Lately, more clerks have been asking whether tools like Grok AI can realistically help with meeting minutes. It’s the same question people asked a few years ago about ChatGPT, GPT models, Gemini, and other artificial intelligence tools: can this actually automate any part of the work, or does it just create more cleanup later?
At its core, Grok is an AI model designed to work with text. You give it information, and it gives you organized text back. It does not understand your meeting in real time. It doesn’t know your agenda, your attendance list, or which discussion points matter unless that information is provided up front. It also doesn’t know which language must remain exact and which sections can safely be summarized unless you tell it very clearly.
To get usable output, Grok needs structure. That means a complete agenda, an accurate attendance list, a reliable transcript or transcription, and very specific instructions about how the minutes should be written. Without those guardrails, it will default to general summaries, bullet points, or follow-up style notes that may work for brainstorming or social media recaps, but not for official records.
Even with everything set up correctly, anything Grok produces still requires review. Motions and votes must be checked against the record. Procedural language needs to be verified. Formatting has to match your jurisdiction’s standards. Grok can speed up the first draft and help organize key features of the discussion, but it does not replace the judgment or responsibility of the clerk preparing the official minutes.
The safest way to think about Grok is as a drafting assistant, not a decision-maker. Like other AI-powered tools, including ChatGPT and Gemini, it processes text quickly and confidently. It can help surface key points, organize meeting notes, and support follow-up work. What it cannot do is understand municipal rules, local policies, or the consequences of getting details wrong. Without careful oversight, it can oversimplify, misstate actions, or treat formal decisions the same way it would treat casual discussion.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how Grok is being used today to assist with meeting minutes. We’ll cover what it does well, where it struggles, and the full step-by-step workflow clerks are using to generate drafts with it. We’ll also explain where advanced features help and where human review is still required.
If you’re comfortable working with transcripts and basic documents, you’ll be able to follow along. We’ll start with the basics and build from there, so you can decide whether Grok fits into your process and where it makes sense to use a tool built specifically for municipal work instead.
What Grok can do for meeting minutes today
Before getting into detailed steps, it helps to pause and explain what Grok actually is, especially if you don’t consider yourself technical. Grok is an AI writing tool created by xAI. At a basic level, it works like an advanced typing assistant. You give it text, and it gives you rewritten or summarized text back. It does not know anything about your municipality, your meeting rules, or your local procedures unless you provide that information directly.
Grok only works with what you put in front of it. If you paste in an agenda, it can reference that agenda. If you paste in a transcript, it can summarize that transcript. If you forget to include something, Grok has no way to know it exists. It does not pull information from your calendar, your website, or prior meetings unless you manually add it.
You can access Grok through a web browser on a computer or by using its built-in functionality inside X (formerly Twitter), depending on how your account is set up. There is no software to install on your computer. You type into a simple text box, similar to writing an email, and Grok responds underneath. If you can type and copy-and-paste, you can use it.
For meeting minutes, Grok’s main strength is speed. If you provide an agenda, an attendance list, and a full transcript, it can turn that material into a written draft much faster than starting from a blank document. It can organize discussion into paragraphs, clean up grammar, and reduce long conversations into shorter summaries.
More recent versions of Grok are capable of handling longer transcripts and more complicated discussions than earlier AI tools. That means it can process meetings with extended debate or multiple topics without stopping partway through. However, this typically requires access to a paid version on either their SuperGrok plan at $30 a month or their $40 per month Premium Plus plan as free access is often limited in how much text it can reliably handle at once.
It’s important to remember that Grok is summarizing, not recording. It can draft a version of minutes, but it does not understand which words must remain exact or which actions carry legal weight. Used carefully, it can help create a starting draft. Used without guidance, it can just as easily leave out something important or phrase it incorrectly.
What Grok can’t do well
Even with the newest versions available, Grok has clear limitations. These are not mistakes caused by the clerk or by using the tool “wrong.” They are simply areas where Grok is not designed to think the way a municipal clerk does.
Here is what you should realistically expect.
It fills in gaps when information is unclear.
If a transcript is incomplete, hard to hear, or confusing, Grok may try to guess what happened. When it isn’t sure, it can generate language that sounds reasonable but is not accurate. For example, it may state that a motion passed or that a vote occurred even if no formal action was taken. This is especially risky when audio quality is poor or speakers talk over one another.
It rewrites formal or procedural language.
