Written by the AIKit Editorial Team — practitioners who tested Read.ai, Microsoft Copilot, Otter.ai, and Fireflies.ai across real EA workflows.
What Read AI actually does
Read.ai is a meeting intelligence platform that joins your video calls as a bot participant. It records audio, generates a live transcript in real time, and at the end of every meeting produces a structured output: an executive summary, a list of action items with suggested owners, key topics discussed, and a sentiment analysis of the meeting.
For executive assistants, the most useful outputs are the action items list and the transcript search. The action items give you a starting point for follow-up tracking. The transcript search lets you find exactly what was decided — down to the specific sentence — without re-listening to an hour-long recording.
EA workflows with Read AI meeting notes
How do I use Read AI to brief an executive who missed a meeting?
After Read.ai generates the summary, open the meeting page and copy the summary into a brief for your executive. The format works best if you reorder it slightly:
Here is a Read.ai AI summary of a meeting [Executive Name] missed. Rewrite it as a one-page executive brief. Format: Decision Made (what was agreed), Action Items (who owns what, by when), Key Context (background they need to understand the decision), Open Questions (what is still unresolved). Keep it under 250 words. Remove filler content. Be direct — this is for a C-suite executive with limited time. Summary: [paste Read.ai summary here]
How do I track action items from multiple meetings at once?
Read.ai exports action items as a list, but they can scatter across many meeting pages. The EA workflow that works best:
- At the end of each week, export action items from all meetings into a single document.
- Use ChatGPT to organise them by owner and deadline.
- Send a weekly digest to relevant stakeholders every Friday.
Here are action items extracted from this week's meetings. Organise them into a weekly digest: group by owner, show the due date, and flag any items that are overdue or due within 48 hours. Format as a clean table with columns: Owner / Action / Due Date / Status. Action items: [paste all items from Read.ai exports]
How do I use AI meeting notes to prepare for the next meeting?
The transcript from a previous meeting is a gold mine for preparing an agenda for the follow-up. Use this prompt before any recurring meeting:
Here is the transcript summary from the last [meeting name] on [date]. Based on the open questions and unresolved action items, draft an agenda for the next meeting. Include: (1) a 5-minute review of what was decided last time, (2) open items that need an update, (3) new items for discussion. Format as a numbered agenda with time allocations. Total meeting time: [X] minutes. Summary: [paste Read.ai summary]
Get the complete EA AI toolkit
The AI Survival Kit for Executive Assistants includes AI workflows for meeting notes, executive correspondence, briefing documents, calendar management, and more.
Get the EA AI Kit →Read AI vs other AI meeting notetakers
Several tools compete in this space. Here is how the main ones differ for EA use cases:
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read.ai | Detailed summaries, sentiment, meeting analytics | 5 meetings/month | Cloud-processed — check data policy for confidential meetings |
| Microsoft Copilot | Teams users, M365 environments | Included in M365 Copilot licence | Teams only — no Zoom or Google Meet |
| Otter.ai | Transcription quality, cross-platform | 600 min/month | Summaries less structured than Read.ai |
| Fireflies.ai | Search across all past meeting transcripts | 800 min storage | Less useful for live action item tracking |
What AI meeting notes can't replace
AI meeting notetakers are exceptionally good at capturing what was said. They are less good at capturing what it meant. The most valuable EA skill remains contextual judgment: knowing which decision will have political implications, which action item the executive will actually follow up on versus quietly drop, and which conversation needs a human follow-up call rather than an auto-generated summary.
Use Read.ai for capturing the facts. Use your judgment for everything else.
Frequently asked questions
Does Read.ai work with Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet? +
Yes. Read.ai joins as a bot participant on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. It records audio, generates a live transcript, and produces a structured summary and action items after the meeting ends. The bot appears in the participant list — attendees can see it is present.
Is Read.ai free for executive assistants? +
Read.ai has a free plan that allows up to 5 meeting summaries per month. Paid plans start at around $15/month per user and remove the cap. For EAs managing heavy meeting schedules, the paid plan is typically necessary. Microsoft 365 Copilot meeting notes are included in M365 Copilot licences if your organisation already pays for it.
Can I use AI meeting notes for confidential executive meetings? +
Check with your IT and legal teams before using any third-party AI notetaker in confidential meetings. Read.ai processes audio through its cloud servers — board meetings, M&A discussions, or HR matters may be subject to data handling restrictions. Microsoft Copilot meeting notes stay within your Microsoft 365 tenant and may be safer for highly sensitive content.
AI Survival Kit for Executive Assistants
50+ copy-paste prompts · meeting notes · executive correspondence · briefing documents · calendar management. Instant PDF. $97.
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