Our brains weren’t built to store infinite meeting takeaways—but AI was.
Sure, Zoom has a built-in AI note-taking feature but it may not capture all the nuances you need. If you’re tired of scrambling for notes or missing key details, it’s time to level up. In this blog, we’ll show you how to automate your Zoom meeting notes and why ClickUp might be the smarter bet.
How to Take Notes During Zoom Meetings Automatically
⏰60-Second Summary
Zoom Notes uses AI to transcribe meetings, capture key points, and highlight action items so you stay organized
To activate it:
- Turn on AI Companion in your Zoom settings
- Enable Meeting Summary and Notes, adjusting permissions as needed
- Start your Zoom meeting and click AI Companion in the bottom panel
- Review notes in real time or find them later in Recorded or Previous Meetings
- Edit and share notes with your team
Limitations of Zoom Notes: Limited formatting, collaboration, offline access, integrations, and note retention
How ClickUp can help:
- Offers meeting templates and Zoom integration for a smoother workflow
- Joins meetings, records conversations, and creates structured, editable notes
- Uses ClickUp Docs for rich formatting and real-time collaboration
- Summarizes long ClickUp Chat discussions automatically
- Works with ClickUp Brain to set deadlines, assign members, and send notifications
- Offers meeting templates and Zoom integration for a smoother workflow
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow to Take Meeting Notes in Zoom Automatically
Zoom Notes makes it easy to jot down ideas, track action items, and keep meeting minutes without switching tabs
If the host has enabled ‘Notes’ in the meeting controls, you can access a shared text editor where everyone can type in real time.
Need to highlight something important? Format your text with bold, italics, or lists. You don’t need to hit ‘Save’ because Zoom does it automatically.
Once the meeting’s over, your notes stay put. Download it as a text file or share them via email to keep everyone on the same page.
💡Pro Tip: Save yourself the trouble of jotting everything down by using video transcripts. Just turn on Live Transcripts in Zoom by clicking the button next to Record. This adds subtitles for all speakers, making it easy to pull key details later. When it’s time to write your notes, you’ll have everything right in front of you.
But if you’re looking for more than just basic notes, Zoom’s AI Companion has your back. It can generate summaries, track action items, and even let you embed media. Here’s how to use it to take meeting notes automatically:
1. Enable AI Companion access
Before you start, make sure the AI Companion is turned on. If you’re part of an organization, your Zoom account admin probably controls this. If you have a personal account, check if your Zoom plan includes it.
Once it’s enabled, open Zoom, click your profile picture, head to Settings > AI Companion, and flip the switch.
💡 Pro Tip: Zoom’s AI Companion can also summarize long threads of messages from your Zoom chat window, saving you hours of reading them to understand the whole thing.
2. Toggle on meeting summary and notes
Now, head to the AI Companion settings and toggle on Meeting Summary or Meeting Notes—this tells Zoom to start taking notes while you talk.
If you don’t want to enable this for every meeting manually, set it to auto-start for recurring calls through the Zoom web portal. For more sensitive discussions, like one-on-ones, you can adjust settings to prevent AI from generating summaries.
Here’s a Zoom tip for you: Add pronouns to your Zoom profile, and AI Companion will use them when mentioning you in summaries.
3. Start your Zoom meeting and activate AI Companion
Launch your next meeting as you normally would. You can schedule it ahead of time or start one right away. Make sure you have upgraded to the latest version of Zoom to use all AI Companion features.
During your meeting, find the AI Companion button in the toolbar where you see mute, video, and share screen options. Click it to open the AI Companion panel.
4. Access and review notes during (or after) the meeting
AI Companion updates your notes live during the meeting, but you can also check them later when you need a refresher. You’ll find them in:
- Your email (if you’ve enabled automatic summaries)
- The Zoom web portal
- The Recorded Meetings section in the Zoom app
- The Previous Meetings tab
5. Edit and share the final notes
Once the meeting’s over, open the notes, skim through them, make any necessary tweaks, and share them with your team. You can do this within Zoom or export them for further editing elsewhere.
Summarize this article for me pleaseLimitations of Using Zoom for Meetings
Once you start using Zoom’s AI Companion, you’ll notice it’s a little… well, limited. Here’s where it falls short:
- Plain text only: No tables, images, or code blocks; just basic formatting. If you’re used to detailed project plans or code snippets, Zoom Notes will feel a bit like writing on a napkin
- No offline access: If you’re offline, so are your notes. Unlike other apps that work without the internet, Zoom keeps everything locked away until you’re back online
- Notes don’t last forever: Zoom might delete them after 30 to 180 days depending on your plan. If you don’t save them elsewhere, they could disappear before you even realize i
- Limited collaboration: You can edit notes live, but once the meeting ends, that’s it—no comments, version history, or tracking changes. Not ideal if your team works across time zones
- No integrations: Want to send action items straight to your task manager? You’ll have to copy-paste everything manually, which isn’t exactly foolproof
📮 ClickUp Insight: ClickUp found that 47% of meetings last an hour or more. But is all that time truly necessary? The reason for our skepticism? Only 12% of our respondents rate their meetings as highly effective.
Tracking metrics like action items generated, follow-through rates, and outcomes can reveal whether longer meetings truly deliver value.
ClickUp’s meeting management tools can help here! Easily capture action items during discussions with AI Notetaker, convert them into trackable tasks, and monitor completion rates—all in one unified workspace. See which meetings actually drive results and which ones are just stealing time from your team’s day!
Summarize this article for me pleaseTake Meeting Notes Effectively with ClickUp
Let’s be real—Zoom’s AI Companion is fine… if you like plain, forgettable meeting agendas and notes that vanish into the void after a few weeks. But if you actually want to use your meeting notes for something productive, it’s time to upgrade.
