City, town clerk jobs shift as new AI tool enters scene

CHARLOTTE — The job of a town or city clerk is important to keeping track of meetings for public records and history.

But it can be a tedious task.

Clerks keep track of everything that is said and everything that happens.

Heather Minor is a clerk for the town of Long View. She says the job can be a tricky one that requires some help

“This is my lifeline during a meeting,” she said. “It’s my little handheld recorder. It’s a bad day if I forget to turn it on.”

The town doesn’t host many lengthy meetings, but that doesn’t mean the job is a piece of cake.

“I would listen for about 15 to 30 seconds and then type what I heard,” Minor said.

Now, she has some help. Minor and many clerks across the state are using an AI tool called Clerk Minutes.

Clerks can upload their agenda and recording, and the AI will generate the minutes. The clerks can then review them, assign speakers, and make any changes necessary.

The founder of the company, Dustin Overbeck, says this is one example of how AI can come alongside human workers to create quality work.

“There’s a lot of people who think that doom and gloom of having something like ‘AI is gonna take my job away,’” he said. “It’s not really that. It’s really redirecting their ability to something that’s more, higher value work.”

For Minor, this means she can spend more time serving in her role as a public relations director for the town, instead of spending hours typing everything said in a meeting.

“My workflow has been able to be more streamlined,” she said. “I’m able to focus on other areas in my job that we wanted to improve.”

Overbeck says more than 600 municipalities across the country use this technology, including about 100 in NC.

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