How to prepare for a meeting with AI

Before: the aim comes first

A meeting with no written aim turns into a conversation. The aim is one sentence that starts with a verb and ends in something checkable: "get the October budget approved", "agree who handles the handover". If you cannot write the sentence, the meeting probably was not needed.

With that sentence in hand, four briefs that work:

• The three most likely objections from the other side, with a short answer to each.
• A five-point running order with timings, so the first point does not eat the hour.
• The questions you ought to ask and will not think of in the moment.
• The two-minute version of your proposal, in case the slot shrinks.

During: do not hand this over

Take your own notes, however scruffy. What the AI is good at afterwards is tidying bad notes; what it cannot do is know which sentence changed the mood in the room. Write down decisions and names, and mark anything that is a decision.

After: notes people actually read

Paste your notes and ask for a write-up in three blocks: decisions taken, tasks with an owner and a date, and open questions. Nothing else. Nobody reads a narrative account of the conversation, which is exactly why the agreements get forgotten.

Before sending it, check two things the AI cannot know: that every task has a real name behind it, and that you have not promoted an offhand comment into an agreement.

The trap of the perfect write-up

A well-written record makes it feel as though everything was settled. If the meeting did not decide who does what, the neatest notes in the world will not fix it: write "no owner assigned" and let it show.

Preparation is not more slides: it is knowing what you want to happen and what they will say back.