Mathew PaquetTemplate · 4 min read
The Real Yes Scripts for AI in Meetings
The words to put in the invite, say at the start and repeat for late joiners, plus the questions to ask any bot that shows up on your call.
Cisco says AI agents will soon sit in Webex meetings and act on what they hear, with most of it planned for early 2027. The bots that only listen are already here, and our habit of asking hasn't kept up.
Otter, one of the best known notetakers, faces a federal case saying its assistant recorded and transcribed people without the consent the law requires. On August 13, a judge let the core claims go forward. That's not a verdict. Otter says it's a tool used at the direction of the meeting's host.
The mistake most people make: a bot in the participant list feels like you told everyone. That's notice, and notice isn't always consent. A notetaker does three separate things, and each can come with its own rules:
A lawyer writing in Bloomberg Law suggests these habits. The tools are useful; this keeps them that way. Fill in the brackets once and reuse them.
1. Put it in the calendar invite
2. Say it at the start, in one plain sentence
3. Ask again when someone joins late
4. If anyone says no, switch it off
And don't make it awkward. Turn it off, say "no problem," and carry on.
It works in both directions. Sometimes the bot is yours, in your client's meeting. Sometimes it's theirs, in yours. A vendor's notetaker on your pricing call means a record of your numbers lives on their system, under their terms.
Notes travel. Summaries get emailed, forwarded and saved in inboxes long after the call. Microsoft Teams now spots bots from outside your company, holds them in the lobby and asks the organizer to confirm before they get in. It's on by default.
Cisco says it lets companies control what AI can access, what it can do and how it acts. That controls what the AI does for your company. It doesn't decide whether your guest agreed to be in its notes. Two different problems, so add one decision once the agent can act.
The agent can draft during the call.
Anything it sends outside the room goes to [PERSON] first.
The draft can be written while you talk. The email to the client waits for a human. Cisco hasn't said yet how an agent will show itself to guests from outside your company, so assume telling them is on you.
Some meetings shouldn't have a bot at all. They need an explicit yes, or no AI.
Before tomorrow's calls. A client's AI bot shows up in your call tomorrow. Decide now: let it in, or leave it in the lobby. Then ask it the three questions.
Tell people it's there, get a real yes, and know which rooms stay human.
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Add one line about your AI notetaker to tomorrow's calendar invite, and say it out loud at the start of the call.
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