Use Zoom AI to Capture Contractor Meeting Notes

What This Does

Zoom's meeting summary automatically summarizes your project kick-off meetings, contractor walk-throughs, and vendor reviews. capturing action items, decisions, and follow-ups so you don't spend 30 minutes writing meeting notes after every contractor call.

Before You Start

• You have Zoom Workplace on an eligible paid plan, which includes meeting summary
• Your Zoom admin has turned on the meeting summary controls (they live in the AI section of Settings)
• Meeting participants know the call may be summarized (good practice; required in some states)

Steps

1. Start the meeting summary when your meeting begins

When you're the host, hover over the AI icon in the meeting toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Select the Meeting summary checkbox, then click Start Zoom AI. You'll see a small indicator that it's active. Zoom used to call this "AI Companion" and dropped that name in 2026, so older help articles and colleagues may still use the old term.

2. Run your meeting as normal

Conduct your contractor kick-off, project walk-through, or vendor review normally. Zoom transcribes and analyzes the conversation in the background.

3. Get the summary after the meeting

Within a few minutes of ending the meeting, Zoom emails you the meeting summary. It includes:

• Meeting overview
• Key topics discussed
• Action items with owner names
• Next steps

Find it in your Zoom web portal under Recordings & Transcripts.

4. Edit and use the summary

Review the summary for accuracy, it may misattribute statements or miss technical FM terms. Edit the action items to ensure each has a specific owner and due date. Then send to the contractor and your project file as the official meeting record.

Real Example

Scenario: You have a 60-minute project kick-off call with the HVAC contractor for the annual chiller maintenance. You discuss scope, scheduling, system access requirements, and documentation deliverables.

What happens: After the call, Zoom emails you a summary capturing: the scope discussed, the agreed-upon service date (March 15), that the contractor needs 24-hour access to the mechanical room, that you'll email the equipment specs by Friday, and that they'll deliver the service report within 3 business days.

What you avoid: 30 minutes of writing meeting notes; missed commitments from the contractor; undocumented verbal agreements.

Tips

• Start the summary immediately when the meeting opens. pre-meeting small talk sometimes includes important context
• For project meetings with contractors, the action item list is the most valuable output. review it carefully and add due dates for any that are missing
• Keep your meeting summaries in a project folder. they become a valuable documentation trail when contractors dispute what was agreed

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