Zoom AI Companion for Meetings

Novice · Everyday Tools track · ~30 min hands-on + quiz

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Use Zoom’s built-in AI to summarize meetings, catch up when you join late, and turn discussion into action items, and know when to leave it off.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Turn on AI meeting summaries and review them before sharing
  • Ask AI Companion questions during a meeting to catch up
  • Check a summary against what was actually said
  • Decide which meetings should not use AI Companion

Overview

Zoom AI Companion is included with Drexel’s Zoom accounts for faculty, staff, and students. Its main uses:

  • Meeting summary: after the meeting, the host gets a summary with key points and next steps, which can be edited and shared.
  • Ask AI Companion: during a meeting, ask questions such as “What did I miss?” or “What was decided about the budget?”
  • Recording summaries: for cloud recordings, a summary and chapters you can skim instead of rewatching.

Drexel’s data rule depends on recording. Drexel’s AI Tools page lists AI Companion as approved for High Risk Data when the meeting is not recorded or transcribed, and Low Risk Data when it is recorded or transcribed. In practice: summaries of unrecorded meetings are the safer default. Once you record or transcribe, treat the content as if it could become public.

Tell people. When AI Companion is summarizing, Zoom shows participants a notice. Say it out loud too, at the start: “I’m using AI Companion to take notes; the summary will go to [who].” Some people speak less freely when they know a summary is being made, and they should get to decide.

You manage your AI Companion settings in Zoom settings → AI Companion on the Zoom web portal. Some options are controlled by Drexel IT at the account level, so ask IT if one you need is turned off.

Practice activities

Use a low-stakes meeting for all activities: a routine team check-in, a planning call, or a practice meeting with a colleague.

Activity 1 · Novice — Summarize a meeting and check it

Time ~15 min (plus the meeting) · Tools Zoom with AI Companion

Goal. Get a usable summary and learn where it goes wrong.

Steps.

  1. As host, start the meeting and click AI Companion in the toolbar to start the meeting summary. Tell participants.
  2. During the meeting, take your own brief notes: decisions, action items, and who owns them.
  3. After the meeting, open the summary (it arrives by email and in the Zoom app or web portal).
  4. Compare it to your notes. Mark anything wrong, missing, or wrongly attributed.
  5. Edit the summary before sharing. Remove side conversations and anything that shouldn’t go to the whole group.

Expected result. A summary that gets most topics right but misses some nuance: a tentative idea recorded as a decision, or an action item with no owner.

Check your work. Did it turn “we should think about” into “the team agreed to”? That is the most common error.

Common pitfalls. Sharing the raw summary with everyone automatically. Review first; you’re responsible for what goes out.

Activity 2 · Novice — Catch up during a meeting

Time ~5 min · Tools Zoom with AI Companion

Goal. Use AI Companion when you join late or lose the thread.

Steps.

  1. Join a meeting a few minutes late (or step away briefly).
  2. Open AI Companion in the meeting and ask: “Summarize what’s been discussed so far” or “Has anything been assigned to me?”
  3. Check the answer by listening for the next few minutes or asking a colleague.

Expected result. A short recap. If the host hasn’t enabled in-meeting questions, you may not see this option.

Common pitfalls. Asking about something said while you weren’t there and repeating the answer as fact. Confirm before you act on it.

Activity 3 · Novice — Turn a summary into a follow-up email

Time ~10 min · Tools Zoom summary, the Copilot pane in Outlook or ChatGPT Edu

Goal. Get from meeting to follow-up in one step.

Steps.

  1. Copy your edited summary from Activity 1.

  2. In the Copilot pane in Outlook (see Copilot for Email) or ChatGPT Edu, type:

    Turn these meeting notes into a short follow-up email to the attendees: two sentences of summary, then a table of action items with owner and due date. Flag any action item without an owner or date instead of guessing.

  3. Check the table against your own notes and send it yourself.

Expected result. A follow-up email in about five minutes, with gaps flagged rather than invented.

When to leave it off

Don’t use AI Companion, or turn it off, in meetings about:

  • Personnel matters, performance, hiring decisions, or grievances
  • Individual students: advising, accommodations, grades, or conduct
  • Patients, research participants, or identifiable study data (check your IRB protocol and any data use agreement)
  • Confidential negotiations, legal matters, or anything under an NDA

If a participant asks you to turn it off, turn it off.

Check your readiness

Answer these, then check — your score suggests whether to dive in or skim the activities first.

Useful resources

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