If there is one thing many of us have in common, it is a calendar that feels increasingly full.

Meetings are an important part of how we work. They help us coordinate projects, collaborate across departments, solve problems, and make decisions. But many of us have experienced days where the meetings seem endless, and the work we planned to accomplish gets pushed later into the day.

While generative AI tools won't solve every challenge associated with meetings, they can reduce the administrative tasks associated with them. Used thoughtfully, generative AI tools can help us spend less time managing meetings and more time participating in meaningful conversations.

Preparing for a meeting

Many meetings require participants to review documents, catch up on email threads, revisit previous decisions, or gather background information. Rather than spending time searching through files and communications, Microsoft 365 Copilot can summarize emails, documents, Teams conversations, and other Microsoft 365 content. This helps participants arrive at meetings with a clearer understanding of the topic and more time to focus on discussion and decision making.

AI can help people think through agenda topics before a meeting begins. Whether you are preparing for a committee meeting, project update, consultation, or leadership discussion, Copilot Chat or ChatGPT Edu can help organize ideas, identify discussion questions, and create a draft agenda that can be refined by the organizer. Copilot Chat is available to all university faculty, staff, and students. ChatGPT Edu is available through an additional license for faculty and staff.

Balancing participation and note taking

During meetings, many of us face a familiar challenge: balancing participation with note taking.

It can be difficult to actively contribute to a discussion while capturing decisions, action items, risks, and follow-up tasks. This is where AI-powered meeting recaps can help.

Faculty and staff with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a Teams Premium license have access to AI-powered meeting features in Microsoft Teams that can generate meeting recaps, identify discussion topics, provide summaries, and capture action items from Microsoft Teams meetings. Rather than trying to document everything yourself, these features can create a starting point that participants review for accuracy after the meeting ends.

Using AI to help with follow-up tasks

Perhaps the greatest opportunity for reducing meeting fatigue occurs after the meeting is over.

A one-hour meeting rarely ends after 60 minutes. Notes need to be organized, action items communicated, emails written, and next steps tracked. For many professionals, these follow-up activities can take as much time as the meeting itself.

AI tools can assist by turning rough notes into polished summaries, helping draft follow-up communications, organizing action items, and identifying key decisions that emerged during the discussion. Microsoft 365 Copilot can help with follow-up work inside Outlook, Word, and Teams. Copilot Chat or ChatGPT Edu can be useful for refining communications, synthesizing notes, or helping organize complex information.

At the same time, it is important to remain realistic about what AI can and cannot do.

Meeting summaries are not meeting minutes. AI generated action items may miss context. Important decisions should always be reviewed by someone who participated in the discussion. Human judgment remains essential, particularly when decisions involve people, policy, compliance, or other nuanced topics.

The goal is not to replace the human side of meetings; it is the opposite. 

Creating meaningful conversations

When AI can help reduce the administrative work associated with meetings, we are able to focus more of our energy on the parts of our jobs that matter most: listening, collaborating, asking thoughtful questions, building relationships, and making informed decisions.

As AI becomes more integrated into our daily work, one of the most valuable questions we can ask is, "How can AI help us spend more time on the reason we are meeting in the first place?" 

Please reach out with any questions on AI tools or how to use them before, during, and after a meeting. Email the AI Support Team at ITS-AISupportTeam@uiowa.edu.

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