Digitize Business Cards Using Claude AI

TL;DR: The Flow

What you'll get: A workflow that turns any business card into a contact entry in Notion in seconds. No manual typing. No fumbling.

The Problem: Business Cards Are Still a Nightmare

You come back from a networking event with 15 business cards. What happens next?

• You stack them on your desk and forget about them
• You spend hours typing them in manually
• You never follow up

The average business owner spends 30+ minutes manually entering contact info after just one event. With 50+ events a year, that's 25+ hours of typing.

The Solution: Claude AI + Notion

Here's what we're building:

1. Take a photo of any business card
2. Send it to Claude (via Claude Pro)
3. Claude reads the card and pulls out all the contact details
4. Claude saves it straight into your Notion contacts list

No complicated setup. No technical knowledge needed. Just Claude Pro ($20/month) and Notion (free).

What You'll Need

1 Set Up Your Notion Contacts List

A simple table where each row is one contact.

You have two options:

Option A: Use a Free Template

1. Go to notion.com/templates/contacts-database
2. Click Duplicate to copy it into your Notion
3. You get tabs for Clients, Leads, Freelancers, and more (already set up)

Option B: Build Your Own (2 Minutes)

1. Open Notion → click New → select Database (this creates a table/spreadsheet-style view)
2. Add these columns:
   • Name (already there by default)
   • Title (their job titlee.g., "Director of Sales")
   • Company (where they work)
   • Phone (phone number)
   • Email (email address)
   • Website (their company or personal site)
   • LinkedIn (their LinkedIn profile link)
   • Location (city or region)
   • Notes (where/when you met, what you discussed)

2 Connect Claude to Your Notion

1. Open Claude Pro on your desktop computer
2. Go to Settings → look for Integrations or MCP Servers
3. Add Notion as a connected tool
4. Sign in with your Notion account when prompted
5. Make sure it's pointed at your Contacts table

Tell Claude to learn your table layout:

"Look up my People/Contacts database in Notion. Show me the available fields so we can set up a workflow for adding contacts from business cards."

Claude will list your columns (Name, Title, Company, Email, etc.) and confirm the layout. Every Notion setup is different, so Claude learns your specific column names.

3 Set Up Your Default Template

Give Claude instructions for how you want new contacts created:

Prompt:

When I upload business cards, create contacts with:

1. Properties to fill from the card:
   Automatically map to the fields you discovered:
   - Person's name
   - Job title/role
   - Company/organization
   - Phone number(s)
   - Email
   - Website (if on card)
   - Address/location (if on card)

2. Page setup:
   - Match the icon used by existing contacts
   - Add a "Notes" section in the page body

3. Default note: "Met at [EVENT NAME] on [DATE]."

4. Before creating: Show me the proposed field mapping,
   then ask if I have any specific notes about the person
   (what we discussed, follow-up needed, etc.)

If a field isn't on the card, leave it blankdon't guess.

Replace [EVENT NAME] with where you met the person and [DATE] with today's date. Example: "Met at TechConf 2025 on January 28, 2025."

Then: Share the photo of the card.

You should see Claude read the card, show you the proposed field mapping, ask for any notes, then save everything to Notion.

4 Scan Multiple Cards at Once

You don't have to go one at a time. Upload several cards together:

[Upload 4 business card images]

All from today's Chamber of Commerce event. Add the default note to all.
Card 3 (Derrick) wanted to discuss marketing collaboration. Flag for follow-up.

Claude will process all cards and create individual contacts for each. Same quality, way faster.

Pro Tips

Troubleshooting

Once Claude is connected to your Notion, you can ask it to do more: "Sort my contacts by company," "Who haven't I followed up with?" or "Draft a follow-up email to Sarah Chen." One connection, unlimited uses.