Grok is built to make text easier to read, not to preserve legal or procedural wording. That means it may simplify motions, ordinances, or formal statements that need to remain exact. Language that should stay precise can be rewritten in a more casual way, which is not appropriate for official meeting minutes.
It can merge or skip agenda items.
Grok does not automatically understand agenda boundaries. If discussion runs long or jumps back and forth, it may blend comments from one item into another or leave an item out entirely. Without careful prompting and review, sections of the meeting can end up in the wrong place.
It struggles with layered motions and amendments.
Motions that involve amendments, substitutions, motions to table, or withdrawals are difficult for Grok to track. Unless each step is clearly explained in the input, Grok may summarize the entire sequence as a single action or miss key procedural steps.
It does not provide an audit trail.
Grok does not show how it arrived at its wording or what changed between versions. If you need to track edits, revisions, or decision points, you have to manage that separately outside the tool.
It does not know your local rules or preferences.
Grok does not automatically follow your meeting rules, standard templates, statutes or ordinances and preferred formatting. Every expectation has to be spelled out each time you use it. These limitations do not mean Grok is unusable. They simply mean it is not a clerk and does not understand municipal requirements on its own. Grok can help with speed and organization, but accuracy, judgment, and compliance still come from the person reviewing the minutes.
In other words, Grok can produce a fast draft from a large transcript. It cannot produce publish-ready minutes by itself. The final responsibility for correctness and formatting still rests with you.
Before you start: What you'll need
Before you try using Grok for meeting minutes, it’s important to gather the same materials you already rely on when you write minutes manually. Grok does not replace that preparation. It depends on it. The tool can only work with the information you provide. If something is missing or unclear, Grok will either skip it or try to fill in the gap, and that’s where problems start.
It helps to think of Grok as a drafting assistant, not a recorder. The better and more complete your inputs are, the safer and more accurate the draft will be.
Here’s what you’ll want to have ready before you begin.
A numbered agenda.
This gives Grok the structure of the meeting and the correct order of events. Without a clear agenda, Grok may mix discussion points together or place actions under the wrong item.
An attendance list
Include board or council members, staff, presenters, and anyone else who should appear in the minutes. If someone arrived late or left early, note that as well. Grok does not infer attendance on its own.
A full transcript, audio notes, or detailed written notes.
Grok can summarize what you give it, but it cannot recreate what was not captured. Clear transcripts and notes lead to clearer drafts. Poor audio or incomplete notes lead to missing or
All motions and votes.
These are the most critical parts of the record. If motions or vote counts are unclear in the transcript or notes, Grok may skip them or summarize them incorrectly. It’s best to have these clearly written out before generating a draft.
Public comment notes.
Even brief notes are helpful. They allow Grok to track who spoke and the general topic without compressing or misattributing comments.
Your formatting standards or templates.
Grok does not know how your municipality formats minutes unless you show it. If you have a standard template, past minutes, or formatting rules, have those ready to paste in or reference.
Accessibility considerations.
Clear headings, readable spacing, and plain language still require human review. Grok does not automatically check for ADA-friendly formatting.
With everything in place, Grok can give you a faster starting draft, but the preparation step stays the same.
How to generate minutes in Grok: the complete, detailed workflow
If someone on your staff has never used Grok before, they should still be able to follow these steps and get a usable draft out of the system. It may still require cleanup and correction afterward, but this walkthrough reflects how clerks are using Grok in real life today.
Step 1: Make sure you’re using the right Grok access
Before you type anything, confirm which version of Grok you’re using. Grok is available through xAI’s platform and, depending on your access level, there may be limits on how much text it can process at once. For meeting minutes, we recommend being on the $40 per month plan for higher limits.
You need a version that can handle:
Long transcripts
Multiple agenda items
Back-and-forth discussion
Formal motions and votes
Once Grok is open, you’ll see a simple text box. It works like email. You type instructions, press Enter, and it responds. There is no setup wizard and no clerk-specific guidance built in.
Before pasting any meeting content, start by setting expectations with Grok. Type this first:
I will be using this conversation to draft accurate, agenda-aligned meeting minutes. Do not draft anything yet. Wait for the agenda, attendance list, transcript, and instructions. Reply “OK” when ready.
This helps prevent Grok from summarizing too early.
Step 2: Paste the agenda first
The agenda is the backbone of your minutes. Grok needs it before it sees anything else.
Paste the full, numbered agenda into Grok, or upload it if you have it as a document. Then add these instructions directly underneath:
Here is the agenda for this meeting.
