The device is unremarkable, and that is rather the point: a slim recorder that sits on the table or clips to a phone, captures the conversation, and then transcribes and summarises it through an app. The value is not necessarily the hardware (although I am impressed with that), it is what you do with the transcript. Almost everything useful comes down to one idea, a good template. Plaud lets you save your own summary templates, so instead of a generic block of bullet points you get the output in the shape you actually need.

The template I rely on most takes instructions of different kinds, from a client, from the other side, from a colleague, and sets them out in a fixed format I have settled on over time: what I have been asked to do, by when, what I advised in response, what is still outstanding, and the next steps with an owner against each. Another template copes with a rambling ten-minute dictation and produces a clean note, perhaps an internal memo.

The customisation is my favourite aspect of Plaud. I can make an infinite number of templates, and share them with the community (if I wish). I can have a template for all different use cases. I even, as a fun little project, made one for recording and summarising a D&D session, including an in character journal (search "D&D Session Summariser" in Plaud's template bank for my contribution on that).

The use I would single out has nothing to do with my day job. I sit as a director for some small companies, and minute-taking at board meetings is the sort of necessary chore that quietly eats an afternoon. Now the meeting records itself, and a template turns the recording into a draft set of minutes with a separate action log: who agreed to do what, and by when.

I read it through, correct anything the transcription has misheard, and send a clean first draft to my fellow directors, usually the same day rather than the following week.

A few things make this work in practice rather than only in theory. The output is a first draft for the board to approve, never the finished record: directors' minutes are a statutory record the company must keep (Companies Act 2006, s.248) and they carry evidential weight, so a human signs them off in the ordinary way.

I make sure my fellow directors are content to be recorded before I start, which has not been a difficulty once they see the minutes land promptly. And I treat the recording itself as a document, so I do not hoard the audio once the minutes are settled. If your company has its own governance or IT rules, a personal device may cut across them, so it is worth a word with whoever owns that.

Away from the boardroom, Plaud is useful for most aspects of my life. For a client meeting or conference I record, having said that I am doing so, and by the time I am back at my desk there is a draft attendance note waiting. A phone call becomes a dated file note with the advice given and the next steps already laid out. Internal meetings and file reviews produce a list of decisions and who is doing what, rather than a transcript nobody reopens. And it is a passable thinking tool, since I dictate ideas on the move, including for this newsletter, and let the app turn a walk into a rough draft.

It is not magic. Transcripts mishear names, figures and dates, accents and crosstalk defeat them, and a summary is only as good as the template and the audio behind it.

I read and correct every output, treating it as a first draft it saves me real time. Treating it as a finished product it would embarrass me soon enough.

The device is only as good as the template you point at the summary, and that is where the thinking goes: you work out the shape you want once, then reuse it for ever.

Over time I have built a small set, the instructions-capture one above, an attendance note, a telephone file note, the board minutes with an action log, and a dictation-to-draft format for rougher thoughts.

I have not reproduced them here, partly to keep this readable and partly because the useful detail tends to be specific to how you work. A few of mine are published in the Plaud template community, where you can find and adapt them. If there is appetite, I am happy to share more, or to give a particular template a proper write-up in a future issue: reply and tell me which would earn its place.

Even with the director's hat on rather than the solicitor's, a recorder is pointed at confidential conversations, so two practical points are worth making before you start.

First, keeping recordings on the device is not the same as keeping them off the internet. Plaud stores your recordings on the device by default, and its cloud sync is off unless you switch it on (Plaud). But the moment you use the transcription or summary features, the content is sent to third-party AI providers to be processed and returned to the app. Cloud sync being off does not help if you then run a confidential conversation through the AI. Plaud says those providers are bound by agreements that forbid retention beyond the task and training on your content, and that it does not train on your data by default. Those are the vendor's assurances: read the agreement yourself (Plaud).

Second, there is the question of where your data lives. Plaud's own documentation helps here: it states that "your data is stored in the data center that corresponds to your region" (Plaud). You should verify this information yourself and ensure it meets your due diligence needs. This writer would treat Plaud as a US-hosted service for anything that reaches the cloud, which also means the data sits under US jurisdiction and US legal process. If EU residency matters to you, get it confirmed in writing and ask for the UK addendum to the data processing agreement.

Beyond that, the ordinary disciplines apply; get the agreement of the people in the room before you record, treat the recording as processing of personal data under UK GDPR with a lawful basis and a sensible retention and deletion habit, and check every output against the audio. Client and privileged work raises a higher bar that is a firm-level decision rather than a personal one, which is why I have kept this issue to the uses where that question does not take over. The Golden Rules still apply.

Strip the device away and the real value is in the outputs. Most of our work follows this pattern: capture, structure, verify, file. The capture can be a meeting or a dictated note, the structure is a template you think about once and reuse for ever, the verification is the human step that is not optional, and the filing is the point of the whole exercise. You can run that loop with any tool that clears your confidentiality bar. I happen to use this one and have been impressed.

Plaud is running its own Prime Day sale on its website this week, so the Note Pro is cheaper there than usual. You can find it here: affiliate link. The sale price is the same whether or not you use that link: if you do, I get a small commission, on the terms in the disclosure above. If you would rather not, that is entirely fine and I am still glad the article brought the device to your attention: go to Plaud's site directly.

Try this on your next recorded board meeting, filling in the parts marked with {}. Keep to the Golden Rules and check the output against the audio.

This is my board meeting template, designed to hardcode the company name and director's details so that it can be reproduced cleanly for each company meeting.

This is a one-off format, so tell me plainly whether a workflow issue like this is useful or whether you would rather I keep to the news. Hit reply: I read every email.

Serhan
UK Legal AI Brief

Guidance and news only. Not legal advice. Always use AI tools safely and in line with best practice.