Microsoft Teams is Getting New Copilot and AI Capabilities

Microsoft detailed today new AI features coming to Microsoft Teams to make users more productive. The software giant is also improving the Copilot experience that’s already available for Copilot for Microsoft 365 users.

Citing its own customer research based on a survey of 1,300 Copilot for Microsoft 365 users across different functions, Microsoft claims that just 11 minutes a day of time savings over 11 weeks of Copilot usage is what it takes for users to become convinced about the value of generative AI at work. “After 11 weeks—about one business quarter—most users say it improves their work across key areas like productivity and having fewer meetings,” the company said today.

Anyway, the company is doubling down on bringing new AI capabilities in Teams. While part of this is about bringing more value to the $30 per user per month Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription, some of the new AI capabilities Microsoft also announced today will be available with a Teams Premium subscription.

Here are the main highlights of what Microsoft announced today:

Copilot in the meeting chat: During a Teams meeting, participants will soon be able to open Copilot in the meeting chat and ask about what was said during the meeting (including in the chat conversation).

Copilot in the chat compose box: When writing a chat message, Teams users will be able to ask Copilot to rewrite it to take into account the context of the conservation, change its tone, or add a call to action.

Intelligent call recap: This feature will soon be able to recap all VoIP and PSTN calls in Teams. It will be coming to both Teams Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365 users next quarter.

Automatic camera switching for IntelliFrame: The AI-powered hybrid meeting experience is now enabled by default on Teams Rooms devices. Intelliframe could already create smart video feeds of in-room participants, and later this year, automatic camera switching will use AI to compare video sources and select the best view of each person in a meeting room.

Speaker Recognition: This feature coming in public preview next month for Teams Rooms on Windows systems will be able to improve the quality of transcripts and meeting insights created by Copilot.

Autopilot for Teams Rooms: Microsoft is about the simplify the deployment of Teams Rooms devices by integrating it with Windows Autopilot. Microsoft says IT admins will be able to deploy Teams Rooms environments in just “minutes”, and a public preview of Autopilot for Teams Rooms will be available in the coming weeks.

Lastly, Microsoft has teamed up with AT&T, Odido, Virgin Media O2, Vodafone UK, and other partners to expand the availability of Teams Phone Mobile later this year. This solution aims to streamline communication by giving users a single phone number to use across Microsoft Teams and their native phone app.