AI minute writing: How governance teams can choose the best AI for board minutes

Meeting minutes are the backbone of effective governance. They’re the official record of what was discussed, decided, and agreed, providing a vital reference for directors, regulators, and auditors.

For governance teams, writing up minutes for board and committee meetings is an intensely time-consuming process. It also requires skill, precision, judgement, and an eye for nuance. Increasingly, governance teams are asking whether AI can help. The answer is yes — but only with the right tool.

High-quality minutes do more than document meetings; they’re an essential governance tool. Done well, minutes:

• Capture decisions, actions, and discussions accurately
• Promote accountability and transparency
• Provide evidence for regulators and auditors
• Serve as a reliable reference for directors and executives to support future decision-making

Errors or omissions can have serious consequences. Regulators may question the adequacy of governance processes. Stakeholders may lose trust. And boards themselves may struggle to recall why a decision was made.

Minute writing isn’t something that can be left to chance, or to technology that isn’t built for the job.

Traditional shorthand — once the favoured method of most company secretaries — is accurate but slow to process once you’ve left the meeting. Newer methods include:

• Real-time note typing: Faster than shorthand but can make it difficult to capture all the detail.
• Recording and transcribing meetings: Saves time on note‑taking but leaves a large editing burden.
• Multi-purpose AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, CoPilot): Drafts minutes from transcripts but can lack the accuracy, structure, and security that governance teams require.
• Dedicated AI minute writing tools (e.g. Minute Writer): Purpose‑built for governance, combining transcript analysis and compliance‑ready outputs.

Each option comes with trade‑offs between accuracy, efficiency, and security. That’s why the choice of tool is becoming such a critical decision for governance teams.

Pro tip: Read our guide to using AI for minute writing for more insights on best practice and how AI can help.

AI can help with the mechanics of writing minutes, but the choice of tool is crucial.

Generic generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Copilot are built to do a bit of everything; they can generate blogs, summarise reports, and draft emails. But they aren’t up to the task of board and committee meeting minutes. Here’s why:

• Security risks: When your team use consumer AI tools you can’t guarantee they’ll choose the right privacy settings or fully understand the implications of sharing their data. With a dedicated tool, you don’t need to take extra steps to keep your data safe — it’s built securely and configured to keep board data secure, as standard.
• Hallucinations or inaccuracies: General-purpose AI often invents or distorts details. In the boardroom, where accuracy is paramount, this is a dealbreaker.
• Poor structure: Minutes should follow the agenda and meeting flow. Generic tools don’t automatically pull through agenda headings or organise content around them, leading to poorly structured or incomplete outputs.
• Limited flexibility: They can ignore style guidance, struggle with long and complex inputs, and fail to maintain the right level of detail.
• Partial efficiencies: Summarising a transcript is only one part of the workflow. Real efficiencies come from automating the entire process of turning a meeting into a usable set of minutes.
• Weak safeguards: Many AI firms have patchy track records on privacy. With minutes, weak safeguards aren’t an option.

Minute writing requires not just words, but structure, context, and compliance. That’s why governance teams need a purpose-built tool.

Minute Writer was designed specifically for governance teams. And that makes all the difference. Unlike generic AI tools, it addresses the unique challenges of board and committee minutes. Here’s how:

• Specialised functionality for board minutes: Its focused scope means the tool doesn’t try to guess what you’re trying to do. It knows that you’re creating board minutes, what good looks like, and what it needs for the job, which leads to more accurate and relevant outputs.
• Structured outputs: In one click, it pulls the agenda and key meeting details directly from the Board Intelligence board portal. Minute Writer also reorganises your notes or transcripts around the relevant agenda items — for example, intelligently grouping related points made at different times during the meeting.
• Customisation: Users can adjust tone and style, use pro-forma text for recurring items, and choose from a library of approved preset formats.
• Rapid, client-led development: Features are shaped by feedback from governance professionals and updates are released frequently, ensuring the tool evolves with their needs.
• Efficiency gains: Users consistently report saving significant time compared to both manual drafting and generic AI tools, with governance professionals telling us they’re getting 40-50% of the time they previously spent on minute writing back. For teams with backlogs of overdue minutes, this is transformative.
• Regulatory compliance: Minute Writer is designed to meet the detailed standards required by regulators. Whether your regulator expects concise notes or highly detailed records, the tool can adapt. You can also configure your own retention policies, ensuring that notes and transcripts get automatically deleted once minutes are approved, as per best practice guidance.
• Support: Unlike consumer AI, Minute Writer is backed by Board Intelligence’s award-winning support team, who are available 24/7/365.
• Integration with other board processes: The final minutes document can be into your board portal, and any relevant signatures can be requested and completed via the e-Signatures tool — keeping everything in one place and further streamlining the process.
  

Crucially, Minute Writer doesn’t replace the governance professional. It automates the mechanics, freeing up time for the judgement and nuance that only humans can bring. As our research into minute writing best practice highlights, effective minutes require context, prioritisation, and discretion — qualities that AI can support, but never fully replicate.

“Minute Writer is giving me 40% of time spent on minutes back — time which I’m now using on more strategic and value-add work.”

Sarah Dobson, Head of Executive Support at Cambridge Building Society

Governance requirements vary across jurisdictions, which shapes how minutes are written. In the UK, regulators expect detailed minutes that capture the flow of discussion and demonstrate robust oversight. In the US, the emphasis is often on concise decision capture and clear accountability for follow-up actions. In Sweden, transparency is paramount, with boards expected to provide open, accessible records of their deliberations.

AI minute writing tools like Minute Writer are designed to adapt to these different expectations, ensuring compliance while giving governance teams the efficiency they need.