Never Be Unprepared Again: Using AI to Prep for Any Meeting

Your calendar is packed with back-to-back meetings. You have 10 minutes to prepare for the next one, and all you have is a vague title and a 10-page document attached. Feeling stressed? You're not alone.

Effective meeting preparation is a superpower in the business world, but it's incredibly time-consuming. This guide will show you a "Meeting Prep Triage" using AI. You'll learn to generate agendas, summarize long documents, and even anticipate questions your boss might ask.

The Meeting Prep Triage: 3 Prompts for Success

Don't try to do everything at once. Use this three-prompt sequence to quickly get up to speed for any meeting, whether you're leading it or just attending.

1. The Agenda Creator: If you're leading the meeting, create a clear, logical agenda.
2. The Document Summarizer: If you're an attendee, quickly grasp the key points of any pre-read material.
3. The Question Anticipator: The secret weapon. Predict what questions will be asked so you can prepare your answers.

Stop walking into meetings cold. Start walking in as the most prepared person in the room.

Prompt 1: The Agenda Creator

For when you are the meeting host.

You are a highly organized project manager. I need to create an agenda for an upcoming meeting.

- **Meeting Topic:** [e.g., "Q4 Marketing Campaign Kick-off"]
- **Attendees:** [e.g., "Marketing Team, Sales Lead, Head of Design"]
- **Meeting Goal:** [e.g., "To align on the campaign concept and assign initial tasks."]
- **Duration:** [e.g., "60 minutes"]

Please generate a clear, timed agenda for this meeting. Include key talking points for each item.

Prompt 2: The Document Summarizer

For when you receive a long document right before a meeting.

You are a fast and accurate business analyst. I am about to enter a meeting about "[Meeting Topic]". I have no time to read the attached document.

Please read the following text and provide me with:
1.  A one-sentence summary of the entire document (The TL;DR).
2.  The 3-5 most important key takeaways or action items in bullet points.
3.  Any mention of my name or my team's responsibilities.

Here is the text:
"""
[Paste the entire text from the document, email, or article here.]
"""

Prompt 3: The Question Anticipator (The Pro Move)

This prompt shows you've thought ahead. It's perfect for preparing for a presentation or a review with senior leadership.

You are a skeptical but fair senior executive (like a CEO or department head). I am about to present the following project update to you.

Based on the information below, what are the 5 most likely questions you would ask me? Frame the questions to be challenging but constructive.

Here is my project update:
"""
[Paste your presentation summary, report, or key talking points here. For example: "This week, we launched the new landing page A/B test. The 'Blue Button' variation is currently outperforming the 'Green Button' variation by 12% in click-through rate. We plan to continue running the test for another week to ensure statistical significance."]
"""

Example AI Output for The Question Anticipator:

Based on your update, here are 5 questions I would likely ask:

1. "A 12% lift is interesting, but what is the impact on the actual conversion rate? Are more clicks leading to more sign-ups?"
2. "What's our hypothesis for why the blue button is performing better? Is it just the color, or is there a design principle at play we can apply elsewhere?"
3. "What is the total traffic volume to this test? Is 12% statistically significant yet, or is it still within the margin of error?"
4. "What are the potential risks or costs if we declare blue the winner and roll it out permanently?"
5. "Beyond this A/B test, what is the next major bottleneck you've identified in the user acquisition funnel?"

By thinking through these questions beforehand, you can prepare data-driven answers and walk into your meeting with unshakable confidence.