ClickUp gives you a note-taking experience that actually works for you. It’s your meeting memory, project manager, and team assistant all in one. No more lost action items, scattered notes, or working with five different apps just to stay aligned.
Let’s see how.
Capture every meeting detail with ClickUp’s AI Notetaker
Ever finished a meeting and thought, wait, what did we just decide? ClickUp AI Notetaker makes sure that never happens again.
It joins your virtual meetings, records everything, and automatically organizes your notes; complete with key takeaways, action items, and speaker attributions. You get a detailed, structured summary without lifting a finger.
Here’s what this AI note-taking tool does for you:
- Auto-transcribes meetings by listening to your meeting, turning speech into text, and organizing notes by speaker and time
- Generates summaries automatically after each meeting with key points, decisions, and action items, so you don’t have to read the full transcript
- Identifies and tracks action items like asks and follow-ups mentioned in the meeting and highlights them
- Saves data in a searchable database that lets you find past discussions through keywords
🎉 Fun fact: Zoom treats your notes like a limited-time offer; here today, gone in a few months. But ClickUp? It’s got a ‘never expiring’ policy. Your notes, transcripts, and action items stick around forever. And with unlimited storage on all paid plans, you’ll never have to play the ‘Which file do I delete?’ game again.
Use ClickUp Docs to take comprehensive, well-formatted notes
Sometimes, a basic transcript isn’t enough. You need a fully structured, interactive doc.
With ClickUp Docs, you can:
📌 Create detailed meeting notes with rich formatting, images, tables, and checklists
📌 Embed project plans, sprints, and roadmaps directly inside your meeting notes
📌 Collaborate in real time—add comments, tag teammates, and track changes
📌 Organize everything by project or department so you never lose context
And because ClickUp stores every version of your document, you can always roll back changes if needed. No more ‘Wait, who deleted that important note?’
Try This 👉 Share meeting notes straight into ClickUp Chat, tag your team, and hash out key points in real time. No more switching tabs or chasing people for updates!
The AI notetaker also turns action items from meetings into trackable ClickUp Tasks with one click. You can set due dates, assign team members, and link tasks to meeting notes for full context.
Power-up the note-taking process with ClickUp Brain
Zoom’s AI can transcribe a meeting. ClickUp Brain can understand it. Here’s how you can make the most of it:
1️⃣ Get instant summaries for any meeting
Instead of reading through a full transcript, ask ClickUp Brain:
- “What were the top three action items from today’s marketing meeting?”
- “Summarize the product roadmap discussion in one paragraph.”
It’ll give you clear, structured notes, which are ideal for catching up in seconds.
2️⃣ Automate workflows right from your notes
When decisions are made in meetings, let ClickUp Brain take the next step for you. It can:
- Start approval workflows when a decision requires sign-off
- Create tasks directly from meeting notes (e.g., “Assign website redesign to Mike, due Friday.”)
- Remind teams about deadlines so nothing gets overlooked
💡 Try these prompts:
- “Show me who has pending action items from this call.”
- “Turn all follow-ups from this meeting into tasks.”
- “List all deadlines mentioned in the meeting.”
You can also set up ClickUp Automations to notify meeting participants when new recordings and transcripts are available, ensuring everyone gets access to meeting materials immediately.
Get a headstart with ClickUp’s meeting templates
With a growing pile of work, it’s no surprise that we sometimes run out of time (who doesn’t?). For times like these, turn to ClickUp’s huge collection of customizable templates.
One of our top recommendations for note-taking is the ClickUp Meeting Notes Template.
Here’s why it stands out:
- Pre-formatted sections – No need to create new documents from scratch. It includes spaces for agenda items, discussion points, action items, and next steps
- Task integration – Unlike static notes, ClickUp allows you to convert key points into tasks, assign them to team members, and set due dates—all from within the template
- Real-time collaboration – Whether your team is in the same room or spread across different time zones, everyone can contribute to and edit the notes in real time
- Searchable & organized – No more scrolling endlessly through old documents. ClickUp’s tagging and folder system makes it easy to find past meeting notes instantly
However, to keep a formal record of decisions, use ClickUp’s Meeting Minutes Template. It helps you document key discussions, track action items, and hold everyone accountable.
Meetings shouldn’t feel like a black hole where ideas disappear. These templates keep everything organized. No more scrambling for notes. Just clear, structured meetings that actually lead to action.
💡Pro Tip: Need to jot down ideas before or during a meeting? ClickUp Notepad is perfect for capturing thoughts on the fly. You can easily turn these notes into tasks and add them to your meeting templates. It’s a simple way to organize your ideas without switching between tools.
Integrate ClickUp with Zoom and other tools for maximum efficiency
Using built-in integrations, you can connect ClickUp with over 1,000 third-party tools—including many AI note-taking tools and platforms like Zoom.
All you have to do is go to the App Center and browse through All Apps or pick a category from the panel on the left. For example, you’ll find Zoom in the Communication category and other similar platforms. You can also look up the tool using the search bar above.
Once you select the tool, click Connect, sign in to your account, review the permissions, and finally, choose Allow to complete the setup.
Summarize this article for me pleaseTake Your Notes the Smartest Way with ClickUp!
Great ideas can pop up anytime. While we can’t help you capture your shower thoughts, we can ensure you never lose the ones shared in your meetings.
Good meeting notes keep meetings productive and ensure nothing gets missed. Zoom’s built-in tool does the job, but if you need something more powerful, ClickUp has you covered.
With ClickUp, you can take meeting notes, summarize chat threads, and turn them into tasks instantly — no app-switching needed. Set deadlines, assign tasks, and track progress, all in one place.
Sign up for a free ClickUp account today and keep your projects and notes organized effortlessly!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
