A summary can cover every document and still leave the meeting without direction. To prepare meetings with AI, explain which decision or conversation the materials need to support. That purpose tells you what to highlight and what to keep as reference.
A team is going to decide whether to keep a project's timeline. There are updates from different teams, a task list and messages about dependencies. The preparation needs to make that information comparable.
Turn the summary into decision material
Ask for it to be organized by commitments, changes and open questions, with the source of each point. If two sources disagree about the deadline, the disagreement shows up with both versions.
Separate facts from interpretations. "The document has not been delivered yet" may be confirmed; "that team will miss the deadline" is a hypothesis. Mixing the two changes the conversation before the team has looked at the situation. The preparation can lay out alternatives — keep the date, reduce the scope, renegotiate a dependency — and what is still unknown about each.
Review with the meeting in mind
Check the points that could change the decision and the passages where sources disagree. Make sure the summary keeps what needs to be discussed, without hiding uncertainty to look conclusive. After the meeting, compare the prepared material with what was actually used and adjust the next preparation.
AI can organize documents in many ways; the purpose of the meeting gives you the criterion to choose between them. In AI Thinking by Dani Hayoshi, this link between intent and concrete work guides the exploration. Good preparation does not decide for the team; it gives the team what it needs to decide. See also AI for leaders.
Dani Hayoshi is the author of AI Thinking. Her work connects artificial intelligence, education and entrepreneurship. About Dani.