AI has reshaped how I take notes
I stay focused on the room, not my keyboard
Note: This was originally posted on LinkedIn.
AI has reshaped how I take notes. No typing, yet forensic-level accuracy (with photos). I stay focused on the room, not my keyboard. A design meeting a while back is where I locked in this habit.
I was at a milestone design review, before a table of hardware prototypes. The kind of review where my hands are full holding up things, wearing them, looking over every angle.
I took a day-trip flight just for these 90 minutes. I couldn’t miss a detail. High-stakes meetings require high-fidelity notes.
Spoiler: Gemini made for me not just notes, but a forensic record. It labeled everyone who spoke and summarized all topics. It even wove in the photos of prototypes I took with my phone -- matched to the topic.
An audit trail without the overhead. For 90 minutes I typed nothing. I was fully locked in on the discussion, with headspace to *think*, not splitting my focus and obsessively jotting things down.
4 steps:
1/ Yes, ask attendees for permission. Yes, it changes the dynamic for a split second. But we get speed and accuracy in exchange, and people (especially non-lawyers) value the benefit of a lawyer who’s more engaged.
2/ I record with the native Apple voice memo app -- it’s simple and stable. When needed, I use my phone to take photos.
3/ Upload the raw audio file and photos to Gemini (enterprise version has robust privacy commitments – always check your AI and company policies). Any multimodal AI works, as long as it transcribes voice to text and can parse photos.
4/ I ask AI to distinguish each speaker and transcribe it “intelligent verbatim” so I have the raw record without filler words or false starts. Then have it summarize all topics and weave in photos based on timestamps and photo content.
AI can finish this in 15 seconds.
Bonus tip: when I can’t audio-record a meeting itself, afterward I voice record myself for a few minutes on takeaways when the memory is fresh. I can do this walking in between meetings. And AI rewrites it in a crisp format for later.
In a fast-moving space, change is constant. These records let me look back clearly while pushing ahead.
Below are example AI notes from personal non-work life.
How has AI changed your note-taking habits?
