Plaud.ai calls for AI to fix broken meeting culture

Technology start-up Plaud.ai is urging businesses to re-examine how they run meetings, arguing that inefficient meeting culture has become a major drag on productivity and employee well-being.

Nathan Xu, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Plaud.ai, said the volume of meetings and the way information is captured inside them had reached an unsustainable level in many organisations. He described a growing disconnect between the time employees spend in meetings and the tangible outcomes that follow.

Xu said this "meeting paradox" is emerging as a structural issue inside modern workplaces, rather than a minor scheduling problem. He cited research that shows up to one-third of meetings are unnecessary and that a majority of employees say poor meeting practices cut into their focus time.

Studies referenced by Xu indicate that meetings are now ineffective 72% of the time, a proportion that he said has risen since the shift to widespread hybrid and remote working. He linked this trend to repetitive discussions, unclear agendas and weak follow-through on actions.

The financial impact is significant. Xu pointed to estimates that put the global cost of unproductive meetings in the hundreds of billions of dollars each year. He said the burden is acute in the UK, where productivity growth has remained sluggish.

He argued that meeting inflation, in which sessions multiply without corresponding gains in output, reflects deeper problems in how organisations structure collaboration and make decisions.

Productivity and fatigue

Xu said constant interruptions from lengthy or poorly run meetings block employees from completing complex tasks. He linked this disruption to slower project delivery and weaker results over time.

The cumulative effect, he said, is a clear reduction in both productivity and the quality of work. Employees report growing fatigue and frustration when meetings fail to produce clear decisions or next steps.

According to Xu, the consequences extend beyond immediate business outcomes. He said a fatigued workforce is less innovative and less resilient, and is more likely to disengage or leave.

He argued that improving meeting efficiency has become an issue for employee experience and retention, as well as for operational performance.

Manual notes under pressure

Xu identified manual notetaking as a persistent weak point in meeting practice. He said staff are often expected to participate fully in discussions and record key points at the same time, which divides attention and produces inconsistent records.

Decisions sometimes remain undocumented as a result. Action items can be vague, and important insights may not be captured in a way that others can review.

Hybrid work has intensified this issue. Xu said many employees now prefer to join meetings virtually because they want access to recordings, transcripts and summaries. He said this reflects a wider demand for reliable knowledge capture and for outputs that are structured and searchable.

Fragmented information

Xu said modern meetings generate a wide range of content, including whiteboard sketches, annotated slides, shared documents, chat messages and handwritten notes. Each item contains useful information, but the volume and variety can overwhelm teams.

He described this as a "multi-modal input" challenge. Without a way to integrate these different formats, he said information becomes siloed, insights are lost and colleagues duplicate efforts.

Employees can spend significant time revisiting materials or clarifying what was decided. Xu linked this directly to meetings that fail to deliver lasting value and that require repeated follow-up sessions.

From talk to decisions

Xu argued that the true measure of a meeting lies in the clarity of its outcomes rather than the depth of discussion. He said many meetings still end without a definitive record of agreements, responsibilities or reasoning.

He said this lack of structure undermines accountability and slows execution. Projects can stall when no one is sure who owns a task or why a particular course of action was chosen.

Xu proposed that organisations treat meeting outputs as "knowledge assets". Under this approach, decisions, assigned responsibilities and supporting context are captured in a structured form that outlasts individual roles.

He said this creates continuity when staff move on and supports an organisation's institutional memory, rather than leaving information scattered across personal notes and recollections.

Automation and AI

Xu said the complexity and frequency of modern collaboration mean that manual processes are no longer sufficient. He drew a parallel with manufacturing, where automation removed repetitive tasks and increased consistency.

He argued that businesses now need similar automation across how they record and manage meeting outputs. Artificial intelligence is central to this shift in his view.

Xu highlighted AI-driven notetaking and transcription tools that capture spoken dialogue in real time and with a high degree of accuracy. Separate components of these systems can identify decisions and action points, while other elements can combine different types of meeting materials such as presentations and shared documents.

These tools can also generate structured summaries that colleagues can share and review. Xu said this creates a single, coherent view of what occurred in a meeting.

He argued that automation in this area reduces the cognitive load on employees. Attendees can focus on the discussion rather than on record-keeping, while still leaving the meeting with a clear and consistent set of outputs.

Future of collaboration

Xu warned that organisations that continue to rely on fragmented, manual approaches risk deeper knowledge loss and duplication of work. He said they also face higher levels of employee disengagement as meeting fatigue grows.

He said a more resilient model of collaboration will require investment in technologies that unify meeting inputs, automate capture and convert conversations into durable knowledge assets.

Xu forecast benefits that include reduced meeting fatigue, clearer accountability in decision-making, stronger organisational resilience and higher productivity as meetings produce actionable outputs rather than repeated discussions.

"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." said Xu.