Let’s be honest: most meeting notes end up unread, unclear, or both. If you’re sick of chasing action items or sifting through long transcripts, you’re not alone. This guide is for anyone who wants to use Avoma to get crisp, useful meeting summaries—without drowning in AI hype or extra busywork.
Below, I’ll walk you through how to actually use Avoma for meetings: from setup, to creating summaries that people actually read, all the way to sharing them without creating more noise. I’ll flag what’s worth your time and what’s just shiny distraction.
Step 1: Set Up Avoma and Connect Your Calendar
Before Avoma can do anything, you need to let it into your meeting world. That means connecting your calendar and whatever video meeting tool you use.
How to get set up:
- Sign up and log in. Pretty basic, but you’ll need a work email.
- Connect your calendar. Avoma works with Google Calendar and Outlook. This is non-negotiable if you want meetings to auto-sync.
- Link your video platform. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, or Webex—pick whatever you actually use.
Pro tip: Only link the calendars and platforms you actually use for work meetings. Don’t let Avoma crawl your personal yoga sessions or family Zooms.
What works: The integration is usually smooth. If you’re already using Google or Microsoft for everything, it’s a two-minute job.
What doesn’t: If your company has locked-down IT settings, you might need admin help. Sometimes recurring meetings get missed if you don’t invite Avoma as a participant—so double-check your invites.
Step 2: Record and Transcribe Your Meetings
Avoma’s AI can’t summarize what it can’t hear. So, you need to make sure your meetings are being recorded and transcribed.
Here’s how to make that happen:
- Auto-join: You can have Avoma automatically join all meetings with your link, or only certain ones.
- Manual join: Forgot to add Avoma? You can invite it mid-meeting by forwarding the invite or adding its email bot.
- Check your privacy settings: Make sure everyone’s okay with being recorded. (Seriously. Don’t be that person.)
What to ignore: Avoma will offer to record every meeting by default. Don’t do this unless you love clutter. Be selective—otherwise, you’ll end up with a graveyard of useless transcripts.
What works: The transcription is solid for most accents, and it’s fast—usually ready within minutes after the call ends.
What doesn’t: Heavy crosstalk and bad audio still trip up the AI. If your meetings are chaotic, don’t expect miracles.
Step 3: Generate an Initial Meeting Summary
Here’s where the magic (or the illusion of magic) happens. After your meeting, Avoma auto-generates a summary using its AI. But don’t just copy-paste it.
How to get your summary:
- Go to the meeting in Avoma’s dashboard.
- Check the “Summary” section. You’ll see a draft summary, usually broken up into key topics or sections.
- Look for action items and decisions. Avoma tries to pull these out automatically, but it’s not perfect.
Pro tips:
- Always review the summary. AI can miss nuance, sarcasm, or who owns what. Don’t trust it blindly.
- Edit for clarity. The initial summary is a starting point. Make it shorter and more direct if you want people to read it.
- Tag or assign action items. You can manually link tasks to people—worth the extra minute.
What works: Avoma does a decent job picking out big talking points and obvious decisions.
What doesn’t: Subtle context, offhand promises, and anything that relies on tone often get lost. If you care about accuracy, skim the transcript for anything critical.
Step 4: Customize and Clean Up Your Summary
AI-generated summaries are a good start, but they’re not the finish line. Here’s how to make your notes actually actionable (and not just more digital clutter):
Editing tips:
- Cut the fluff. Remove generic statements like “Team discussed project status.” Be specific: “Sarah to send revised budget by Friday.”
- Highlight action items and owners. Make sure each action has a name and a date attached. Vague notes = nothing gets done.
- Add context where needed. If a decision was made based on a specific concern or risk, jot that down.
What to ignore: Don’t waste time fixing every typo in the transcript. Focus on the summary and the action items—nobody reads full transcripts unless there’s a dispute.
Pro tip: Use bullet points and bolding for action items. The more skimmable, the better.
Example before/after:
Before:
The team talked about next steps for the website project. John mentioned timelines.After:
- John to share updated website launch timeline by next Wednesday. - Decision: Delay launch by two weeks to address feedback.
Step 5: Share the Summary (Without Spamming Everyone)
Once you’ve got a tight, actionable summary, it’s time to share it. But resist the urge to blast it out to every attendee (or worse, your whole company).
How to share with Avoma:
- Email: Avoma lets you email summaries directly to attendees or specific people.
- Slack/Teams integration: Push summaries into the right channel (not #general, please).
- Link sharing: Copy a direct link to your summary for anyone who needs it, without forcing logins.
What works: Keeping sharing targeted. Only send summaries to: - People assigned to action items - Stakeholders who need the info (not everyone who was on the call)
What doesn’t: Defaulting to “send to all.” People tune out if they get notes for meetings they barely attended.
Pro tip: If a meeting had sensitive info, double-check sharing settings before firing off a summary. Avoma lets you control privacy, but it’s easy to overlook.
Step 6: Track Action Items and Follow Up
A summary is only useful if people actually do the work. Avoma can help here, but it won’t replace your brain (or your project management tools).
How to keep action items moving:
- Assign tasks directly in Avoma. You can tag people and set deadlines, though this isn’t as robust as a full-blown task manager.
- Sync with other tools. Avoma integrates with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack. If you already live in another system, push tasks there.
- Review outcomes in the next meeting. Start with last meeting’s summary—what’s done, what’s not.
What works: Using Avoma as a source of truth for who owns what, especially if you don’t have another system in place.
What doesn’t: Relying on Avoma alone for complex project management. It’s not built for that. Think of it as a bridge between meetings and your real task tracker.
Step 7: Iterate—Don’t Settle for “AI Does It All”
AI tools like Avoma can save you tons of time, but only if you treat them as assistants, not replacements.
What to keep in mind:
- Your judgment matters. The AI is pretty good, but it misses nuance. You’ll always need to review and tweak.
- Adjust as you go. If people aren’t reading your summaries, try making them shorter or changing the format.
- Don’t automate everything. Some meetings shouldn’t be recorded or summarized—use common sense.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Keep It Useful
The whole point of using Avoma for meeting summaries is to make life easier—not to create more noise. Set up the basics, edit your summaries for humans (not just for the record), and only share what matters. If something’s not working, tweak it. Don’t get caught up in all the bells and whistles; clean, actionable notes will always beat a perfect AI transcript.
Meetings are messy. Your notes don’t have to be.