In today’s fast-paced work environment, AI-powered meeting tools are emerging as game-changers, not only enhancing overall productivity but also offering vital support for neurodiverse employees. Research by a local tech company shows that these tools significantly benefit individuals with ADHD or dyslexia by easing the mental burden of note-taking and post-meeting documentation.
Hannah Hardy-Jones, co-founder of Contented, embarked on a mission to explore these benefits through 70 “coffee dates” with professionals during June 2024. Her goal was to understand meeting challenges and test AI meeting tools.
The results uncovered surprising advantages, particularly for neurodiverse individuals in the workplace.
Hannah discovered that AI tools can greatly reduce the stress associated with capturing and processing meeting information. For individuals with ADHD or dyslexia, this relief from the mental load of note-taking can be transformative.
“I think really surprising to me, actually was just the level of neurodiversity. From the perspective of, particularly around ADHD and dyslexia, the mental load and the issues around how do you capture a conversation is so much harder for people with ADHD or potentially with autism, because there’s a lot of overthinking at the time of the meeting how to effectively capture that and do both, you know, writing notes and engaging with somebody,” Hannah says.
She points out that traditional meeting practices often impede engagement and productivity, especially for neurodiverse individuals.
Key issues identified included the challenge of recording all critical points and the mental effort required to translate meeting discussions into actionable outputs like proposals or strategies.
Ineffective meetings, she says, frequently occur when too many participants are present without a direct role in the discussion, resulting in a “cast of thousands.”
“That social perspective around meetings a lot of time is why people really don’t enjoy them, because they feel like there’s a lot being said that’s maybe not captured, maybe some people aren’t being heard.”
She says AI meeting tools tackle these challenges by reducing human error and bias in note-taking as, typically, people only record what they consider relevant, which can lead to incomplete or skewed notes.
“There’s a huge amount of bias as a as a note taker because you are looking for things that are interesting to you, what you deem to be relevant and actually there might be 50% of the conversation that you haven’t even taken into account or you haven’t written down.
From an accuracy perspective it’s even things like numbers, when metrics are discussed or and if they’re not written down, there’s a huge risk of that inaccuracy”
Hannah says AI tools allow for more free-flowing conversations without the pressure of structured note-taking and enable better participation and idea generation. It also means that meetings attendees can be reduced to those who need to actively contribute, freeing up others who “need to know” to be doing other meaningful work.
However, privacy and confidentiality remain important considerations, particularly when using off-the-shelf AI products. For sensitive meetings, bespoke solutions with enhanced security features may be necessary.
Hannah emphasises, “For off the shelf AI tools, there’s always some level of risk, particularly confidential meetings or if you’re a lawyer or within health, which is where a lot of people then lead to something more bespoke, like what we are doing, which is just additional user permissions and gives that extra level of security for people.”
Despite these concerns, Hannah believes that the advantages of AI tools can outweigh the risks.
“While there are concerns about recording sensitive information, the technology may encourage more thoughtful and professional communication in meetings,” she suggests.
From a wellbeing perspective, Hannah says, the benefits are huge.
“We like to say actually having more meetings is great. Like, actually talk to more people, like spend less time at your desk and actually more time connecting as humans.
That’s quite a different way of looking at it from a wellbeing point of view because normally we go, how can we have less meetings. But there’s so much amazing content out of every meeting or every connection.”
She says, traditionally many meeting have no tangible output, but what AI allows is for something tangible to be created from every conversation.
“That is really amazing for your wellbeing, because you can actually feel like you kind of taking steps forward rather than just bouncing from meeting to meeting.”
As AI meeting tools become more integrated into the workplace, businesses are likely to experience a shift towards more frequent, productive meetings and improved collaboration across diverse teams.
These advancements highlight the potential of AI to enhance meeting productivity, engagement, and inclusivity while addressing the common challenges of traditional meeting practices, taking meetings from being “ineffective and uninspiring” to real opportunities for connection and collaboration.
