Gemini and AI as a PM assistant (without losing the plot)

AI tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude can act as a PM assistant — drafting agendas, summarizing meeting notes, translating a status update. Use them as a junior staff person, not as a decision-maker.

For community PMs, AI tools earn their keep on three tasks. One: drafting first versions of communications (agendas, recap emails, meeting summaries) that you then edit. Two: translating between English and Spanish (or Vietnamese, Korean, Mandarin) for first drafts that a human reviews. Three: summarizing long documents — funder reports, policy briefs — into one-page memos for the team.

They are bad at: making decisions, knowing what is sensitive about your community, citing real sources reliably, and respecting your team's relationships. The rule is: AI drafts, humans decide. Always read what the AI produced before sending. Never paste personally identifying information of members into a public AI tool.

For Google Workspace orgs, Gemini is built into Docs, Sheets, and Gmail. For free use, ChatGPT and Claude both have generous free tiers. Pick the one your team will actually use; do not chase the new model every quarter.

A specific community-PM workflow: after every team meeting, paste the notes into Gemini with "Draft a recap email to the team and turn the action items into a checklist." Review, edit, send. This is 20 minutes of work that used to be 60.