An AI assistant that records and summarises your meetings or consultations: what should you check?
These tools save time, but they record voices, names and sometimes health data. Before switching them on, you need to inform every participant and get the patient's agreement in a consultation, know where the recordings are stored and for how long, and forbid the provider from reusing them. As for the summary, always check it: the AI can make up sentences.
The scenario in brief
Example, made up for illustration. In a fictional twelve-person accounting firm, an employee installs a free note-taking assistant he found online. He links it to his calendar so he will ‘never miss a decision again’. From the next day, the assistant automatically joins all his video calls, including a meeting with a client who talks about his tax situation and his divorce.
At the end of the meeting, the summary is emailed to every participant. In it, the client finds an internal remark the team had exchanged before he joined. The full recording, meanwhile, is kept on the employee's personal account, with a provider whose terms nobody at the firm has read. Nothing malicious, and yet three doors have been left open: people were not properly informed, sharing was not controlled, and storage is out of control.
The point is not to give up these tools. A good meeting summary saves time, and in a healthcare practice, an assistant that drafts the consultation notes can give the clinician back a few minutes per patient. The point is to use them knowing what they do, and to tell the people being recorded.
What a note-taking assistant actually does
Behind the word ‘summary’, there are several separate operations. Each one raises its own questions:
- It records each participant's voice, sometimes the video and the shared screen too.
- It transcribes: software turns speech into text, word for word.
- It summarises: a conversational AI condenses that text into decisions, tasks and key points.
- It stores the recording, the transcript and the summary, often in the provider's data centre, not on your premises.
- It shares: many tools send the summary to all invitees, by default.
- It may reuse the content to improve its own service, depending on its terms and your settings.
The Data Protection Authority (the Belgian regulator, APD/GBA) makes the point in its April 2026 brochure on AI: settings related to chat history, AI training or automatic cloud backups are ‘often enabled by default’. So you need to go and check them, one by one.
What the rules say in Belgium
Two sets of rules overlap: the one on recording conversations, and the one on personal data protection (the GDPR, the European regulation that governs how information about people is used).
On recording, the consumer organisation Test-Achats (in French) sums up the Belgian principle: recording a conversation you take part in is generally legal; what is forbidden is recording a conversation between other people without taking part in it. Watch out for the trap: an assistant that joins a meeting on its own when you are not there, or keeps recording after you have left, falls outside that framework.
On personal data, being allowed to record does not exempt you from anything. Voices, what people say and their names are personal data. The APD points out that the organisation processing them must inform people clearly: who is processing the data, why, how long it is kept, and what their rights are. And stricter protection applies to health data.
| Situation | What is expected | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Internal team meeting | Inform colleagues, a written rule everyone knows | Announce the recording at the start of the meeting |
| Meeting with a client or supplier | Clear information before starting the tool | Ask for agreement, and switch off if the person says no |
| HR interview, appraisal, dispute | Sensitive situation, unequal balance of power | Do not record by default |
| Patient consultation | Health data, agreement of patient and clinician | Ask every time, offer an alternative |
| Meeting you are not in | Outside the participant framework | Stop the assistant from joining on its own |
Healthcare practices: a consultation is not a meeting
In a medical, dental or allied health practice, a recording captures health data, protected by professional secrecy. In September 2023, the National Council of the Order of Physicians (in French) gave its opinion on a patient who wants to record their consultation: the care relationship rests on mutual trust, and ‘both parties to the relationship of trust must give their agreement’ to the recording. The principle applies all the more when it is the practice that records with an AI assistant.
The Order adds a common-sense remark that also holds for an AI assistant: the presence of a microphone can make the consultation ‘less spontaneous and more artificial’. A patient who hesitates to mention something intimate because they know they are being recorded: that is medical information lost.
In practice, for a healthcare practice, this means:
- Ask every patient, at every consultation, and note their answer in the record.
- Respect a refusal without discussion: the clinician goes back to taking notes by hand, and the consultation goes ahead as normal.
- Display the information in the waiting room and in the consulting room: what is recorded, why, and for how long.
- Check every report before it goes into the record: the clinician signs it, not the tool.
