Drafting letters, notes and minutes

The biggest everyday win

For most officers, drafting is where AI saves the most time. Replies to references, notes for the file, office orders, minutes, briefs and talking points all follow patterns and patterns are what AI handles best. Our how-to guide on drafting letters and notes with AI has ready-made examples. This module focuses on doing it well and safely as a routine.

A routine that works

1. Decide the substance yourself. What is the decision, the message or the recommendation? AI should shape your content, not decide it.
2. Write a prompt with placeholders. Names, numbers, dates and references become [Applicant], [Amount], [date], [reference]. See module 2 for the red lines.
3. Ask for the right format. Give your office's standard structure, or paste a blank template.
4. Read every line. Compare against the facts in the file.
5. Restore the real details yourself, offline, in your own word processor.
6. Check anything the AI added. If the draft mentions a rule, date, figure or precedent you did not provide, treat it as suspect until verified in the original.

Notes for the file

AI is good at turning rough points into a structured note: background, issue, analysis, recommendation. It is weaker at the analysis itself, which depends on the file's history and your department's practice. A good approach is to write the analysis points yourself in rough form and ask the AI to organise and polish them.

Minutes of meetings

If you have typed notes or an approved transcription of a meeting with no sensitive content, AI can turn them into draft minutes with decisions and action points. Check especially:

• that each decision is attributed to the right person or department
• that conditions ("subject to approval of the competent authority") have not been dropped
• that nothing appears that was not actually said

Recording and transcribing meetings raises its own questions of consent and confidentiality. Follow your department's instructions.

Tone and register

AI is useful for adjusting tone: firmer, more polite, simpler for a citizen, more formal for a senior officer. Ask for it directly. It is also useful for plain language: "Rewrite this so a citizen with basic education can understand it, without changing the meaning."

When not to use AI

• Legal opinions, disciplinary findings, financial sanctions and anything that creates rights or obligations, unless your department has a sanctioned process for it
• Documents built on confidential facts where no approved tool is available
• Personal, sensitive correspondence where tone and trust matter more than speed

Try it

Take a routine reply you send often. Write a prompt with placeholders using the five-part structure from module 3, generate a draft and time how long it takes you to check and finalise it. Compare with how long it usually takes.

Check yourself

1. In the drafting routine, who decides the substance of the letter?
2. What should you do if an AI draft mentions a rule you did not give it?
3. Name two things to check in AI-drafted minutes.

Answers: (1) You do. (2) Treat it as suspect and verify it in the original source before keeping it. (3) Any two of: correct attribution of decisions, conditions not dropped, nothing included that was not said.