Follow along as OIT’s own AI Trainer, Steve Chastain, uses his iPhone’s recording tools and Gemini to turn his conference sessions into an ongoing conversation — listening instead of scribbling.

At Ai4 2026, more than 14,000 people gathered to explore the future of artificial intelligence. Like most conference attendees, I arrived prepared to learn. I expected to take notes, collect resources, and leave with a long list of ideas to review later. 

Instead, I tried something different. 

For every session I attended, I used the Voice Memos app on my iPhone to record the presentation. Afterward, I exported the recording into Google Gemini and started a conversation with the AI about what I had heard. 

I wasn’t looking for a transcript. I wasn’t even looking for a summary. What I wanted was a way to continue the conversation. 

One presentation in particular, “Rethinking Using AI in University Classes,” sparked many ideas. Rather than rushing to capture every important point in a notebook, I focused on listening. I paid closer attention to the speakers, their examples, and the audience’s reactions. 

Around me, hundreds of people were doing what we’ve always done at conferences: typing notes, writing in notebooks, and trying to capture key points before the next slide appeared. 

For the first time, I wasn’t worried about missing something. 

The recording captured the details. Later, Gemini helped me explore them. 

After each session, I could ask questions about concepts that needed clarification. I could request examples, challenge assumptions, and explore how the ideas might apply to my work supporting faculty and staff at the University of Tennessee. The experience felt less like reviewing notes and more like meeting with a personal tutor who had attended the session alongside me. What surprised me most was how engaged I felt during the presentations themselves. 

When we’re busy taking notes, our attention is split between listening and documenting. We become record keepers. By removing the pressure to capture everything, I found myself becoming a more active listener. I was paying attention to the speaker instead of my keyboard. I noticed ideas connecting together in ways I might have missed if I had been focused on writing them down. 

In many ways, AI allowed me to be more present. 

The learning didn’t stop when the presentation ended. In fact, some of the most valuable learning happened afterward. The conversation with Gemini helped me process ideas, identify practical applications, and think through how those concepts could be adapted to higher education. 

As AI tools become more capable, we often focus on their ability to generate content. But my experience reminded me of another powerful use case: helping us learn. 

Instead of using AI to replace thinking, I used it to extend thinking. The conference session ended when the speaker left the stage. The learning continued long afterward. 

A Challenge for Your Learning Journey 

As I reflected on my experience at AI4 2026, I began to wonder whether we are approaching learning the wrong way. For years, we’ve focused on collecting information. We fill notebooks, save slides, and capture as many details as possible, hoping we’ll revisit them later. But what if the real value isn’t in collecting information? What if it’s in understanding it? 

Using AI to continue the conversation after a presentation changed the way I experienced the conference. Instead of worrying about capturing every detail, I focused on listening, thinking, and engaging with the ideas being presented. The recording preserved the information. The conversation with AI helped me make sense of it. 

This experience left me wondering how this approach might help all of us on our learning journey. What if AI became more than a productivity tool? What if it became a learning companion that helped us explore concepts, ask better questions, challenge our assumptions, and deepen our understanding long after a class, meeting, workshop, or conference session had ended? 

The next time you’re learning something new, consider trying a similar experiment. Record your thoughts, a lecture, or a presentation if appropriate, then have a conversation with AI about what you heard. Ask questions. Explore connections. Test your understanding. 

You may discover, as I did, that the presentation ends when the speaker leaves the stage, but the learning doesn’t have to. 

Author’s Note: Always follow applicable policies, permissions, and copyright requirements when recording presentations, classes, meetings, or conference sessions. Many speakers welcome recordings for personal learning, but it’s important to obtain permission when required and respect any restrictions on recording or sharing content.