Follow this exact order when drafting the minutes.
Do not add, remove, rename, or reorder agenda items.
Confirm that you understand.
This prompt is important since:
It prevents Grok from inventing standard agenda items you don’t use.
It anchors discussion and actions to the correct sections.
It reduces the risk of motions appearing under the wrong item.
Step 3: Add the attendance list with clear limits
Grok will invent attendees if you let it. This step is where you stop that from happening.
Paste your attendance list, including:
Full names
Titles
Board or council members
Staff
Presenters
Late arrivals or early departures
Then add these instructions in your next prompt:
Use these exact names and titles in the minutes.Do not create additional attendees.Do not assume roles.If something is unclear, ask before proceeding.
This ensures names stay consistent and prevents Grok from filling gaps incorrectly.
Step 4: Upload the transcript or notes carefully
This is where most errors originate, so go slowly.
If your transcript is short enough to paste all at once, you can do so. If it is longer than 15-20 minutes, break it into smaller parts. Label each part clearly so Grok understands the sequence.
Before sending any transcript text, add this instruction:
I will upload the transcript in multiple parts.
Do not summarize yet.
After each part, reply only with “Received Part X.”
Wait for “All parts uploaded” before taking any action.
Then paste or upload each section one at a time.
After the final section, type this prompt.
All parts uploaded.
Confirm you have the complete transcript and wait for further instructions.
This step helps prevent Grok from summarizing early, skipping content, or guessing missing sections.
Step 5: Define what the minutes should look like
Grok does not know how municipal minutes are supposed to be structured unless you teach it.
If you have an official minutes template, paste it in the prompt or attach a DOCX or PDF file. If not, give Grok a clear structure to follow, such as:
Call to Order
Roll Call
Approval of Agenda
Approval of Previous Minutes
Old Business
New Business
Agenda Items (numbered)
Motions and Votes
Public Comment
Adjournment
Then add firm formatting rules in your next prompt:
Use this structure exactly as written.Keep all section headers.Do not paraphrase legal or procedural language.Quote ordinance or resolution language exactly as stated.Separate discussion from actions clearly.For each motion, list who made it, who seconded it, and the vote result.
This step is critical. Without it, Grok will default to a casual summary style.
Step 6: Generate the first draft
Once everything is in place, you can ask Grok to generate the draft.
Use a clear, direct prompt like this:
Using the agenda, attendance list, and transcript provided, draft formal meeting minutes.Follow the agenda order exactly.Capture all motions, amendments, seconders, and vote counts exactly as stated.If information is unclear, write: “The transcript does not specify.”Do not add details that are not present.Do not paraphrase legal language.Keep the tone neutral and factual.Distinguish discussion from action.If no action occurred, state that explicitly.
Grok will produce a draft. Treat this as a starting point, not as finished minutes.
Step 7: Review and correct errors
Even with careful setup, expect issues such as:
Incorrect vote counts
Missing motions or amendments
Invented actions
Blended agenda items
Rewritten procedural language
Incorrect attribution of who made or seconded a motion
Review the draft line by line against your transcript or notes.
When you find an error, copy only the affected section and use this instruction prompt.
This section contains an error.Here is the corrected information: [your correction].Update this section only.Do not revise any other part of the minutes.
Keeping revisions narrow prevents Grok from rewriting sections that were already correct.
Step 8: Final formatting and compliance checks
Grok does not handle final formatting or compliance requirements.
Before publishing or filing the minutes, review:
Spacing and indentation
Consistent headings
Motion formatting
Name spellings
Vote tallies
Placement of public comment
ADA-friendly structure and readability
Once everything is verified, export the document to Word or PDF according to your normal process.
This final review step usually takes the longest, because it requires judgment. Grok can help with drafting, but the responsibility for accuracy and compliance remains with the clerk.
Real-world Grok use cases for municipal meetings
Different meeting types create different challenges, and Grok does not handle all of them equally well. Understanding where it tends to struggle can help you decide how much setup and review time to expect before you begin.
City Council meetings
City council meetings are some of the most difficult for Grok to handle. These meetings often involve formal motions, amendments, procedural pauses, and extended debate. When motions are revised, withdrawn, or revisited later in the meeting, Grok can lose track of the sequence unless it is guided very carefully.
Common issues include:
Listing a motion before the discussion instead of after it.
Stating that a motion passed even when no vote appears in the transcript.
