Team Copilot - a new "colleague" in Microsoft Teams who will never refuse help

Microsoft positions Team Copilot as a facilitator of video meetings - a specialist (in this case, artificial intelligence) that helps a group of people work more efficiently together.

Here are seven key functions of Team Copilot that, according to Microsoft, can simplify work during group video calls:

Meeting Summaries

The organizer can invite Team Copilot to summarize conversations in Microsoft Teams. The assistant will also take notes during the discussion, and any participant can edit or delete them as desired.

Action Plans

Based on the discussions, Team Copilot can suggest a plan of action - for example, recommend organizing the next meeting with a specific colleague or team

Time Tracking for Meeting Structure

In discussions, it's easy to lose track of time by focusing too much on a single topic. As a meeting facilitator, Team Copilot can ensure that structured time is maintained for each of the topics being discussed.

Chat Moderation

Teams Copilot can communicate with team members in chats to help them achieve specific goals. It can also search for and provide requested topics from the chat, search the internet on behalf of users, answer discussion questions, and so on.

Document Viewing

At your request, Team Copilot can view shared documents and answer questions about them.

Task Planning

Team Copilot can also perform project manager functions in Planner: creating and assigning tasks and goals for employees.

Tips

And of course, Team Copilot can serve as a source of advice for users. In the example below, a Microsoft Teams user asks the assistant to read a draft and offer new suggestions with their own comments.

Microsoft is not the only company that has released an "artificial colleague" this month. At Google I/O, the search engine giant introduced "AI Teammate," which, like Team Copilot, can answer questions based on discussions in a group chat.

Team Copilot is intended only for Microsoft 365 users and will be released in a preview version later in 2024.

Among other new features for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft has offered real-time transcripts, the ability for organizers to manage settings regarding who can record meetings, live reactions, noise suppression, picture-in-picture for iOS and Android, file sharing during calls, support for slash commands in teams, and more.