They’ve become a staple of the virtual call. But the AI notetaker—the one you or a coworker uses to transcribe the call and highlight key points—could spell trouble for organizations.
That’s according to Arielle Patrick, a managing partner at Upland Workshop, a strategic advisory firm. Patrick works with high-profile clients, many of whom she said have fallen victim to the risks posed by AI notetakers.
“The amount of times I have seen clients lose privilege because an AI notetaker disseminates notes from a confidential meeting to a group of people without a lawyer in copy,” she said at Fortune’s Workplace Innovation Summit on Tuesday in Atlanta. “Or the notetaker perhaps is inaccurate and has some issues that need to be scrubbed or something gets leaked inadvertently.”
It’s not just in strategic advising; the AI notetaker is creating scenarios that may keep your HR team up at night. An automated notetaker may stay on a call longer than the employee who deployed it, an awkward scenario if the remaining colleagues don’t realize they’re still being recorded. The tech is also allowing some younger workers to skate by as their AI notetaker attends meetings while they kick back. But from a comms perspective, Patrick said the technology may become more of a liability.
“This is one of the biggest risks,” she said. “It’s giving me a lot of agita.”
The risks that may come with AI notetakers
There’s a number of risks AI notetakers pose to an organization, according to Joe Lazzarotti, an attorney at Jackson Lewis, a management and employment law firm. He told Fortune in a recent interview one challenge is the lack of control employees have over managing AI notetakers: “One of the biggest issues is just trying to figure out how do we control that? How do we educate employees about it? And how do we make sure we’re not falling into a trap of the unwary?”
Still, there’s a fast-growing market for AI notetaking services. The global market size is expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2033 from $450 million in 2023, growing at an annualized rate of nearly 19%, according to data from Market.us. The appeal is obvious. The tech frees up the time it takes to scribble down every thought or idea spewed during a video call, allowing workers to focus on the conversation itself. A study from an AI assistant startup backs that up. The research found recorded meetings allow contributors to speak nearly as much as managers.
Despite the efficiencies and opportunities the technology affords employees, Patrick thinks companies should invest in governance around AI adoption more broadly. Her view echoes a recent Deloitte report on AI governance, which found while most firms have dedicated risk management experts, boards still lack the AI fluency needed to oversee the threats the technology poses to their organizations.
“It wouldn’t hurt to have an AI expert who understands the vulnerabilities of this burgeoning trend,” she said while speaking about the composition of company risk committees.
As for whether or not employees should continue on with AI notetakers, Patrick said workers may be better off taking notes the old-fashioned way.
“Unfortunately, your teams may have to actually type their own notes, god forbid,” she said.
