all of these things, capturing all the details of the

The value of taking notes for yourself

Plus, taking personal notes just for yourself has also some nice advantages:

• you capture only what's important for you

• you can capture what are your tasks, where you want to follow up

• you can write down, questions or points you want to share when it's your turn to speak and so don't have to stop the other person speaking to say what you might forget otherwise

When AI note takers make sense

If they mix personal notes + recording

But these AI note takers are not all trash. For example, to me there is a big difference between note taking tools like Notion meeting notes and Granola and other generic AI note taker. These two tools don't just take the notes for you, they give you also a space to take your notes! And then the tool blends together your notes and a summary of the audio transcript.

That's super smart as it keeps the strength of taking notes while having the backup of the recording.

For interviews

If you are doing interviews with people and have a hard time taking rich notes while listening, then AI note taking tools can be a pretty strong help as they are like a research assistant.

When it's not your language

If you are participating in meetings and the meeting is held in a language you don't speak super well, having such AI note taker tools can be nice to double check between what you felt you understood and what really happened (especially if you can go back in the full transcript and recording).

Where I'm not sure yet

For coaching sessions

I feel that for coaching sessions, what matters most is the "commitment" that people make at the end that is the most important. The rest of the conversation was often a way to get there, and doesn't need to be stored.

But I've seen that some of the people I've coached in the past record the coaching sessions, so there might be an usage there that I don't see yet myself.