I've seen a few of you asking about using AI to take board minutes, and as someone who's reviewed a lot of minutes over the years, here's my honest take: it can genuinely help, but only if you're clear about what minutes actually are.

Minutes aren't a transcript. They're the formal, legal record of what the board decided and why — the evidence you'll reach for if a decision is ever questioned by a funder, a regulator, or a member. An AI transcription tool is very good at capturing everything that was said; it is not good at judging what matters, what should be recorded as a decision, or what's better left out. So AI can get you a fast first draft, but a person still has to turn that into proper minutes and the board still has to approve them. Responsibility doesn't transfer to the software.

Two things I'd be careful about. First, confidentiality: board discussions often involve staff, beneficiaries or finances, and you shouldn't be feeding that into a consumer AI tool that might use it for training — check where the data goes. Second, retention: your approved minutes need keeping properly (usually permanently), and a pile of AI transcripts is not the same thing as a clean minute book.

Used well — draft with the tool, edit with judgement, approve as a board, keep the record tidy — it's a real time-saver. Used as a replacement for thinking, it'll bite you.

Rachel Wall ACG — chartered governance professional