I have been looking to entrepreneurs for inspiration on how to delegate tasks to others. Except I don't actually have anyone to delegate my mundane tasks to, which means I'm struggling with an abundance of energy and poor time management skills.
During my search for a tool to manage meetings and other long-form content, I found Briefly, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to transcribe conversations and summarize meetings, articles, emails, documents and other long-form content.
Briefly, founded by Amy Sun and Bryan Oki, targets individuals and organizations looking to simplify documents and save time. As someone who needs help with both, this seemed like a plausible productivity tool to try out.
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Briefly has a free plan, which gives you access to five summaries and follow-up emails as well as unlimited transcribed meetings, or a paid plan ($15/month) that provides unlimited access to summaries, emails and meetings, plus a couple other add-ons.
While its core features include AI summaries in your inbox and integration with meeting tools, it can also turn transcripts from your meetings into a report, agenda or business plan. And it can automate email follow-ups based on the call for key takeaways. Plus, it offers BrieflyCreate, a brief-creation tool to outline key points for a project or content piece.
You can also import transcripts to turn them into summaries or documents. Essentially, the tool can streamline multiple parts of work for you and it integrates with platforms such as Google Meet, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack and Zoom.
I was initially looking for a tool to solely help with meeting management but after navigating through its multi-use format, I was open to trying out Briefly on the mundane tasks so I could stay in creation mode. If I can't delegate to a person, the next best solution is to delegate to AI. (Especially at a free or low cost.)
How to use Briefly to automate workflows
Visit the Briefly website and register for a free or (starting at $15 a month) paid account.
Once you're on the homepage, there's a Product Google Meet demo as a guide to learn how to navigate the integrated tool. To automate your workflows:
Go to the settings, where you can adjust your preferences or connect to your video conferencing tool of choice, and where you'd like to receive summaries and transcripts. (If you are like me and use Google Meet, you'll also need to download the Google Chrome extension before using.)
Once you join or initiate a meeting, activate Briefly to start capturing your meeting in real time. After the meeting concludes, Briefly will generate a summary highlighting key points, action items and insights. If you connect integrations such as Google Calendar, Hubspot, Salesforce and Slack, summaries will save to whichever platform you delegate.
On the sidebar, you'll see an option to upload a transcript. If you are solely looking to integrate a previously recorded call or summary into Briefly, you can also upload a .txt or .vtt format onto the platform. This way, you can generate summaries and navigate to BrieflyCreate to turn your upload into a structured document or brief.
If you want a visual demonstration of how to use Briefly, its TikTok channel offers videos that explain the steps, share tool hacks and show how users are navigating the platform.
A screenshot of an AI-generated call summary
A call summary generated by Briefly. Briefly
Who should use Briefly?
As multifaceted as arguably all professionals are, Briefly has an edge in its multifunctional productivity hacking: While it's not a supernatural AI tool, it is a productivity tool that I would argue is built on long-term thinking.
It doesn't seek to solve one problem -- like my initial note-taking challenge -- but rather tackles the entire workflow that not all AI productivity tools accomplish. (I'm thinking of competitors such as Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai and Bluedot.) And because you can decide which integration or platform you'd like to connect, Briefly supports the needs and autonomy of individuals and teams.
Plus, the BrieflyCreate addition is something I haven't seen before. I often use AI to generate examples of documents and formatted content so using this feature is handy for the knowledge- and skill-gaining process.
Sure, Briefly's brand identity and art direction doesn't speak directly to me but its navigation was accessible and user-friendly with an easy learning curve. If I were to use that same long-term thinking when providing feedback on the tool, I'd say that matters more than the shades of pink its website boasts that contrast with my all-black setup.
I'm not going to waste time (I'm learning!) naming all the types of roles that could benefit from AI summaries, CRM integration and document creation, but it's safe to say most digitally inclined folks would benefit from using the platform at least once.
As always, using Briefly … well, briefly … can answer your question about whether it works for your specific needs.