AI Meeting Summary Templates: Pick the Right One in 2026

Why Templates Matter More Than Models

A common assumption about AI meeting summaries is that the model does the heavy lifting and the template is window dressing. The opposite is true. Once you are on a 2026-class model (Claude 4.5, GPT-5, Gemini 2.5), the summary quality is bottlenecked by how you ask, not by what you ask. The right template for the meeting type can shift a summary from "I have to read this twice to understand what was decided" to "I can act on this in 30 seconds."

This post walks through the 11 templates CATT ships, what each one is for, and what to expect in the output. We will cover sales calls, research interviews, lectures, podcasts, press conferences, focus groups, sermons, tutorials, voice memos, and the custom-template route for cases that do not fit any of the above.

The Template Problem

A generic "summarize this meeting" prompt produces a generic summary. The model defaults to roughly equal coverage of every topic mentioned, which means a one-hour meeting with three key decisions and 15 minutes of small talk gets a summary that splits attention roughly evenly. That is not what you want.

Useful templates do three things: prioritize content by importance for that meeting type, structure output for how the reader will use it, and include sections specific to the genre (action items for project meetings, sound bites for interviews, sentiment for sales calls).

Template 1: Journalism Interview

The journalism interview template targets recorded reporter-source conversations. The output is structured for writing an article afterward, not for reviewing what was said.

Sections it produces:

• Top-line story: The single most newsworthy claim or finding.
• Pull quotes: Three to seven verbatim quotes that work in print, with timestamps.
• Background and context: What the source establishes about themselves or the topic.
• Open questions: Things mentioned but not fully explained, useful for follow-up.
• Verification needs: Claims that should be fact-checked before publication.

Use this for reporter interviews, podcast pre-interviews, and any conversation where the goal is producing written content from spoken material.

Template 2: Press Conference

The press conference template is for one-to-many announcement events. Different from an interview because the speaker is delivering prepared remarks and then taking questions.

Output structure:

• Announcement summary: What was announced, by whom.
• Key statements: Three to five quotable lines from the prepared remarks.
• Q&A highlights: Each significant question and the relevant answer, paraphrased or quoted.
• Notable evasions: Questions the speaker declined to answer fully (useful for political coverage).
• Next steps: What the speaker committed to publishing or following up on.

Useful for political journalism, corporate earnings calls, public health briefings.

Template 3: Research Interview

The research interview template targets qualitative research interviews, including user interviews, anthropology fieldwork, customer development calls, and academic research.

Output structure:

• Participant profile: Inferred demographics, role, context.
• Key themes: Three to seven themes that emerged, with supporting quotes.
• Memorable moments: Specific stories or examples worth remembering.
• Pain points: Frustrations or problems the participant described.
• Verbatim quotes: A library of quotable lines organized by theme.

Useful for UX researchers, product managers, academic ethnographers.

Template 4: Focus Group

The focus group template handles multi-participant qualitative research. Different from a 1:1 interview because multiple perspectives interact.

Output structure:

• Group composition: Number of participants, inferred demographics.
• Areas of agreement: Points the group converged on.
• Areas of disagreement: Points that split the group, with which positions had which advocates.
• Outlier opinions: Individual participants who held unique views.
• Notable exchanges: Specific back-and-forth segments that revealed reasoning.

Useful for market research, product validation, political polling.

Template 5: Lecture

The lecture template handles one-to-many educational content where there is no question-and-answer interaction (or only at the end). Optimized for note-taking and review.

Output structure:

• Thesis or core claim: The single most important idea.
• Main arguments: The 3 to 7 supporting points with brief explanation.
• Definitions: Technical terms introduced and how they were defined.
• Examples: Specific cases the lecturer used to illustrate points.
• Citations: Names, dates, papers, or books referenced.

Useful for students, conference attendees who could not take notes, MOOC reviewers.

Template 6: Conference Talk

The conference talk template is a lecture variant optimized for a 20-60 minute talk format with a tighter time budget and usually a more narrative structure.

Output structure:

• Hook and opening: How the talk started.
• Core message: The single takeaway in one sentence.
• Argument structure: The chain of reasoning, condensed.
• Examples and stories: Anecdotes used for color.
• Closing call to action: What the speaker wanted the audience to do.
• Slide references: Notes about visual content the audience saw.

