Your AI meeting notes have an afterlife.
The call ends. The information may keep moving. Before inviting an AI assistant, ask what it creates, who can use it and what actually disappears.
What is established.
A recording, a transcript and an AI-generated summary are different records. The documentation below describes distinct storage and processing arrangements. It does not establish what is enabled in your account. Start with the exact feature and settings—not the product logo.
First, locate the original records.
Microsoft documents OneDrive and SharePoint storage for Teams recordings and transcripts. Storage and permissions vary with the meeting type and organizer setup. A recording is not simply “inside the meeting”: it has a storage location, an owner and access rules.
Source 1: Microsoft: Teams recording and transcript storage and permissions ↗A derived record can have a separate lifetime.
Microsoft’s AI Archives documentation describes a preview available only to organizations in the Teams TAP program. For qualifying meetings, an AI-generated archive stores condensed meeting knowledge and metadata in a Teams-owned SharePoint Embedded container. Microsoft says it contains generated content, not raw user data or transcript excerpts.
The consequential detail: deleting or expiring a recording or transcript does not automatically delete that archive. Microsoft documents separate deletion and retention controls. This is a preview-specific example, not a claim that every Teams meeting creates an archive.
Source 2: Microsoft: AI Archives for Teams Meetings ↗A training promise answers one question.
Zoom says it does not use the covered communications-like customer content to train its own or third-party AI models. Its documentation also says relevant data may go to third-party models to provide AI features. For those model providers, Zoom describes zero-data-retention policies with limited trust-and-safety exceptions.
Separately, Zoom describes meeting summaries shared through email and Zoom Chat, and administrator options to retain audio transcripts for other AI capabilities. Those distinctions matter: a model-provider retention commitment does not describe every copy or output in a meeting workflow.
Source 3: Zoom: How Zoom AI features handle your data ↗Where we stand.
Our interpretation: the review should follow the information beyond the call. An assistant can be useful and still require clear boundaries. Ask for an inventory of the records it creates and the people responsible for them. Treat a missing answer as an open question to resolve, not evidence of wrongdoing. PrivacyAF has reviewed these public documents; we have not audited either provider or your organization’s configuration.
Ask the next question.
- Purpose: what specific benefit requires the assistant, and is a less intrusive approach sufficient?
- Notice and choice: what will participants be told before it starts, and what happens if someone objects?
- Records: does this feature create recordings, transcripts, summaries, tasks, exports or a separate AI archive?
- Access: who can read, share or query each output—including people who were invited but did not attend?
- Lifetime: what happens to each output when the original is deleted, expires or must be preserved?
- Accountability: who corrects a wrong attribution, checks access and follows up on an unanswered question?
Bring one question. Leave with an owner.
Before the next meeting, ask the organizer which AI feature is planned. Choose one question below and ask who can verify the answer. A product administrator, information-governance colleague or meeting owner may each hold part of it.
For an internal review, record the feature, settings checked, date, responsible person and unanswered questions in your approved workplace system. Check applicable preservation requirements with the responsible team before changing retention or deleting records. This is a review habit, not a jurisdiction-specific compliance checklist.
Back in the community, share the question you chose and what a useful answer would contain. A public documentation link is welcome. Keep transcripts, participant names, client details and internal screenshots out of the discussion.
Before we start: is this meeting being recorded, transcribed or summarized by AI? Who can access the outputs, how long are they kept, and can we proceed without the assistant?
This starts a discussion. It does not establish consent or satisfy every local legal requirement.
Educational commentary. Sources and services can change. This brief does not establish legal compliance, product safety or misconduct. No affiliation or endorsement. Suggest a correction.