Using an AI assistant to coordinate projects in your SME without changing all your tools
You run an SME and you feel that project meetings, emails and shared files keep piling up… without giving you a clear view of progress? You are not alone. Many business owners feel they are losing information along the way, without knowing where to start to bring structure back.
In this article, we’ll see how to use AI not to add one more tool, but to organise how your teams coordinate. The goal: turn the constant flow of conversations into simple, shared and actionable follow‑up, without replacing all your existing software. We’ll look at concrete examples, a simple overview of how such a system works, then a step‑by‑step method to test this kind of assistant in your SME.
1. Why project coordination breaks down in SMEs
In most SMEs, coordination relies on three fragile pillars:
- The memory of a few key people
- Email threads or chat conversations that are hard to follow
- Shared files (spreadsheets, project tools) that are not always up to date
This leads to:
- Meeting decisions that never turn into concrete actions
- Priorities that change without everyone being properly informed
- Topics that simply fall through the cracks
The problem is not a lack of tools, but a lack of structure to turn information into actions.
A well‑designed AI assistant can play exactly this structuring role, without replacing your project managers.
2. What an AI coordination assistant can actually do
First, let’s be clear: an AI assistant does not run your projects. It does not decide your priorities. Its role is to:
- Capture information scattered across different channels (minutes, emails, notes)
- Structure this information into decisions, actions, deadlines
- Update a shared tracking space
- Alert when an action is late or a risk is emerging
Concretely, in an SME, this can take the form of:
- An assistant connected to your meeting notes that extracts:
- Decisions made
- Actions to be taken
- Owners and due dates
- Automatic updates of a tracking board (in Excel, Google Sheets, Notion, ClickUp, Trello, etc.)
- Automatic reminders sent to people in charge
- Regular progress summaries for management: “Where do we stand?”
Concrete example
Imagine a project to redesign your website:
- After each project meeting, the AI assistant:
- Summarises the decisions
- Lists the tasks to be done
- Updates a shared tracking table
- Every Monday morning, it prepares a progress summary for you:
- Overdue tasks
- Blocking points
- Key next steps
You no longer spend your time asking “How far along are we?”, you get the big picture in a few minutes.
3. How such a system works (simple view)
Here is a simplified diagram of an AI‑assisted coordination system in an SME:
In practice:
- You keep using your current tools (calendar, video calls, email, shared files)
- The AI comes in after the fact, to turn conversations into structured information
- This is not a “big IT project”, but a precise workflow that you implement step by step
4. Three high‑value use cases for SMEs
For a non‑technical owner or manager, there’s no need to cover everything on day one. Three use cases usually bring value very quickly:
4.1. Turn meetings into clear action plans
Meetings are often rich… but their outcomes get lost.
With an AI assistant, you can:
- Provide the meeting minutes or transcript
- Ask it to extract:
- Decisions made
- Actions to be taken with owner and due date
- Open points to decide in the next meeting
- Automatically send this summary:
- To participants
- Into your tracking tool (spreadsheet, project tool)
Immediate impact: fewer “catch‑up” meetings just to remember where you stand, more time to move things forward.
4.2. Centralise progress without heavy reporting
Today, many project managers spend a lot of time:
- Updating spreadsheets
- Preparing summaries for management
- Chasing people for updates
An AI assistant can:
- Gather information (completed tasks, comments, emails)
- Automatically update a simple progress board
- Generate a weekly summary for managers:
- What is on track
- What is blocked
- Risks to watch
Project managers remain fully responsible for delivery, but spend less time on “administrative” reporting.
4.3. Spot risks and weak signals
AI can also help you:
- Spot risk‑related keywords in meeting notes or emails (delay, unhappy client, budget overrun…)
- Highlight tasks that keep slipping
- Flag topics that are postponed from one meeting to the next
The goal is not to monitor people, but to get visibility before problems turn critical.
5. Implementing an AI coordination assistant in 5 steps
You don’t need to transform everything at once. The aim is to run a pilot on a single project. Here is a simple approach tailored to SMEs.
Step 1 – Pick one pilot project
Choose a project that:
- Involves several people or teams
- Generates regular meetings and conversations
- Matters to the business, but is not life‑or‑death for the company
Examples:
- Launching a new service
- Moving to new offices
- Redesigning a website or a customer journey
Step 2 – Clarify what you want to automate
Ask yourself a few straightforward questions:
- What recurring meetings are linked to this project?
- How are notes taken today?
- Where is progress tracked (table, tool, file)?
- Where do you lose most time or information?
The goal is to pick one initial workflow among:
- Turning meetings into action plans
- Automatically updating a progress board
- Generating a weekly summary for management
Step 3 – Define the role of AI (and what stays human)
To avoid confusion, write down clearly:
- What the AI does:
- Extracts decisions and actions
- Updates a table
- Prepares summaries
- What stays human:
- Validating minutes
- Prioritising actions
- Arbitrating conflicts or sensitive choices
This reassures the teams: AI assists, it does not decide.
Step 4 – Set up a first simple workflow
Over 2–3 weeks, you can test the following:
- After each project meeting:
- Record the meeting (or export the transcript from your video tool)
- Send the transcript or notes to the AI assistant
- Ask the AI to:
- Summarise the decisions
- List the actions with owners and due dates
- Copy‑paste these items into:
- A shared table (Excel/Sheets, Notion, project tool)
- A summary email to participants
At first, these steps can be semi‑manual. The point is to validate the workflow, not to fully automate everything from day one.
Step 5 – Standardise and simplify
After 3 or 4 meetings:
- Ask the team:
- What actually saves you time?
- What is useless or too complex?
- Refine a standard summary format:
- Always the same sections (Decisions / Actions / Open points)
- A reasonable length
- Once the format is stable, you can:
- Automate more (integrations with your tools)
- Extend the system to other projects
6. Practical checklist: are you ready to test this assistant?
Use this checklist to decide whether you can launch a pilot now:
- [ ] You have at least one project involving several teams
- [ ] There are recurring meetings for this project
- [ ] Decisions are sometimes forgotten or poorly followed up
- [ ] There is one central place (even a simple one) where progress is tracked
- [ ] One person (project manager, office manager, owner) can act as pilot for the test
- [ ] You accept that the first version will be imperfect and will improve over 3–4 weeks
If you tick these boxes, you can start with a minimal AI assistant: a transcription tool, an AI assistant (like the ones built by Lyten Agency) and a shared table.
Conclusion
For an SME, better project coordination does not require another complex platform. It requires a better way to turn conversations into tracked actions. A well‑framed AI assistant helps you:
- Clarify decisions made in meetings
- Centralise progress without heavy reporting
- Spot risks and bottlenecks earlier
- Reduce the mental load on managers and project leads
The key is to start small, on a pilot project, and involve the team in defining the assistant’s role.
If you want support on this journey, Lyten Agency can help you identify and automate your key processes. Get in touch for a free initial audit.