Summarisation and traceability

How can you condense several documents without losing the evidence, nuances and limitations of the information?

1250 € per session, excl. VAT

In short

In a half-day session of 3 hours you use generative AI to turn a collection of documents into a short, verifiable brief. You select useful information, link each claim to its source and check omissions, contradictions and references before sharing your summary.

Why this training?

A fluent summary can conceal a fabricated reference, a piece of data taken out of context or a contradiction that has been removed. Linking claims to the passages consulted allows the reader to verify what actually underpins the brief. AI helps to extract, group and rephrase information, but its response does not constitute evidence. The training establishes a checking routine to retain the caveats in the document collection and distinguish findings, interpretations and missing information. Running case study: The fictitious organisation Avelune Médiation is considering extending its reception opening hours. Its manager requests a one-page summary based on five training documents: an attendance report, a team meeting report, a user survey, a budget note and a proposal for opening hours. Two documents differ on staff availability. Transfer to the workplace: In the following days, reuse the template with an authorised and anonymised collection of professional documents. Ask a colleague to verify three claims, then compare the traceability rate and the corrections required with those from the exercise.

Objectives of this training

  • Define the question, intended audience and scope of a summary
  • Extract relevant information into an evidence matrix
  • Write a brief with a clear hierarchy and traceable references
  • Check quotations, rephrasing and contradictions in the document collection
  • Measure the traceability of claims and correct discrepancies

Who is it for and what are the prerequisites?

Roles and tasks concerned

  • Documentation or monitoring officers who produce short notes
  • Assistants and coordinators who prepare meeting packs
  • Staff who need to report on several documents to a manager

Prior skills

  • Have previous experience of making simple requests to generative AI
  • Be able to consult documents and locate a passage by page or section

What you will work on

  1. Define the reading task and compile a source inventory

    Objective: Define what the brief needs to clarify. Intended audience, central question, scope; author, date, status and relevance of the documents; distinction between a source and an AI response.

  2. Extract evidence without extrapolating

    Objective: Establish a verifiable basis before drafting. Instruction restricted to the document collection; extraction by document; reference by page or section; separation of facts, opinions and unknowns.

  3. Draft and organise the brief by importance

    Objective: Condense the document collection while preserving nuance. Main message, key findings, caveats and open questions; short references linked to a source list.

  4. Audit the summary and measure its quality

    Objective: Validate the deliverable’s faithfulness to the source documents. Claim-by-claim check; important omissions; calculation: correctly sourced claims divided by factual claims, multiplied by one hundred.

What you take away

  • Definition of the summary question
  • Matrix of information, supporting passages and references
  • One-page brief with sources and limitations
  • Completed checklist and reusable AI prompts

Method and assessment

  • Short teaching inputs followed by immediate practice using the running case study.
  • Individual work followed by work in pairs, with peer review of the outputs.
  • Guided group discussion: what works, what needs correcting and what remains a human decision.
  • Preparation: Ensure access to an AI assistant authorised by the organisation; check the rules for document processing. Have a word processor available and consult the fictitious document collection provided; no confidential documents are required.

Observable criteria: The brief answers the question and meets the one-page format, excluding references. ; Each factual claim points to a document and a locatable passage. ; Quotations reproduce the consulted extracts exactly; rephrasing preserves their meaning. ; The discrepancy over availability is made explicit without inventing a resolution. ; The percentage of correctly sourced factual claims is calculated before and after correction..

Frequently asked questions

Do you need to search for sources on the Internet?

No. The exercise uses a closed document collection to focus the work on faithfulness and traceability.

What should you do if AI fabricates a reference?

Look for the original passage; if no evidence can be found, remove the claim or explicitly indicate the missing information.

Can you use your own documents?

Only if they are anonymised and authorised for use in the selected tool. The fictitious document collection is sufficient for all exercises.

Is a high traceability rate sufficient?

No. You also need to check the meaning of the passages, the relevance of the sources and whether important caveats are included.

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