If you're in a job that frequently involves platforms like Zoom, particularly at a company keen on testing new software features, you may have received updates about enhancements in meetings. For instance, Microsoft Teams users might have notifications about AI-generated meeting recaps, while Google Workspace users could be prompted to use chatbots for note-taking. If your calendar is packed with overlapping Zoom calls, you may have encountered features called "AI Companion, " providing summarized transcripts, chat interfaces for updates, and automatic video highlights. Although you may not have used these features yet, they are becoming widespread due to advancements in AI technology, particularly large language models (LLMs), which make transcription and summarization easier and more affordable. These innovations exist primarily because it's now feasible to implement them. Automatic transcription, often fueled by OpenAI, is improving rapidly, prompting companies like Zoom and Microsoft to adopt them with the perspective of "Why not?" The appeal is clear: what if you didn’t have to take notes during meetings, could review missed ones effortlessly, or check what was said afterward?However, these tools serve more than as simple upgrades; they transform meetings into searchable and shareable content. This transformation can be amusing or disheartening, revealing meetings that might have been unnecessary in the first place. While searching through transcripts can be exceedingly useful, there's concern that these features could create the illusion that meetings are the foundation of work, overshadowing employees’ actual tasks. Additionally, the shift towards treating meetings as content opens doors for new metrics. As companies like Microsoft and Google proceed cautiously regarding meeting quantification, startups are capitalizing on this trend.

For example, Read. ai, an AI tool for meeting analysis, offers a live dashboard during meetings that tracks participation and engagement. This includes metrics of individual performance, like speaking time and the use of filler words. Other startups share similar goals, creating platforms that assess meeting performance or monitor inclusivity. Initially, such metrics may appear intriguing but not particularly practical for participants. However, they can be useful for evaluating involvement and engagement. These dashboards bear resemblance to traffic-tracking services used in online publishing and the adrenaline rush of live streaming, where performance statistics fluctuate in real-time. While contemplating the implications of metric-driven meetings, it’s essential to recognize these tools cater primarily to corporate interests, allowing management to quantify participation and attention levels. They provide insights into how meetings unfold and assess individual performance, effectively functioning as a form of surveillance rather than mere organizational aids. The evolution of video meetings hints at a future where AI increasingly permeates the office, akin to its role in factories and call centers in the past. Employees will benefit from smart assistants for note-taking and information management, yet those assistants also report to management, tracking performance and guiding behaviors according to preset objectives. In this AI-driven workplace, everyone might have a robotic intern, but the catch is that this intern is also your supervisor.