- Only use a tool chosen by the practice, under contract, never a free app installed on a personal phone.
The real risks, and how to close them off
| Risk | What can happen | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Storage out of control | Recordings on a personal account or a server outside Europe | A tool chosen by the business, a contract, data hosted in Europe |
| Reuse by the provider | Your meetings are used to train its AI | Switch the option off, and put it in the contract |
| Summary sent to everyone | An internal remark or a confidential figure ends up with the client | Summary sent to the organiser only, checked before sharing |
| Assistant joining on its own | It records a meeting you are not in | Turn off the automatic calendar connection |
| Endless retention | Years of meetings on a single account, exposed if it is hacked | Short retention period, automatic deletion |
| Transcription error | A made-up word or a wrong figure becomes ‘the decision’ | Human review before any use |
The last point is not theoretical. A university study published in 2024 analysed more than 13,000 audio clips (some from people with speech disorders) run through a widely used transcription tool: about 1% of the transcripts contained entire sentences that had never been spoken, and 38% of these inventions included harmful content. The tool may have improved since, but the lesson stands: a transcript is a draft, not official minutes.
Finally, an account holding hundreds of hours of meetings is a prime target. If the mailbox or the assistant's account is hacked, the whole history of your conversations goes with it. Multi-factor authentication (a code on your phone on top of the password) is therefore essential on these accounts.
Questions to ask before choosing a tool
Before you sign, put these questions to the provider in writing. A vague answer is already an answer.
- Where are the recordings, transcripts and summaries stored: in which country, with which hosting provider?
- Is the content used to train or improve your AI? Can we forbid it in the contract?
- How long is it kept, and can we set up automatic deletion?
- Who at your company can listen to a recording, and in what cases?
- Do you offer a data processing agreement (the agreement the GDPR requires with a provider that processes data on your behalf)?
- Can we block the automatic sending of the summary and automatic joining of meetings?
What to do on Monday morning
- Take stock: ask the team, without blame, which note-taking assistants or extensions are already installed.
- Choose a single tool for the organisation, under contract, and remove the others.
- Turn off the risky settings: automatic calendar connection, summary sent to everyone, reuse of content.
- Set a short retention period and turn on automatic deletion.
- Write the rule on one page: which meetings may be recorded, which never (HR, health, disputes), and how people are informed.
- Prepare the opening sentence (see below) and, if you are a practice, the notice for the waiting room.
The sentence to say at the start of a meeting
Simple and honest, it covers most situations: ‘To take notes, I'd like to use an assistant that records and summarises our conversation. The recording is kept for [period] and the summary stays with us. Are you happy with that? If not, I'll take notes by hand.’ If a participant says no, switch it off, without insisting.
Used this way, a note-taking assistant stays what it should be: a time-saver, not an open door onto your conversations, or those of your clients or patients.
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Frequently asked questions
Am I allowed to record a meeting with an AI assistant?
In Belgium, recording a conversation you take part in is generally legal. But the GDPR requires you to inform people clearly: who is recording, why, for how long, and what their rights are. In practice, announce the recording at the start of the meeting and switch the tool off if anyone says no.
Can I use an AI assistant during a consultation?
Yes, provided the patient agrees. On the question of a patient recording their consultation, the National Council of the Order of Physicians considers that both parties to the relationship of trust must give their agreement. The same principle applies when it is the practice doing the recording. Ask at every consultation, note the answer, respect a refusal and always check the report before it goes into the record.
Is the AI-generated summary reliable?
Not entirely. A 2024 university study showed that about 1% of transcripts from a widely used tool contained sentences that were never spoken. Treat the summary as a draft: someone who was at the meeting checks it before it is sent or any decision is taken.
Where are the recordings stored?
Often with the tool's provider, sometimes outside Europe, and sometimes on the user's personal account. Choose a tool under contract with the business, hosted in Europe, with a short retention period and a ban on reusing your content to train the AI.
Can a participant ask to get a copy of the recording or have it deleted?
Yes. The GDPR gives people a right of access and, in some cases, a right to erasure. The APD points out that the organisation must respond within one month, which can be extended by two months where justified. So know where every recording is, so that you can respond.