How to Use Copilot to Summarize Teams Meetings
In a perfect world, every meeting would have a dedicated note-taker. Someone whose sole job is to capture decisions, action items and key insights. But for most small businesses, that kind of overhead just isn’t realistic.
With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, every recorded Teams meeting comes with AI-written notes detailing discussion topics and the tasks each attendee needs to accomplish. Additionally, Copilot will organize the meetings into chapters so you can quickly find the part of the meeting you’re looking for.
We’re just scratching the surface of what Copilot can do with recorded meetings, so let’s dive in with a quick explanation of how to record Teams meetings.
How to Record Teams Meetings
When a meeting has begun, click the three dots (More) at the top of your screen. Then choose Record and transcribe and then Start recording. Note: by default, only the organizer can record a meeting.
Once a meeting has ended, every attendee will receive a Teams chat from the meeting name with a link to view the recap.
Meetings expire after 60 days, but the meeting organizer can extend the expiration date or remove the expiration date by hovering over the expiration message and selecting “Change the expiration date.”
Copilot generally takes a few minutes to produce a meeting recap, which can then be shared with those who did not attend the meeting.
Summarize Meetings, View Chapters and More
Now that you know how to record meetings, it’s time to discuss what Copilot can do after the meeting is over.
Once you’ve opened the meeting recap, you can use the Copilot button in the upper right corner to prompt Copilot as you would in other Office apps. You can ask it to summarize the benefits of a product discussed, list follow-up tasks for a specific attendee or summarize the whole meeting.
Who Gets Access to What?
If you have a Copilot license, you’ll see the full set of AI-powered features in the meeting recap, including summaries, action items, chapters and speaker timelines.
If you attended the same meeting but don’t have a Copilot license, you’ll still see the basic recap information like the transcript, @ mentions, and any manually added notes, but you won’t have access to the AI-generated insights.
Teams Feature | Copilot needed? | Description |
AI Notes | Yes | Creates a summary of the meeting based on the conversation |
Speakers | Yes | Shows who spoke and when |
Topics | Yes | Creates topics based on what was discussed in chronological order |
Chapters | Yes | Displays thumbnails and timestamps of topics discussed |
Notes | No | Allows manual addition of notes using Loop components |
@ Mentions | No | Shows timestamp of when your name is mentioned |
Transcript | No | Generates a complete transcript of every word said in the meeting |
AI Notes
This is where Copilot creates a summary of the meeting based on the conversation. It will give you a bulleted list of the topics that were discussed, plus a follow-up task list of items that need to be accomplished.
A user must have a Copilot license to get AI summaries, but it doesn’t matter who records the meetings. Furthermore, a Copilot user doesn’t even have to attend a meeting to get AI notes. Any meeting shared with a Copilot user will generate AI notes.
“Stop wasting time manually taking notes during your important meetings. You can get detailed summaries and quickly view key moments using Copilot.”
As with anything created by Copilot, there may be mistakes, so be sure to double-check the notes for accuracy.
Speakers
Under the Speakers tab, Copilot shows you when each attendee spoke. Clicking a bubble will display that part of the meeting, so you don’t have to rewatch the whole meeting.
Topics
Copilot creates topics based on what was discussed in chronological order. Just like with Speakers, you can click a topic to view that part of the meeting.
Chapters
With Chapters, you can see thumbnails and timestamps of topics discussed. It’s similar to the Topics feature, but a slightly different way of displaying the information.
Notes
This option allows you to manually add notes using Loop components. You can write out the agenda, add bulleted notes and create a follow-up task list to keep your team on track.
@ Mentions
This area will show you the timestamp of when your name is mentioned. You can click the dialogue to go directly to that part of the meeting if you want to watch it.
Transcript
Teams will generate a complete transcript of every word that was said in the meeting. There is a search bar, so you can find when certain topics were discussed.
Similar to the AI notes, the transcript often incorrectly publishes the wrong word or attributes words to the wrong people. Always make sure to double-check the transcript for errors.
Elevate Your Meeting Recaps with Copilot
Stop wasting time manually taking notes during your important meetings. You can get detailed summaries and quickly view key moments using Copilot.
Want to learn more about how Copilot helps keep your team on track after meetings? Contact us to schedule a consultation.
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