AI PDF summarizer for long reports and documents
An 80-page report lands in your inbox and you have 10 minutes before the meeting. Attach it to this prompt and your todo.is agent reads the whole thing and gives you the key findings, the numbers that matter and what you should do about it, with page references.
The prompt
- Summarize the PDF I attached. It’s [WHAT THE DOCUMENT IS] and I need it for [WHY YOU NEED IT]. Read the whole document and give me: a 3 sentence summary, the 5 to 7 most important findings with page numbers, the key numbers in a short table, anything that affects [WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT MOST], open questions or weak points, and 3 questions I could ask about it. Keep it to one page and write for [WHO WILL READ THE SUMMARY]. Give me the summary here and as a Word file I can share.
What to change
- [WHAT THE DOCUMENT IS]: e.g. "our supplier’s annual sustainability report" or "a 60-page research paper".
- [WHY YOU NEED IT]: e.g. "a board meeting tomorrow", "deciding whether to renew the contract".
- [WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT MOST]: e.g. "costs and deadlines for our team", "risks for small customers".
- [WHO WILL READ THE SUMMARY]: e.g. "my manager, who has 2 minutes", "non-technical colleagues".
Example result
- Summary · Lumen Logistics annual operations report (84 pages)
- In 3 sentences
- Lumen delivered more parcels than last year but on-time delivery fell in the second half, mainly because of a warehouse move. Costs per parcel went up, and they plan to pass part of that to customers from March. They are also moving to electric vans in two cities, which they say will lower costs from next year.
- Key findings
- • On-time delivery fell from 96% to 91% in the second half (p. 14).
- • The Leeds warehouse move caused 6 weeks of delays (p. 18–19).
- • Cost per parcel rose by 8% (p. 32).
- • A price increase for business customers is planned for March (p. 35).
- • Electric vans will be used in Leeds and Bristol from Q2 (p. 47).
- • Customer complaints rose, mostly about tracking updates (p. 52).
- Key numbers
- • Parcels delivered: 12.4M (p. 9)
- • On-time rate H2: 91% (p. 14)
- • Cost per parcel change: +8% (p. 32)
- • Planned price increase: "up to 6%" (p. 35)
- What it means for us
- Our contract renews in April, right after their price increase. The on-time drop matches the late deliveries we saw in September.
- Weak points
- • No on-time numbers by region, so we can’t see if our routes were affected.
- • The cost savings from electric vans are estimates without a method (p. 48).
- Questions to ask
- • Will the March increase apply to contracts renewed in April?
- • What on-time rate will you commit to in writing?
- • When will tracking updates improve?
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt, fill in the [brackets] and attach your PDF.
- Send it from the todo.is app, or email the PDF and prompt to your agent, or drop it in WhatsApp or Telegram.
- Your agent reads every page and replies with a one-page summary plus a Word file.
- Ask follow-ups like "what does it say about safety?" and your agent answers from the document with page numbers.
Tips
- Attach several PDFs at once and ask "compare these reports" for a side-by-side summary.
- Ask for slides: "also make a 4-slide PowerPoint of the findings" for your meeting.
- For a scanned PDF, mention it. Your agent can read images of pages, but clean text works best.
- Your files stay in your own agent’s workspace and only your agent uses them.
FAQ
- How long can the PDF be? Long reports of a hundred pages or more are fine. Very large files may take a few minutes, and your agent tells you if a file can’t be read.
- Can it summarize Word files and other documents? Yes. Your agent reads PDF and Word files, images, and audio recordings, which it transcribes first.
- Is my document private? Your file stays in your own agent’s workspace, only your agent uses it, and you can delete it any time.
- Will the summary include page numbers? Yes, the prompt asks for page references, so you can quickly check any finding in the original.
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