Useful for industry conferences, internal company talks, TEDx-style events.

Template 7: Podcast Episode

The podcast episode template is for talk-format podcasts with one or more guests. The summary is structured for show notes, social clips, and SEO.

Output structure:

• Episode summary: Two to three sentences that explain what the episode is about.
• Topics covered: Bulleted list with approximate timestamps.
• Memorable quotes: Pull quotes that work as social posts.
• Resources mentioned: Books, articles, websites, people referenced.
• Action items for listeners: What the host or guest suggested the audience do.

Useful for podcast hosts producing show notes, listeners producing reference summaries.

Template 8: Voice Memo

The voice memo template handles solo recordings where you talked through an idea, planned a project, or captured thoughts on a walk.

Output structure:

• Core idea: The single point being captured.
• Supporting thoughts: Related ideas in the order they appeared.
• Action items for yourself: Anything you said you would do.
• Open questions: Things you flagged as needing more thought.

The voice memo template is the entry point for personal knowledge management. The building a second brain with audio post covers the full workflow.

Template 9: Sermon

The sermon template is for religious or motivational speaking that follows a homiletic structure.

Output structure:

• Scripture or source text: What the sermon was based on, if applicable.
• Main message: The core takeaway in one or two sentences.
• Three points or sections: Most sermons follow a three-part structure; this captures it.
• Stories and illustrations: Anecdotes used to support the message.
• Call to action: What the speaker invited the audience to do.

Useful for pastors archiving their teachings, congregation members producing notes, denominations indexing their content.

Template 10: Tutorial

The tutorial template handles instructional content, both pre-recorded screencasts and live workshops.

Output structure:

• What you will learn: The promise of the tutorial in 1 to 2 sentences.
• Prerequisites: What the tutorial assumes you already know.
• Steps: Numbered list of actions in the order the instructor performed them.
• Tools and resources: Software, files, URLs mentioned.
• Common pitfalls: Warnings or troubleshooting tips the instructor mentioned.
• Next steps: What to do after completing the tutorial.

Useful for developer tutorials, cooking instruction, craft demos, software training.

Template 11: Custom

The custom template lets you write your own prompt. Useful when none of the prebuilt templates fit or when you want to tailor output for a specific downstream use.

Practical examples of custom templates:

• A coaching call template focused on session goals, breakthroughs, and homework.
• A legal deposition template focused on factual claims, dates, and impeachable statements.
• A clinical interview template structured around presenting symptoms, history, and treatment plan.
• A doctor-patient conversation template structured around chief complaint, examination findings, and instructions.

The how to prompt AI for better summaries post walks through writing a custom template that produces the right output.

How to Pick the Right Template

A simple rule of thumb: identify whether the recording is 1:1, 1:N, or N:N, and whether the goal is information retrieval or content production.

• 1:1, retrieval: journalism interview, research interview.
• 1:1, production: journalism interview (article), podcast episode if pre-interview.
• 1:N, retrieval: lecture, conference talk.
• 1:N, production: sermon (next sermon), conference talk (write-up).
• N:N, retrieval: focus group, meeting (use research interview or focus group).
• Solo: voice memo.

If your meeting does not fit cleanly (a board meeting, a project standup, a hiring committee discussion), the focus group template is often a reasonable starting point. The custom template handles edge cases.

What Templates Cannot Do

Templates are not magic. They cannot recover information that was not in the audio. They cannot identify speakers without diarization data. They cannot fact-check claims. They cannot read between the lines about hidden agendas (well-tested with the available 2026 models; the speculation about hidden meaning is generally bad).

What templates do well: structure information that was actually said, in a format that matches how you will use the output. Anything beyond that is the model itself, not the template.

What to Do Next

If you have not run audio through a template-driven summary yet, pick a recent meeting recording and try the journalism interview template or the research interview template, depending on which fits. Compare the output to your usual notes. The structure should make it faster to find specific information than scrolling through prose. If it does not, the template is wrong for the meeting type, and the templates hub has the other options to try.

The right template plus a good source transcript is the difference between AI summaries being a curiosity and being a load-bearing part of how you process meetings.