Unproductive meetings often cost time, energy and momentum that public servants can’t afford. Many meetings feel longer than necessary or unclear in purpose and next steps.

This cheat sheet offers practical AI prompts to support every stage of a meeting — from planning and facilitation to follow-up — so your time leads to clearer decisions, stronger collaboration and meaningful action. These prompts work with any AI tool (ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini or whatever your organisation provides).

These prompts can be used in isolation or in combination with one another to generate as many or as few resources before and after your meeting as you need. Tip: Save your prompts as a template.

This resource was shared as part of Apolitical's event AI Skills Lab: AI for Meeting Management.

For more events and courses, visit apolitical.co/events.

1. Before the meeting

Set the context and create an agenda:

I'm organising a [length]-minute [online/in-person/hybrid] meeting about [topic].

Context:

Meeting objectives:

Attendees, their roles and concerns in this conversation:

  • [Name, role, concern]
  • [Name, role, concern]
  • [Name, role, concern]

The meeting needs to cover:

  • [Topic 1]
  • [Topic 2]
  • [Topic 3]

Please draft an agenda with suggested time allocations for each item. Include a brief welcome and wrap-up.

Prepare briefing notes:

I'm sharing a background document for an upcoming meeting below. Based on this, please summarise the 3–5 key points that the following stakeholders need to know before our meeting on [topic]:

  • [Name, role, concern]
  • [Name, role, concern]
  • [Name, role, concern]

[Paste/ upload the document or key excerpts here]

Generate discussion questions:

We're holding a meeting about [topic] with the following objectives:

  • [Objective 1]
  • [Objective 2]

Attendees include people from [list departments/roles]. Please suggest 5–8 discussion questions that will help us cover all objectives and surface any risks or disagreements early.

Draft a pre-meeting email:

Please draft a short email inviting the following people to a meeting:

Topic: [topic]
Date/time: [date and time]
Duration: [length]
Platform: [Zoom/Teams/in-person]

Key points to mention:

  • [What to prepare]
  • [What to bring or read in advance]

Please keep the tone professional but friendly.

Prepare your post-meeting prompt (we recommend writing this BEFORE the meeting):

I'm about to paste [my rough notes/ a transcript] from a [length]-minute meeting about [topic].

Attendees were:

  • [Name, role]
  • [Name, role]

Please organise my notes into:

  1. Summary of discussion (3–5 sentences)
  2. Key decisions made
  3. Action items — for each, include: the action, the owner and the deadline
  4. Open questions or parking lot items, including any areas that could benefit from more discussion or airtime (particularly those that open us up to risk)
  5. Date/time of next meeting (if agreed)

Separate NEW actions from this meeting from any pre-existing actions that were discussed and use clear, professional language. Keep it concise.

3. After the meeting

Separate new actions from existing ones

Below are two things:

  1. Our existing action tracker from previous meetings:
    [Paste existing tracker]

  2. My notes from today's meeting:
    [Paste notes]

Please update the action tracker with any new items from today's meeting. Mark new items clearly. Flag any actions that appear to be complete or incomplete based on today's discussion.

Draft a follow-up email:

Based on the meeting summary below, please draft a follow-up email to all attendees.

[Paste meeting summary]

Include:

  • A thank-you opening
  • Key decisions
  • Action items with owners and deadlines
  • Date of next meeting
  • A reminder to flag any corrections

Keep the tone professional but warm. Keep it under 200 words.

Create a searchable meeting record:

Please format this meeting summary as a structured record using this template:

Meeting Title: [topic]
Date: [date]
Attendees: [names]
Duration: [length]

Decisions:

  • [decision 1]
  • [decision 2]

Actions:

ActionOwnerDeadlineStatus
.........Open

Notes: [brief summary]

Next meeting: [date if known]

Tip: Save these records in a shared folder with consistent naming (e.g. "2026-04-28 — Flexible Working Policy — Meeting 3"). Over time, you'll build a searchable archive.

Bonus: Meta-prompting:

Meta-prompting is a technique you can use to verify that an AI tool has everything it needs to create the highest quality output.

Before I finalise my preparation, I'd like you to act as a critical friend. Based on everything you know about this meeting:

  • Is there anything missing from the agenda that we should cover?
  • Are there any risks or sensitivities I haven't considered?
  • Is there any preparation I've overlooked — for myself or for the attendees?
  • What's the most likely thing to go wrong in this meeting and how should I prepare for it?

Tips for better results:

  1. Be specific. Include names, roles, objectives and background. Vague prompts give vague results.
  2. Always review. AI output is a first draft. Check names, facts and action owners before sharing.
  3. Save your best prompts. Build a personal library of templates that work for your meetings.
  4. Start with one meeting. Don’t try to change everything at once. Pick a recurring meeting and try the before-and-after workflow.
  5. Iterate. Your prompts will get better over time. If something doesn’t work, adjust the prompt rather than abandoning the approach.
  6. Know when not to use AI. Sensitive HR matters, legally privileged discussions, classified content, or meetings where attendees haven’t consented — use your judgement.

Which of these prompts did you find most useful? Share your thoughts in the comments below and visit the AI in Government Community for more tips and discussion.

Make sure to share your own thoughts with the author by leaving a comment below