The Atlantic CEO Nick Thompson turns hours of meeting prep into a single hour using AI. He prompts it to pull bios of attendees, suggest relevant questions, create digital flashcards with names and companies, and then quiz him. This specific workflow ensures he arrives fully prepared for important networking events.
Instead of antisocially typing on a device during meetings, activate ChatGPT's voice mode out loud. This social hack frames the AI as a transparent participant, retrieving information for the entire group and reducing friction for quick lookups without disrupting the conversation.
Leverage AI to conduct comprehensive research on a prospect's company, industry, and the specific individuals you're meeting. This allows you to bypass basic discovery questions and dive into more relevant, informed conversations, making the sales call more efficient and valuable for the customer.
An Executive Assistant at Zapier built an AI agent that automates her weekly meeting prep. The agent researches external attendees, checks the CRM and internal comms for context, and delivers a digest and tasks. This saves hours of manual work and ensures thorough preparation.
For rapid meeting preparation, simply screenshot the guest list and input it into a vision-enabled AI model. The AI performs OCR to extract names, then triggers an agent to automatically search the web and LinkedIn for each attendee, generating a comprehensive prep document with minimal manual effort.
Use AI connectors like Claude's to link your email directly to a presentation tool. This allows you to forward a prep email and instantly receive a visual slide deck summarizing the attendees, their backgrounds, and key talking points, making meeting preparation faster and more engaging.
An executive created a custom AI agent to handle repetitive tasks like meeting prep, calendar triage, and email. This "chief of staff" provides analysis, suggests delegations, and even offers blunt feedback, demonstrating how AI can be personalized to augment executive functions.
Go beyond using AI for research by codifying your North Star, OKRs, and strategic goals into a personalized AI agent. Before important meetings, use this agent as a 'thought partner' to pressure-test your ideas, check for alignment with your goals, and identify blind spots. This 10-minute exercise dramatically improves meeting focus and outcomes.
Instead of using AI as a compliant assistant, program it to be a challenging 'sparring partner.' Ask it to find holes in your logic or anticipate all the critical questions your CEO might ask. This transforms it from a content generator into a powerful strategic tool for preparation.
Before engaging expensive experts like lawyers or accountants, use AI to do preliminary work. You can draft initial documents, analyze data, or formulate questions. This prepares you for a more productive conversation, saving time and money while ensuring you still rely on the human expert for final verification and strategy.
Rehearse difficult conversations by having an AI adopt the persona of your boss, partner, or employee. This allows you to practice your approach, refine your messaging, and anticipate reactions in a safe environment, increasing your confidence and effectiveness for the real discussion.