Mixing amendments together or placing them out of order.
Summarizing debate too vaguely, such as “A discussion occurred,” without context.
City council minutes can be drafted with Grok, but they require strict structure, very clear prompts, and close review of every motion and vote before anything is finalized.
Planning & Zoning meetings
Planning and zoning meetings introduce another layer of complexity. These meetings often include legal descriptions, parcel numbers, zoning classifications, and technical language that Grok does not understand by default. Its natural tendency is to simplify language, which can create problems in official records.
This means you can run into issues like:
Shortening or rewriting legal descriptions instead of preserving exact wording.
Misinterpreting zoning terms or treating specialized approvals as general permits.
Blending applicant comments, staff reports, and public testimony together.
Committee meetings
Committee meetings are usually shorter and more focused, which means Grok tends to perform better overall. There are fewer motions, less procedural complexity, and more straightforward discussion.
That said, issues still occur:
Small procedural notes may be skipped.
Informal agreement may be written as a formal action.
Transitions may be added that never actually happened.
Even when meetings feel simple, Grok still needs review to make sure it distinguishes between discussion and decisions.
Meetings with heavy public comments
Public comment is where Grok’s summarizing behavior requires the most caution. Its goal is to condense information, but too much condensation can change meaning or remove important context.
Common problems include:
Overly generic summaries, such as “Residents shared concerns.”
Blending multiple speakers into one combined statement.
Softening language that was strong or emotionally charged.
Losing attribution of who said what.
Compliance and risk considerations
This is the part of the process where clerks need to slow down and be especially cautious. Meeting minutes are not just internal notes. In most municipalities, they are legal records. Using a general-purpose AI tool like Grok does not change that responsibility.
Open meeting and public records laws require minutes to accurately reflect what happened. If Grok invents a motion, summarizes an action that never occurred, or implies a vote that did not take place, that can create real legal and compliance problems. Grok does not flag uncertainty on its own. If something in the transcript is unclear, it may still produce a confident-sounding statement unless you instruct it otherwise.
Grok also does not provide any version control or an audit trail. There is no built-in way to show what text came from where, what was changed between drafts, or when a correction was made. If your municipality requires documentation of revisions or review history, you must manage that entirely outside the tool.
Formatting consistency is another risk area. Grok does not enforce your templates, spacing rules, or motion formatting standards. Any inconsistency has to be caught and corrected manually before minutes are published or archived.
There are also policy considerations around sensitive information. Depending on your municipality’s internal rules, uploading transcripts or draft minutes to an external AI system may not be permitted, especially if meetings include confidential, personnel, or legal matters.
Finally, accessibility requirements still apply. Grok does not check for ADA-friendly structure, clear headings, or readable formatting. A human review is still required to make sure the final document meets accessibility standards.
How ClerkMinutes simplifies all of this
If the Grok workflow feels complicated, that’s because it is. Grok is a general purpose AI tool. It wasn’t designed for municipal meetings, and it doesn’t understand clerks’ responsibilities, legal requirements, or formatting expectations. As a result, much of the work falls back on you to guide it, correct it, and clean up after it.
ClerkMinutes was built specifically for clerks, which means many of the problems you have to manage manually with Grok simply don’t appear in the first place.
ClerkMinutes handles the structure automatically.
You don’t need to paste templates or remind the system how your agenda is organized. When you upload your agenda and transcript or audio, ClerkMinutes creates a minutes draft that follows a standard municipal structure. Call to Order, Roll Call, agenda items, motions, votes, public comment, and adjournment are placed where they belong without extra prompting.
It captures motions and votes accurately.
This is one of the most common pain points with general AI tools. ClerkMinutes is designed to recognize motions, seconders, amendments, and vote outcomes as they occur in the meeting. It does not guess or rewrite actions to sound smoother. What happened in the meeting is reflected in the minutes in the correct order, which is needed for compliance.
Formatting stays consistent every time.
ClerkMinutes applies consistent headings, spacing, numbering, and layout automatically. ADA-friendly structure is built into the output, so you are not fixing line breaks or reformatting sections after the draft is created. Minutes look the same from meeting to meeting, even if different staff members are involved.
There is no need to split transcripts into multiple parts.
ClerkMinutes is designed to handle long meetings without forcing you to upload files in pieces. You upload the recording or transcript once, and the system processes the entire meeting as a single record.
Your work is saved and versioned.
