Author: Kirsten Nielsen

Each year, HH Angus staff teams flex their creativity and ingenuity in our Innovation Hub Challenge - devising creative solutions for engineering-related questions or issues. 

Our most recent challenge focused on how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to improve specific internal workflows.  

Each team was assigned a unique process that could potentially be improved through the use of AI and were tasked with creating an AI prototype to address their challenge. Their submissions also required a business case addressing real-world considerations such as cost, privacy and implementation strategies. 

The ‘AutoMates’ team took top prize. Team members Laura Farid, Max Mizrahi, Nigel Harvey, Shaun Lee, and Shawn Shi took on the challenge of automating the capture of meeting minutes and formatting them into HH Angus’ standardized template. Meeting minutes are a critical but time-consuming aspect of project management for consulting engineers, and the multi-disciplinary team impressed the judging panel with a smart and scalable AI solution that not only produced meeting minutes, but also included attendee lists, content summaries, and other key information. 

The AI model addressed a tangible need and demonstrated the strength of cross-functional collaboration and the power of applied technology. Ultimately, the AutoMates’ work and that of the other teams showcased the company’s commitment to innovation in professional services. 

Identifying the Issue 

The initial spark for the project came from a scenario familiar to engineers and designers. How to ensure during meetings, especially those involving multiple stakeholders, that all valuable ideas and action items are documented, while discussion moves rapidly in new directions and input comes thick and fast. Assigning a team member to take minutes presents its own problems: it disrupts that person’s ability to participate fully in the discussion and introduces the risk of bias or omission. Even when recordings are made, manually reviewing them to extract notes is time-consuming and inefficient. 

Recognizing this is recurring issue across not just the firm but the industry at large, the AutoMates team set out to answer a deceptively simple question: What if there was a way to capture everything from a meeting—discussion points, action items, next steps—automatically and accurately? 

Ensuring a 360⁰ Perspective 

What made the AutoMates team uniquely positioned to solve this challenge was its composition. Members came from different corners of HH Angus, bringing fresh insights and a range of expertise. The group included professionals from the Science & Technology, Energy Infrastructure and Health divisions in our Vancouver and Toronto offices and included both electrical and mechanical designers as well as new grads. The multidisciplinary mix ensured the solution would be technically robust while remaining grounded in real-world workflow needs. 

This diversity fueled their brainstorming process. Because team members represented both the users and the builders of the tool, they were able to identify pain points with clarity and propose features with practical value.  

 Exploring the Solution Space 

From the outset, the team knew that AI had potential to ease the burden of minute-taking. But they didn’t want a tool that merely transcribed conversations. They envisioned something smarter—an AI that could listen, interpret, and summarize; that could identify who said what and flag key takeaways and next steps. In short, they wanted to automate the way great minutes are written. 

They began by investigating existing AI models capable of transcribing and analyzing speech. While early outputs showed promise, the team quickly realized that model tuning would be necessary to meet their standard of accuracy and relevance. 

Another challenge was formatting. Meeting minutes are not just a record—they are a tool for alignment. They must be clear, well-structured, and easy to navigate. The AutoMates built in logic to ensure the tool output clean, professional summaries, automatically categorizing content by speaker, topic, and outcome. 

Designing for Real-World Use 

The team was mindful that the solution needed to be easy to deploy and user-friendly. They designed the tool so it could be used in a variety of meeting formats—virtual, in-person, or hybrid. Uploading a recording or transcript should be straightforward, with minimal manual steps. Once uploaded, the AI would process the input and deliver a formatted summary with participants, discussion points, action items, and a timestamped transcript. 

To test the tool, the team used real internal meetings on non-confidential topics to gauge how well the summaries matched what actually happened. They refined parameters, adjusted formatting, and iterated based on feedback from colleagues.  

Winning the Innovation Challenge 

The HH Angus Innovation Challenge rewards forward-thinking ideas that improve processes, reduce waste, or enhance client outcomes. The AutoMates met all these criteria with their AI tool’s broad applicability across project teams, internal meetings, and client-facing discussions. 

The judges were impressed by the combination of technical sophistication and everyday usefulness. By using off-the-shelf AI models in a smart and tailored way, the AutoMates team solved a problem most consulting engineering professionals encounter regularly. 

Their solution also aligned with broader strategic goals: digital transformation, operational efficiency, and knowledge management. It showed how emerging technologies can be applied to elevate the quality of work without disrupting workflows. 

Looking Ahead 

During the Innovation Challenge, the AutoMates team provided detailed steps on how to refine the tool, exploring ways to integrate it with other HH Angus platforms. Perhaps most importantly, the project has sparked further conversations about how AI can support—not replace—human contributions in professional services. By offloading routine tasks like minute-taking, engineers and designers are free to focus on what they do best: thinking critically, solving problems, and collaborating with others. 

Conclusion 

The AutoMates' AI meeting minutes tool is more than a clever hack—it's a practical example of how thoughtful innovation can improve everyday work. It reflects HH Angus’ culture of cross-functional collaboration, curiosity, and continuous improvement. Innovation isn’t just about ideas—it’s about identifying needs, testing solutions, and delivering something meaningful. And with this project, the AutoMates have proven that even something as routine as meeting minutes can become an opportunity for transformation. Congratulations to the winning team and to all the Innovation Challenge participants. People will always be at the heart of what we do, and it is encouraging to witness bright and talented minds come together and make cool things! 

Expanding the Possible. Together. For a Better Tomorrow.