How to use AI to summarize a long document or email thread
Summarizing is one of the things AI assistants do well. The risk is not that the summary is unreadable; it's that it sounds right while quietly dropping or changing a detail. A good prompt and one quick check fix most of that.
Updated . General information for everyday use, not professional advice.
Remove what doesn't need to be there
Before you paste, take out account numbers, signatures and anything confidential. Names can usually become roles, like "the landlord" or "my manager", without changing the summary.
Ask for decisions, not just a shorter version
Summarize this in 5 short bullet points: what was decided, what is still open, and what I need to do next. Quote the exact sentence for anything with a date or an amount. Here it is: [paste the thread or document]
Asking for the exact sentence behind dates and amounts makes those details easy to check against the original.
Check one thing before you act
- Find the quoted lines in the original and make sure they say the same thing.
- If the summary says something was agreed, check who said it and when.
- For anything about money, deadlines or contracts, read that part of the original yourself.