Every change is tracked, and previous versions remain accessible. You can see what was edited and when, which supports internal review and compliance requirements. This is something general AI tools, like Grok, do not provide.
ClerkMinutes is designed around real clerk workflows.
You can customize templates to match your municipality’s style, invite colleagues to review drafts, and prepare minutes for publication without exporting files or switching between tools. It reduces the small, repetitive tasks that tend to pile up over time.
The biggest benefit is time.
Instead of spending hours managing prompts, correcting misunderstandings, and reformatting drafts, you start with a structured, clerk-ready document. Your time goes into reviewing and approving the record, not rebuilding it.
ClerkMinutes takes the repetitive, time-consuming parts of minutes preparation off your plate so you can focus on accuracy, compliance, and the rest of your responsibilities.
How to generate minutes in ClerkMinutes
After seeing everything that goes into using Grok, such as managing access limits, pasting agendas, uploading transcripts in parts, writing detailed instructions, correcting errors, and fixing formatting, it helps to look at how ClerkMinutes works and why many clerks find it faster and more reliable.
ClerkMinutes is built specifically for municipal workflows. That means you don’t have to teach it how meetings work, remind it how agendas are structured, or supervise it step by step. The system is designed to follow the same process clerks already use, just with much less manual effort.
Here’s the full process from start to finish.
Step 1
Upload Your Agenda
Start by uploading your agenda to ClerkMinutes. You can drag and drop the file or upload it directly from your computer.
There’s no need to paste the agenda into a chat window or explain how it should be used. ClerkMinutes reads the agenda automatically and uses it to create the outline for your minutes. Agenda items stay in the correct order without extra instructions.
Step 2
Upload your meeting recording
Next, upload the audio or video recording of your meeting. This can be a Zoom recording, YouTube, or any other supported file. If you already have a transcript, you can upload that instead.
You do not need to split files into parts like you have to in Grok. ClerkMinutes is designed to handle long meetings as a single record, so you upload once and move on.
Step 3
Confirm and assign speakers
ClerkMinutes generates a clean transcript and identifies speakers automatically. You’ll see a clear list of who spoke during the meeting.
If a name or role needs correcting, you can fix it with a simple click. There’s no need to repeatedly remind the system who your council members are or worry about invented attendees.
Step 4
Generate and review your minutes
With the agenda, recording, and speaker assignments in place, ClerkMinutes generates your minutes. The draft is already organized by agenda item, formatted according to municipal standards, and structured to separate discussion from action.
From there, you can make any needed adjustments:
Clarify a motion
Add brief context
Refine public comment summaries
Highlight key decisions
Make small wording changes
The editor is designed for clerks, not AI specialists. You don’t need to write prompts or understand how the system works behind the scenes. When everything looks correct, you can download the minutes as a Word document or PDF and move on to the next task.
The goal is simple. Start with a clean, structured draft so your time goes into review and accuracy, not setup and cleanup.
So when should you use Grok vs ClerkMinutes?
By now, you’ve seen that Grok can help with meeting minutes, as long as you’re comfortable giving it very specific instructions and reviewing its work closely afterward. In certain situations, it can be a reasonable option.
Grok tends to make sense when:
You want a quick, informal summary just to understand what was discussed.
You’re experimenting or learning how AI tools work.
The meeting is small or low-risk, and a minor wording issue wouldn’t cause problems.
You don’t mind spending extra time checking details and correcting the draft.
If you like having hands-on control and are willing to manage prompts, uploads, revisions, and formatting, the Grok approach can get you to a usable draft.
For most clerks, though, meeting minutes are not optional or informal. They are official records that need to be accurate, consistent, and compliant. That’s where ClerkMinutes is usually the better fit.
ClerkMinutes makes more sense when:
Accuracy matters and you can’t risk missing a motion or misreporting a vote.
Your minutes need to follow the same format every time.
Your municipality has specific rules, templates, or legal requirements.
You don’t want to recheck the entire meeting line by line.
You’re dealing with long or complex meetings that are difficult to summarize manually.
In practice, some clerks end up using both. A general AI tool like Grok for quick, internal tasks, and ClerkMinutes for anything that becomes part of the official record or is published for the public.
If you prefer full manual control and don’t mind managing the details yourself, Grok can work. But if you want a system that handles the structure, keeps things consistent, and reduces the risk of errors, ClerkMinutes is designed to support how clerks actually work. Upload your first meeting for free with a 14-day free trial here.
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