Most of us have done it. The meeting starts in two minutes, you open the invite for the first time, and you spend the opening ten minutes working out what it’s about while everyone else is already talking. It’s not that you don’t care. It’s that the day ran away and prep felt like a luxury.
These days I give the meetings that matter ten minutes with AI beforehand. Not to write a script, but to turn up knowing why I’m there and what I want out of it. Here’s how.
Step 1: Gather what you’ve already got
Grab the invite, the agenda if there is one, and any notes or emails from the last time this group met. Keep it rough. Before anything goes into a chat, take out names of clients, figures and anything confidential. For work meetings, only use AI tools your company has approved.
Step 2: Work out what the meeting is really for
Paste it in and use this prompt:
“Here’s an invite and some background for a meeting I’m going to. In one sentence, what is this meeting actually for? What decision or outcome is it most likely meant to produce?”
Invites are often vague. Getting a one-line purpose up front tells you where to focus.
Step 3: Think about the other people in the room
Next prompt:
“Based on this, what are the other people likely to want from me? What questions might they ask, and what might they push back on?”
This is the step that helps most for me. It moves you from thinking about your own list to thinking about what everyone else needs, which is usually where meetings go well or badly.
Step 4: Get two good questions and one thing to prepare
“Suggest two questions I could ask that would move this forward, and one thing I should have ready before I walk in.”
Two questions is plenty. One thing to prepare is realistic in ten minutes. That might be a number, a short update or a decision you need to have made.
Step 5: Write down the one outcome you want
Finish with one line in your own words: “I want to leave with…” A date agreed. A yes on the budget. A clear owner for the next step. If you can’t name an outcome, it’s worth asking whether you need to be there, or whether a short message would do.
Where AI stops
AI doesn’t know the history between people, the politics or what was said in the corridor last week. Treat its suggestions as a starting point and use your own judgement on what to say and how. Check any facts or figures against the real documents, not the chat. And keep anything confidential out of tools that aren’t approved for it.
Quick questions
Which meetings are worth ten minutes of prep?
The ones where a decision gets made, you're presenting, or you need something from someone. For a regular catch-up, a quick look at last time's notes is usually enough.
Is it safe to paste a meeting invite into AI?
Take out client names, figures and anything confidential first. For work meetings, only use AI tools your company has approved.
What if AI gets the purpose of the meeting wrong?
It only knows what you give it. If its one-line summary looks off, that's useful too: it might mean the invite is unclear, so ask the organiser before you go in.