From Hours to Minutes: Using AI as a Research Assistant to Evaluate Business Tools or Vendors
🕒 Reading Time: 6 Minutes
🎯 Target Audience: Consultants, Business professionals, Team Leads, Product Managers and Business Owners
🔑 Key Takeaway: Learn how to use AI to automate and streamline changelog creation across complex, multi-stakeholder deliverables — minimizing confusion, redundancy, and versioning chaos.
It’s not uncommon to evaluate new work tools, software, or vendors in the course of our daily work. In the past, this could require hours – first to identify the options, then to explore each one, assessing pros and cons, before eventually making tradeoffs to arrive at our preferred solution. But generative AI has changed the game when it comes to identifying and comparing available options, allowing us to focus on evaluation, while saving the time on the research.
Recently, a client asked my opinion on several AI note-taking tools. They’d done a preliminary review and asked my input on two tools they were considering. I was somewhat familiar with both, but had not personally used them. Most importantly, before giving any advice, I wanted to make sure I understood the privacy and security features of each, as meeting conversations are generally important to protect.
Instead of digging into the websites myself, I asked AI to do the legwork for me, with an initial prompt designed to hone in on what I considered most important: ensuring any platform they selected would offer robust protection of their data and keeping it safe from human eyes as well as use in AI training. From there, I asked for a summarization of key features of each platform and a summarization of user reviews or feedback. Finally, in an expansion of the client’s research, I asked the AI to identify all leading AI meeting note takers, and compare them across all of my criteria. Here, AI served as my research assistant—helping me quickly understand the landscape, synthesize key tradeoffs, and present the information in a way that would help the client make clear and confident decisions.
💡 The Takeaway: Use AI to Think Faster, Not Less
This process didn’t just save time—it delivers more thorough analysis. With AI in the loop, it’s possible to analyze more options. For consultants, team leads, and business owners, this is the real win. You still make the call—but you start from a much stronger, faster foundation.
Curious about the output I received? Take a look here:
✅ Try It Yourself: What to Ask ChatGPT When Evaluating Tools
Here’s a condensed structure for using AI to vet options:
1. Share your decision criteria. What specific comparisons do you want included?
In my case, privacy/security was the top priority, followed by features, pricing, and user perceptions.
2. Ask for output presented in tables.
Evaluation is easier when you can see head-to-head comparisons at a glance.
3. Iterate as needed.
Refine your prompt, add more dimensions, or ask for deeper summaries.
One Final Recommendation – Specific to AI Notetakers
Obviously keeping the client’s data secure was a top recommendation. However, when it comes to the use of AI notetakers, it’s important to also consider the potential ramifications and consequences of using them. Here are five key considerations when using these tools:
1. Be Intentional, Codify your Intentions in a Company-Wide Policy & Train Your Team
Establish a clear AI note-taking policy that outlines approved tools, consent protocols, storage rules, and usage guidelines. Train employees on responsible use to ensure company-wide alignment.
Why it matters: Inconsistent or unregulated use can lead to compliance issues, data risks, or reputational damage.
2. Be Transparent and Obtain Consent
Always inform participants that AI notetaking is in use and obtain explicit consent. Many jurisdictions legally require it, and it's also best practice for building trust.
Why it matters: Recording conversations—especially in business, research, or coaching—raises legal and ethical concerns.
3. Be Courteous
Beyond obtaining consent, be attentive to the individuals in the room. Not everyone feels comfortable with notetaker or wants their comments shared publicly in notes. When in doubt, don’t use it.
Why it matters: Relationship building is key to success. When we disregard the cues or needs of others, trust erodes and everybody loses.
4. Be Savvy
Beyond obtaining consent, be mindful of the nature of the conversation. Not all conversations should be recorded, so don’t use a note-taker if you believe its recordings could result in damage to your credibility, reputation, or legal risk.
5. Take the Time to Review the Notes before Sending
Treat the AI summary as a draft, not a final record. Review transcripts and key takeaways before sharing or storing them to ensure they're aligned with what actually occurred and that they are helpful and worthy of sharing with others.
Why it matters: AI-generated notes may miss nuances, misattribute quotes, or misunderstand context.