AI Meeting Notes: embracing technology in a compliant manner

Around one in six UK organisations, totalling 432,000, have embraced at least one form of AI technology. The UK AI market is currently estimated to be worth more than £16.8 billion according to the US International Trade Administration and is expected to grow to £801.6 billion by 2035. So why has AI become so popular? 

We turned to ChatGPT for the answer. When asked “what are the benefits of AI?”, ChatGPT responded with the following: “AI enables automation, freeing up human resources for more creative and strategic work. By automating repetitive tasks, organizations can operate more efficiently and effectively. Additionally, AI algorithms can process vast amounts of data quickly and accurately, leading to increased efficiency in various industries.”

Following the growth of generative AI (AI that can create new content), meeting notes tools have evolved from a pure transcription model (seeking to create a word for word transcript of a meeting, using AI natural language processing) to a more sophisticated tool able to produce summaries, key takeaways, action points and to present these outputs in a variety of formats. The potential efficiencies available with the use of AI are significant. With the ongoing importance of virtual meetings such as Teams, Zoom etc, we are seeing more of our clients making use of the benefits of AI meeting notes. 

When using new technology, it is key to ensure that the necessary consideration of the potential risks involved has been properly completed. We set out below some of the key considerations applicable to the use of AI meeting notes: 

1. Privacy and data protection – as a general point, AI systems can collect and analyse large amounts of data. Clients should ensure they have robust data protection policies in place that ensure all necessary persons are fully informed about how their data is being used. 
2. Consent / transparency – many AI meeting note tools allow the user to utilise the tool without necessarily notifying or obtaining informed consent from the other attendees. While client’s have generally developed practices in relation to the recording of virtual meetings to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, it is important to ensure that the need to do the same in respect of the use of any AI meeting note tool is also addressed and that employees are aware of such requirements. 
3. Risk of inaccuracies – As sophisticated as AI may be, it still has its limitations. An AI meeting notes tool may misinterpret speech giving rise to errors in the notes produced. On a more complex level, AI may fail to identify tone of voice (which could be key to understanding the meaning), or incorrectly identify ‘key themes’ in producing summaries. In addition, as many are aware, there is a risk of bias in the underlying data which may impact the functioning of the AI meeting notes tool. Ensuring ongoing human oversight is therefore essential. 
4. Unintended consequences – as with in person meetings and ‘traditional ‘calls, many virtual meetings include discussions that the parties may not wish to be recorded in writing. Generally, meeting notes made by individuals attending a virtual meeting will take account of the ‘off the record’ nature of discussions however this is not necessarily the case for AI meeting notes. Even if the final meeting note produced does not include the ‘off the record’ information, this may be stored by the AI meeting note tool. The creation of a written record of such discussions has potential unintended implications such as in the event of a subject access request.

For more information please contact Hetal Ruparelia, Rebecca Brady,  Joanna Bouloux or Georgia Maskell.