Prompt: Summarize This Meeting

Meeting transcripts are useless in raw form. Nobody re-reads a 45-minute transcript. This prompt summarize meeting transcript turns the wall of text into structured notes you can act on in 2 minutes.

The action items are what matter. Everything else is context.

The Prompt

You are an executive assistant summarizing a meeting. Produce structured notes from this transcript.

MEETING CONTEXT:
- Meeting type: [team sync / client call / strategy session / 1-on-1]
- Attendees: [list names and roles if known]
- Purpose: [why this meeting happened]

TRANSCRIPT:
[Paste the full transcript here]

OUTPUT FORMAT:

## Summary
3-5 sentences covering the key points. What was this meeting about and what was the outcome?

## Decisions Made
- [Decision 1]: [Brief context]
- [Decision 2]: [Brief context]
(If no decisions were made, state "No formal decisions made")

## Action Items
| Owner | Task | Deadline |
|-------|------|----------|
| [Name] | [Specific task] | [Date or "not specified"] |

## Key Discussion Points
- [Topic 1]: [What was discussed and any conclusions]
- [Topic 2]: [What was discussed and any conclusions]

## Open Questions
- [Question that was raised but not resolved]

## Follow-Up Needed
- [Any meetings or conversations that need to happen next]

RULES:
- Action items must be specific. "Follow up on the thing" is not specific. "Send revised proposal to Client X by Friday" is.
- If someone committed to doing something, capture it as an action item even if they did not call it one.
- Do not add information not in the transcript. If something is unclear, note it as unclear.
- Keep the summary under 100 words.

Tips for Better Results

Better transcripts produce better summaries. Use a tool like Fathom, Otter, or the built-in meeting recorder to capture accurate transcripts.

If the transcript has speaker labels, the summary will correctly attribute action items. Without labels, AI has to guess who said what.

Automating the Pipeline

Connect your meeting recorder to an automation that runs this prompt automatically after every meeting. The summary lands in Slack or your project management tool within minutes of the meeting ending.

Action items from the summary can automatically create tasks in your PM tool. Each task assigned to the right person with the deadline mentioned in the meeting.

The Review Step

Always scan the summary before distributing it. AI occasionally misattributes a statement or misses an action item that was implied rather than stated explicitly. A 30-second review catches these issues.

Build These Systems

Ready to implement? These step-by-step tutorials show you exactly how:

• How to Build an AI Meeting Notes Distributor - Distribute meeting notes and action items to attendees automatically.
• How to Create an AI Meeting Recording Analyzer - Analyze meeting recordings for action items, sentiment, and key decisions.
• How to Create Automated Meeting Summary and Action Items - Generate meeting summaries and action items using AI transcription.