If your meetings are piling up and your notes are a mess, you’re probably looking for a tool that’ll help you wrangle the chaos. Sembly (sembly.html) is one of the better-known AI meeting assistants out there. It can churn out summaries for you, but those “out-of-the-box” summaries aren’t always a perfect fit—especially when you’ve got different stakeholders to answer to. This guide is for anyone who wants to get more out of Sembly than just generic bullet points: you need summaries that actually work for your audience, whether that’s your team or your clients.
Let’s break down how to actually customize Sembly’s summaries, what’s worth your time, and what’s basically smoke and mirrors.
Why Bother Customizing Sembly Summaries?
Before you dive into settings and templates, ask yourself: why do you need customized summaries in the first place?
- Internal stakeholders (your team, your boss, project partners) want the nitty-gritty: next steps, blockers, what needs fixing, and who’s on the hook.
- External stakeholders (clients, vendors, execs) want high-level takeaways, action items that relate to them, and maybe a few highlights—no messy internal debates or office politics.
If you just send everyone the same AI-generated summary, you’ll either bore them or give away things they shouldn’t see. It’s worth setting up summaries that actually help people do their jobs (and make you look organized).
Step 1: Understand What Sembly Actually Lets You Customize
Let’s be real: Sembly’s marketing makes it sound like you can tailor summaries any way you want. In practice, you get a few key levers:
- Summary style: Choose between concise, detailed, or action-item-focused summaries.
- Highlight selection: Pick which parts of the meeting transcript are included.
- Custom tags or labels: Flag sections for specific people or topics.
- Manual editing: Tweak the AI’s output before sharing.
- Sharing controls: Decide who gets access to what.
There’s no magic button for “make this perfect for my client,” but you can get close if you know what you’re doing.
Step 2: Set Up Sembly for Different Stakeholder Types
A. Create Meeting Templates (If Available)
Sembly sometimes rolls out “meeting templates” or lets you save summary preferences. If you’ve got this feature:
- Create one template for internal meetings: Include detailed action items, decisions, unresolved issues, and owner assignments.
- Create another for external meetings: Focus on outcomes, agreed deliverables, and any client-specific notes.
Pro tip: Don’t trust that templates will catch every nuance. Use them as a starting point, not the finished product.
B. Use Tags and Labels for Easy Filtering
Some Sembly plans let you tag moments during meetings (“Action Item,” “Question,” “Risk,” etc.):
- During the call: Tag live if you can multitask. Otherwise, do a quick pass right after.
- After the call: Scan the transcript and tag key moments for each audience.
This makes it much easier to pull the right stuff into each summary type.
Step 3: Customize Summary Styles for Internal vs. External Audiences
Internal Stakeholders: Go Deep, But Stay Focused
Your team cares about:
- What they need to do next
- What’s blocked or at risk
- Who owns what
- Any follow-ups or open questions
How to tweak Sembly's summary:
- Select the “Detailed” or “Action Items” mode.
- Manually add or clarify owner names and deadlines.
- Remove fluff (long-winded AI text, obvious context everyone knows).
- Add a “Blockers” or “Risks” section if Sembly doesn’t catch it.
Example internal summary:
- Decisions: Launch postponed until QA completes.
- Action Items:
- Sarah to fix login bug by Friday
- Alex to update client deck
- Blockers: Waiting for API from vendor
- Follow-ups: Schedule design review next week
External Stakeholders: Keep It High-Level and Professional
Clients don’t want your internal debates or drama. They care about:
- Progress (“What did you finish for me?”)
- Commitments (“What are you doing next?”)
- Anything that affects them (“Will you miss a deadline?”)
How to tweak Sembly’s summary:
- Use the “Concise” or “Client” mode, if available.
- Strip out internal chatter or problems they don’t need to know about.
- Focus on completed deliverables and next steps.
- Add a short intro or summary paragraph in plain English (don’t just forward the AI output).
Example external summary:
- The team completed the login update and will deliver the new build by Friday.
- Next up: update the client deck for review.
- No major risks identified at this time.
Pro tip: Always read through the summary before sending it. Sembly’s AI can misunderstand context or names, and you don’t want to accidentally send internal gripes to a client.
Step 4: Edit and Polish Summaries Before Sharing
No AI summary is perfect. Here’s what to do before you hit send:
- Skim for errors: Sembly sometimes gets names, dates, or context wrong. Fix those.
- Cut irrelevant content: If it doesn’t help your audience, cut it.
- Fix tone: AI can sound weirdly formal or robotic. Rephrase as needed.
- Double-check confidentiality: Make sure nothing sensitive slips into an external summary.
What’s not worth your time: Don’t try to rewrite the whole summary from scratch. If you’re spending more than 5-10 minutes editing, something’s off with your template or tags.
Step 5: Share Summaries the Right Way
Sembly gives you a few sharing options:
- Email: Built-in, but don’t just click “send” without checking.
- Direct link: Useful for stakeholders who use Sembly, but not everyone wants another login.
- Download and attach: Gives you more control over formatting (and you can PDF it if you need an official look).
- Copy and paste: Sometimes the old ways are best, especially if you’re adding a personal note.
Pro tip: For external audiences, always add a short personal intro above the summary (“Hi Jane, here are the key takeaways from today’s meeting…”). It looks more professional and less like you’re just forwarding a bot’s homework.
Step 6: Get Feedback and Iterate
Don’t assume you got it right the first time. Ask your team or clients:
- Was the summary clear and useful?
- Did it include the right level of detail?
- Is anything missing or too much?
Tweak your templates, tags, and editing habits based on what you hear. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches by making small adjustments early.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What Works
- Using tags and templates to speed up summary creation.
- Editing summaries for each audience, not just forwarding the raw AI output.
- Focusing on actions, decisions, and next steps.
What Doesn’t
- Blindly trusting the AI. It’ll miss context, confuse names, and sometimes invent details.
- Over-customizing. If you’re spending half an hour on every summary, the tool’s not saving you time.
What to Ignore
- Fancy formatting or long-winded “insights” the AI sometimes adds. Most people want clear, scannable bullets.
- Gimmicky features that promise “instant alignment” or “deep insights” with no real control.
Keep It Simple and Keep Improving
Customizing Sembly summaries isn’t about making them perfect—it’s about making them useful. Start with clear templates, tag key moments, and edit ruthlessly. Don’t stress about every little detail; just make sure the right people get what they need, and keep refining your process as you go. The goal is fewer headaches and more clarity for everyone—nothing more, nothing less.