In one strategy meeting that stretched on for over an hour, the room closed with a sense of relief. A major investment decision had been debated from every angle, and nods around the table suggested alignment had finally been achieved. Yet weeks later, progress had stalled. When the team regrouped, it became clear that each participant had left with a different interpretation of what had been agreed. What should have been a decisive moment dissolved into confusion, forcing the group back into another round of discussion, rehashing points that should have been settled the first time.
This scenario is all too familiar. For decades, meetings have been seen as the cornerstone of collaboration, where teams exchange ideas, align priorities, and make decisions. Yet in practice, the way meetings dominate the modern workplace has become more of a paradox, employees are spending more time in them than ever before, but productivity is not keeping pace.
Recent research highlights the scale of the issue. According to Harvard Business Review, up to one-third of meetings are unnecessary, and 68% of employees report not having enough uninterrupted focus time because of inefficient meeting practices. What was once designed as a vehicle for efficiency is now often a drain on resource. The global financial impact is measured in the hundreds of billions annually, a burden acutely felt in the UK, where productivity growth remains stubbornly low.
This phenomenon, widely described as meeting inflation, is symptomatic of modern workplace culture. Meetings consume a disproportionate share of the working week, yet their measurable output is inconsistent at best. For employees, the result is fragmented workdays, reduced capacity for deep work and rising fatigue. For organisations, the implications are both financial and cultural.
Meeting inefficiency and employee well-being
The consequences of meeting inflation extend well beyond productivity. Studies show that meetings are ineffective 72% of the time, a figure that has increased since the pandemic. Employees report repetitive conversations, unclear agendas and poor follow-through, in terms of clear meeting notes and action points, as common frustrations.
This inefficiency directly undermines work output. Constant interruptions and poorly structured meetings prevent employees from completing high-value tasks, slowing project progress and diminishing results. Over time, the cumulative effect is a tangible drop in productivity and the quality of deliverables.
For organisations, the impact is equally stark. A fatigued workforce is less innovative, less resilient, and more prone to disengagement. Addressing meeting inefficiency is therefore not only a matter of operational efficiency but also of employee experience and retention.
The overlooked role of notetaking
One critical but often overlooked contributor to meeting inefficiency is manual note taking. Participants are expected to both engage in discussion and capture key points, leading to divided attention and inconsistent records. As a result, decisions are left undocumented, action items are poorly defined, and critical insights are lost.
The fragmentation caused by manual notetaking is compounded by hybrid working. Even as employees return to offices, many continue to join meetings virtually to benefit from access to recordings, transcripts, and summaries. This reflects a broader demand for reliable knowledge capture, one that goes beyond traditional notetaking and acknowledges the importance of structured searchable outputs.
The challenge of multi-modal outputs
Modern meetings are not confined to spoken dialogue. They generate a wide range of outputs: diagrams on whiteboards, annotated slide decks, reference documents, chat messages, and hastily written notes. Each of these contains valuable information, but collectively they overwhelm employees who must process and synthesise them.
This multi-modal input challenge creates new risks. Without integration, information becomes siloed, insights are lost, and duplication occurs. Employees spend excessive time revisiting materials or clarifying points that should have been captured once. The inability to consolidate and contextualise diverse inputs is a key reason why meetings fail to deliver lasting value.
From conversations to decisions
The true measure of a meeting lies not in the length of discussion but in the clarity of outcomes. Yet too often, meetings conclude without definite records of what was agreed, who is accountable, and why certain decisions were made. This lack of rigour undermines accountability and slows execution.
Reframing meeting outputs as knowledge assets addresses this challenge. Decisions, responsibilities and supporting context can be captured as structured information, creating continuity even when staff change roles or leave the organisation. This approach ensures that meetings contribute to organisational memory rather than disappearing into fragmented notes and recollections.
Enhancing efficiency through automation
The scale and complexity of modern collaboration require a shift away from manual processes. Just as manufacturing embraced automation to eliminate repetitive tasks and increase precision, businesses must now modernise how they capture and manage meeting outputs.
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a clear path forward. AI-powered notetaking and transcription tools can capture dialogue in real time with accuracy, extract decisions and action items automatically and consolidate multi-modal inputs such as presentations, diagrams and shared documents. They can do all of this and generate structured shareable insights that serve a single course of action.
By automating these tasks, organisations reduce the cognitive load on employees and free them to focus on higher-value contributions. Meetings are no longer a drain on attention but engines of structured knowledge.
Future proofing collaboration
Failure to address the meeting paradox risks entrenching inefficiency and undermining competitiveness. Organisations that continue to rely on fragmented, manual approaches will struggle with knowledge loss, duplication, and employee disengagement.
Future-proofing collaboration requires investment in technologies that unify meeting inputs, automate capture, and transform conversations into durable knowledge assets. The benefits consist of improved employee well-being through reduced meeting fatigue, greater accountability and clarity in decision making, stronger organisational resilience as knowledge is preserved beyond individuals and enhanced productivity as meetings deliver actionable outputs rather than wasted time.
By recognising the shortcomings of current practices, addressing the challenge of multi-modal inputs, and embracing AI-driven automation, organisations can reclaim lost productivity and restore the value of meetings. The priority must shift from conversations to decisions, capturing knowledge in ways that are structured, transparent and actionable.
Meetings need not remain a drain on performance. With the right investment, they can be repositioned as catalysts for collaboration, innovation and long-term value creation. In today’s environment, where information flows across multiple channels and formats, the case for automation is no longer optional, it is essential for sustaining competitiveness and resilience.
