How to Use Copilot in Microsoft Teams: An Executive's Practical Guide

After a recorded and transcribed Teams meeting, Copilot can generate a meeting summary, extract action items and owners, and answer questions about the meeting content. Access these features from the meeting chat or the meeting recap tab.

The most useful post-meeting queries: 'Summarise the key decisions made in this meeting.' 'List all action items with the name of the person who committed to each.' 'What were the main concerns or objections raised?' 'What did [specific person] say about [specific topic]?'

Meeting summaries are accurate for well-transcribed meetings with clear audio. They are less reliable when multiple people speak simultaneously, when audio quality is poor, or when the discussion is highly technical with specialist terminology. Check the transcript quality before relying on Copilot summaries for consequential purposes.

Action item extraction is useful but not infallible: Copilot picks up explicit commitments ('I will get that done by Friday') more reliably than implicit ones ('we should probably look at that'). Review action items against your own recollection of the meeting.

Copilot can be used during a meeting as well as afterwards. If you join late, you can ask Copilot 'Catch me up on what I missed' to get a summary of the discussion so far. This is one of the most practically useful real-time features.

During long meetings with complex discussions, you can ask Copilot 'What are the key points made so far on [topic]?' to get a quick synthesis before contributing.

Note that using Copilot during a meeting requires the meeting to be transcribed (participants will see a notification that the meeting is being transcribed). Some participants may object; establish team norms around meeting recording and transcription before using during-meeting Copilot features with external participants.

After reviewing the meeting summary and action items, use Copilot to draft follow-up communications.

'Draft a follow-up email to all attendees summarising the decisions made, the action items assigned, and the date of the next meeting.'

Copilot generates a first draft of this email that typically requires only light editing. This removes one of the most common post-meeting bottlenecks: the time between a meeting ending and the follow-up communication going out.

For meetings with external participants (clients, partners, regulators), review and edit Copilot's draft carefully before sending. The summary may be accurate but the tone and framing may need adjustment for external audiences.

Teams Copilot has real limitations that are worth understanding to avoid frustration.

Unrecorded meetings: if a meeting is not transcribed, Copilot has no meeting intelligence to draw on. Meetings with external participants who decline recording cannot be captured.

Accuracy on technical or specialist discussions: Copilot handles general business conversation well. Highly technical discussions in specialist fields (clinical, legal, engineering) may produce summaries that are plausible-sounding but subtly inaccurate. Verify technically important summaries.

Attributing perspectives accurately: Copilot sometimes attributes a point to the wrong speaker, particularly in large meetings with many participants or when participants have similar voices. Check attribution on summaries used for formal purposes.

Focus on the 80%: Teams Copilot handles routine meeting administration well. For the 20% of meetings where precision and completeness are critical (board meetings, sensitive HR discussions, legal matters), treat Copilot summaries as a starting point for human review rather than a final record.