New Generative AI and AI-powered meeting assistants are transforming how we work. They can help us save time, stay organized and collaborate more effectively. UW–Madison has vetted and secured contracts for several Generative AI and AI Meeting Assistant tools for use in your daily tasks. These tools are available at no cost and provide higher data security and privacy protection than public services.

Generative AI solutions

Generative AI products create new content such as text, images, audio or code based on patterns learned from existing data. There are two Generative AI Services available for use with public and internal data: Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot Chat. They can assist with tasks like writing, designing, brainstorming and automating workflows by generating outputs that resemble human-created work. When you use these tools, ensure you are considering guidelines for ethical use, and note these services are not approved for use with sensitive or restricted data.

AI Meeting Assistant solutions

AI Meeting Assistants help streamline meetings by automatically transcribing conversations, generating summaries, tracking action items, and providing real-time insights making it easier for teams to stay organized and focused. UW–Madison offers two products: Webex AI Assistant and Zoom AI Companion. These tools can be used in meetings where all data classifications will be discussed, and are the only AI Meeting Assistants approved by CALS and UW–Madison.

CALS and UW–Madison policies prohibit the use of unapproved AI Meeting Assistants for university business. Importantly, the university does not yet have an approved AI Meeting Assistant for Microsoft Teams. If you see one, please inform the meeting owner to remove the AI bot from the meeting, or if you receive an unexpected email from an AI service about a CALS or UW–Madison meeting, let the meeting owner and CALS IT know.

Please also note additional CALS guidance and best practices for AI Meeting Assistant tools.

Other AI tools and use cases

The tools provided by UW–Madison are a good place to start to learn how AI tools can aid you in some of your daily tasks. However, they don’t cover all of our needs, so CALS has developed a risk assessment process for currently unapproved tools, as well as for using tools with sensitive and restricted data. The process assists CALS faculty and staff by having our cybersecurity team review the vendor’s privacy and security protections to identify risks associated with using the service. CALS IT then offers best practice recommendations if the request moves forward. The form and information about the process can be found at https://go.wisc.edu/cals-risk-review.

If you have any questions about the above AI tools, or any other technology questions, please reach out to CALS IT.