Product · 4 min read
Action items that actually get done
We watched 200 follow-up tasks across 50 customers. The ones that got completed had three things in common, and almost none of them were "the AI was smarter."
What we measured
We looked at 200 action items generated by CallScrib across 50 customer accounts over three months. We tracked which ones got completed within a week and which ones didn't. Then we looked at what the completed ones had in common.
The three patterns
1. They had a named owner. Action items assigned to "the team" or "we" had a 12% completion rate. Items with a specific person's name had a 64% completion rate.
2. They were specific enough to act on. "Follow up with the client" completed 18% of the time. "Send the revised proposal to Sarah by Friday" completed 71% of the time.
3. They were visible in the flow of work. Items posted to the Teams chat where the meeting happened completed 3x more than items buried in a separate dashboard or email.
What didn't matter
The sophistication of the AI didn't make a meaningful difference. A perfectly worded action item that nobody sees is worse than a rough one posted where the team already works. Distribution beats quality every time.
What this means for CallScrib
This is why we post summaries to the Teams chat, not to email or a separate app. The action items are visible where the conversation happened, attributed to specific people, and concrete enough to act on. The AI's job is to be accurate, not clever.
The AI notetaker built for Microsoft Teams. No bot in your meetings. 7 meetings per month free, no credit card.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does CallScrib generate action items?
CallScrib reads the meeting transcript and extracts action items with named owners, specific tasks, and due dates when mentioned. Items are posted to the Teams chat so they're visible to the whole team.
What makes an action item more likely to get done?
Three things: a named owner, enough specificity to act on immediately, and visibility in the team's flow of work. Generic tasks assigned to "the team" rarely get completed.
