AI In Meetings: Treading on Sacred Human Space

Intro: The Shift From "How" to "What"

In the AI era, the key challenge isn't getting things built - it's figuring out what to build or do to begin with. More human cognitive effort will go towards ideating and planning, and less towards the ins and outs of how to bring those ideas and plans to fruition. Meetings will need to be more strategic, creative, and informed.

A Brief History: AI Everywhere

Let's take a step back and review how we got here. When ChatGPT first took off, people usually went directly to an AI product in order to access AI. You would visit the ChatGPT website and get the answers you need. Then, as developers took advantage of APIs that let them integrate AI into their own products and services, people started seeing AI in the stuff they were already familiar with using. AI came to you.

It's actually difficult now to find software that doesn't have AI in it. AI is being thoughtfully added or awkwardly shoehorned into existing products, but there are also pieces of software being built from the ground up with AI capabilities in mind. AI is now being inextricably woven into some of our most essential digital experiences - Gemini is in Gmail, AI is baked into software development or website building tools, and even our To-Do lists claim to be "AI-native".

For a while, meeting software remained untouched, sort of a rare, sacred space for human-to-human connection (albeit online) where AI was nowhere to be found. Those days are definitely over. Now, in online meetings you will see silent, note-taking AI bots from various services occupying the same squares on the grid that humans usually occupy.

In case you think I'm lamenting the situation, let me make clear that this isn't an ode to the good old days of meetings before AI, human gatherings in the Garden of Eden before tech companies decided that here, too, we must eat the fruit from the alluring tree of large language models.

Instead, I think AI does have a compelling role to play in online meetings. But I don't think it will look at all how it looks now, with a bunch of disparate bots all transcribing meetings for various people.

Why AI In Meetings

Language: The Raw Material

For starters, meetings involve a lot of language, and large language models are very good at taking words and transforming and analyzing them in helpful ways. If you're of the opinion that "AI is bad" or "AI isn't getting any better", then you will disagree with much if not all of the rest of this post.

Meeting transcription and meeting notes are just the table stakes but they lay an important foundation for many other things.

We're working on systems for large companies that will flag when different teams are discussing the same topic but clearly have different understandings of it, and it will suggest meetings that should take place between people based on their shared interests and goals.

Creativity: Expanding The Possible

Creativity is increasingly important, and I think when leveraged effectively then AI can help teams be more creative. AI can broaden the range of ideation, push us in unexpected directions, and help people quickly visualize or experience their ideas.

When people come together to meet, I think there should be as little friction as possible when this question comes up: "I wonder what that would look like?"

More Teammates - Really Smart AI Agents

I've learned to approach AI with a healthy mix of skepticism and humility, and I'm happy to admit that it does most things much better than I can. In many areas it isn't even close.

Those who don't want it will be the people who really want to seem like the smartest person in the room at all times. But those who are interested in results and not ego will be happy to have AI-powered teammates at their meetings.

Beyond the Bot: AI in the Next Generation of Meetings

When I talk about AI powered teammates, I'm not talking about the silent, slightly ominous note-taking bots you see jammed into Zoom calls. I'm talking about AI agents who can talk, chat, and create. Agents who might challenge you, contribute unexpected ideas, or raise evidence from other meetings that have taken place across the company.

Imagine a large company with multiple teams working on overlapping product features. An AI agent tracks the discussions in real time and flags potential conflicts or synergies. It then auto-schedules a follow-up session with the right stakeholders.

Conclusion: The Future of Meetings with Frame

Frames are persistent, virtual, AI-powered spaces in the browser. They aren't video conferencing links that expire when the meeting is done. They are spatial workspaces where humans and AI agents collaborate, communicate, and create at any time.

At Frame, we're building the future of meetings—where AI is woven seamlessly into creative and strategic collaboration.