After a pilot phase, the European Patent Office has announced the wider use of AI-assisted tools for preparing minutes of oral proceedings. Under the workflow described by the EPO, audio from the hearing can first be transcribed by an AI tool, after which members of the division may use another AI tool to prepare a draft of the minutes; the final record remains under the responsibility of the competent examining or opposition division. The point is not to automate oral proceedings, but to make an important procedural record faster to produce and easier to check.
For applicants, opponents and representatives, quicker access to minutes is useful, but it also raises the value of clear procedural discipline during the hearing. Requests, concessions, new submissions and technical points should be presented in a way that can be captured accurately. The EPO’s accompanying internal guidance on AI-enabled examination processes keeps the essential boundary in place: AI may support efficiency, but the substantive decision to grant or refuse a patent remains a human examiner’s task. That distinction will matter whenever parties need to challenge the record or understand the reasons behind an examination outcome.
