Charlotte Anderson

Using AI to transcribe and structure interview notes — journalism workflow

Just to be clear upfront: I write all my own articles. AI doesn't write my journalism. But it's transformed the administrative part of the work. Interviews. I do a lot of them. Some are recorded and transcribed, some are just notes. The process of going from raw interview content to a structured set of usable quotes and insights used to take ages. Now: I paste my raw notes or transcript and ask Claude to pull out the most significant statements, organise themes, and flag any contradictions or things that need follow-up. It doesn't write anything that goes in the article — it just organises the material I have to work with. For transcripts, it saves enormous time just having it pull direct quotes on specific topics. "Find every time the interviewee mentions the budget." Instead of re-reading 45 minutes of transcript. I also use it to check my story structure before I start writing. I paste my outline and ask if there are logical gaps or questions a reader would have that I haven't answered. Often there are. Faster research workflow. Same quality journalism. That's the deal.