Use Zoom's AI to Automatically Summarize Your Meetings

What This Does

Zoom AI records and transcribes your meetings, then automatically generates a summary with key topics, decisions made, and action items, so you can be fully present in the meeting instead of taking notes.

Before You Start

• You have a Zoom account (Basic free accounts don't include meeting summaries in Zoom Workplace, though Zoom's free ZoomMate Basic add-on covers 3 hosted meetings per month)
• You're the meeting host, or the host has enabled meeting summaries for all participants
• Participants should be informed that AI recording/transcription is active
• Time needed: 10 minutes to enable; zero extra time per meeting after that
• Cost: Included with eligible paid Zoom Workplace plans, Pro, Business, and higher (no extra charge)

Steps

1. Turn on meeting summaries in your settings

Go to zoom.us > Sign In > Settings. Look for the meeting summary controls in the AI section and turn on:

• Automatic meeting summaries: generates a post-meeting summary
• In-meeting questions: lets participants ask AI questions about meeting content during the call
• Smart recording: if you record meetings, adds chapters and highlights

Zoom used to group these features under the name "AI Companion" and dropped that brand in 2026, so older help articles and colleagues may still use the old term.

What you should see: The controls switch to the enabled state. You may need admin approval if your organization manages Zoom centrally. Troubleshooting: If you don't see the meeting summary settings, your Zoom plan may not include them. Check your plan at zoom.us/pricing.

2. Start AI Summary during your next meeting

During a meeting you're hosting, hover over the AI icon in the meeting toolbar (looks like a sparkle icon). Tick the Meeting summary checkbox, then click Start Zoom AI. A notification will appear to all participants that AI summary is active.

What you should see: A small indicator shows Zoom AI is running. Participants see a brief notification.

3. Access your summary after the meeting

Within a few minutes of ending the meeting, Zoom emails you the AI-generated summary. You can also find it in the Zoom web portal under Meetings > Previous Meetings > [meeting name] > AI Summary.

The summary includes:

• Overview: 2-3 sentence meeting recap
• Key Topics: main topics discussed with timestamps
• Action Items: tasks with the person who committed to them
• Next Steps: follow-up items

4. Edit and distribute

Copy the action items into your meeting minutes document. The summary is a starting point. Review it for accuracy and add any items Zoom missed. For OAC meetings, paste the action items into your standard minutes format and distribute.

Real Example

Scenario: You host a 90-minute OAC meeting with the owner, architect, and 6 subcontractors. Normally you'd spend 45 minutes writing minutes afterward.

What you do: Start the meeting summary at the beginning of the meeting. Run the meeting normally.

What you get: An email within 10 minutes of hanging up with a summary listing all decisions (owner approved the mechanical equipment substitution, masonry subcontractor given 2-week extension on Level 3) and action items with names (PM to issue Change Order 14 by Friday, Architect to respond to RFI #47 within 7 days).

Tips

• For OAC meetings, always tell participants at the start: "I'm using Zoom's AI meeting summary to help with meeting notes. You'll receive the summary after the meeting."
• Edit the AI summary before distributing. It occasionally misattributes action items when multiple people speak quickly.
• Keep the AI summary in your project records alongside formal meeting minutes. It creates a good secondary documentation trail.

Tool interfaces change. If the meeting summary controls have moved, look for sparkle icons or the AI settings in your Zoom account settings panel.