AI notetakers are killing participation

AI by design, not default. 

You know the meeting. The waiting room is full of names you don’t recognise — AI notetakers, sent in by people who couldn’t make it, or didn’t want to. The conversation begins. The bots transcribe. Everyone leaves with a clean summary of what was said. 

Almost no one leaves with an understanding of what it meant. 

And that summary? It joins the others. Most of us now have a folder somewhere full of AI-generated summaries we have never once reopened. We didn’t need the record. We needed to be in the room. 

“We have a folder full of summaries we never reopened. We didn’t need the record. We needed to be in the room. ”

By design, not by default. 

The question isn’t AI or no AI. It’s a conscious choice about when it helps and when it doesn’t. 

There is a small but critical category of meetings — multi-stakeholder convenings, public engagements, the rooms where the integrity of the record is the point and the quieter voices too often disappear from it. For those rooms we built What Was Said: custom hardware and custom-trained software, deployed inside a designed process. AI doing what only AI can do, because the purpose demanded it. That is AI by design. 

Dropping a generic bot into every meeting because that’s just what you do now is the opposite. That is AI by default. And for most meetings, it is quietly replacing the one thing those meetings actually need: you, participating. 

Participation is the work. 

Most meetings are working sessions — a project moving forward, a problem surfacing, a decision taking shape in conversation. They don’t need a transcript. They need you to do four things that no notetaker can do for you. 

Listen actively — not wait for your turn, not half-watch while the bot captures the rest. Understand what it means for you, your role, and your work. Ask the specific questions that move your understanding forward. And answer, when you can, to help and support the people around you. 

That is participation. It happens in real time, in the room, while the conversation is still alive. An AI notetaker attending in your place is not a substitute for any of it — it simply records the meeting you chose not to take part in. 

“An AI notetaker attending for us isn’t a replacement for our participation. It just records the meeting we chose not to join. ”

When we let the bot listen for us, we don’t only lose the moment. We lose the practice. The skill of being in a room and thinking with other people — the foundational skill of real work — gets quietly dismantled. Not less informed. Less capable. 

The choice is yours. 

So before you send the bot, or let one run, make the choice consciously. Is this a meeting where the record genuinely matters — a hearing, a convening, a room built on fidelity? Then use AI built for that purpose, by design. 

Or is this a meeting where your participation matters? Then close the bot, and turn up. Listen. Understand. Ask. Help. 

“AI by default makes us lazy. AI by conscious choice makes us sharper. The choice is yours. ”

TidalCo: is a strategy design consultancy. We help organisations and communities navigate complex challenges — and we believe in showing up to the meetings that matter.