Employers are facing a new risk in the workplace: AI notes that don’t know when to stop listening. In some virtual meetings, employees hang up while an AI assistant stays behind, quietly documenting the gossip or banter made by the rest of the employees, then emailing the transcript to the entire team.

“Those issues create some of the most serious problems,” said Joe Lazzarotti, an attorney at Jackson Lewis who primarily advises companies on AI notetaker accidents. “One of the biggest issues is just trying to figure out how do we control that? How do we educate employees about it? And how do we make sure we don’t fall into the trap of the unwary?”

AI notes don’t always tell bad news. A new study from AI assistant startup Read AI in collaboration with organizational behavior expert Rebecca Hinds found that recorded meetings led individual contributors to speak almost as much as managers, with women participating 9% more than men.

However, recording and disseminating sensitive conversations creates real legal and HR risks. Lazzarotti advises leaders to conduct a thorough AI audit before problems arise, including a review of governance, risk, and compliance rules; understand what data is being collected; decide which meetings should be recorded; and control where records and documents are stored and who can access them.

Companies can also set clear rules around when AI notes are appropriate, require clear disclosure and consent before recording begins, and limit how transcripts are distributed, avoiding automated emails across teams. Some organizations opt for summaries instead of verbatim transcripts or give meeting hosts a “kill switch” to stop recording if conversations drift into sensitive territory.

Employee education is also critical. Workers should understand that recorded meetings act more like written documents than private conversations and that comments made after others leave a call can still be captured.

“(AI notetakers) can be a very powerful tool, but it’s just a matter of thinking about it before you go out and deploy it,” Lazzarotti said.

Editor’s note: This newsletter is no longer for Presidents Day. Call us back in your inboxes this Feb. 23.

Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Fortune Live Media
[email protected]

Around the Table

A round-up of the most important HR topics.

Many managers are using AI agents to help decide on raises, promotions, and layoffs. Washington Post

More vacation time now beats out bonuses as the top driver of feeling valued at work, according to new research. Wall Street Journal

“Storytellers” have emerged as one of the hottest jobs in tech, with salaries above $400,000. Business Insider

Water cooler

Everything you need to know from luck.

ROI debate. Obsessing over short-term ROI from AI tools is stifles innovationand leaders need to remove control, says Nvidia’s CEO. —Nick Lichtenberg

Old-school method. A workspace CEO say bosses who stick to rigid, five-day orders aren’t ready for an AI-driven future. —Orianna Rosa Royle

A new guard rose. With the average global CEO tenure up to 7.2 years, AI adoption will be wider may still change who does it in the C-suite. —Phil Wahba