How to Use Copilot in Teams Meetings for Recaps and Action Items

The short version

Copilot in Teams listens through the meeting transcript, so turn on transcription and you can ask it what was decided, who owns what and what you missed. After the call, the same questions work from the meeting chat or the Recap tab.

Step by step

Before the meeting (organizer)

1. In the meeting scheduler, go to Settings > Online meeting options > Copilot and other AI.
2. Choose an option. Microsoft lists three: During and after the meeting (needs transcription), Only during the meeting (nothing kept afterward), and Off.

During the meeting

1. Start transcription. Copilot can answer about the meeting only while transcription is running.
2. Select the Copilot icon in the meeting controls. A private Copilot chat opens.
3. Select View prompts for suggestions, or type your own question.
4. Joined late? If you arrive more than five minutes in, Copilot may offer to catch you up. Select Open Copilot.
5. Export long answers. Responses over 1,300 characters can go to Word with Open in Word, and tables to Excel with Open in Excel.

After the meeting

1. Open the meeting from your Teams calendar.
2. Select the Recap tab, or open the meeting chat and select Open Copilot in the upper-right corner.
3. Ask your questions. Copilot uses the chat and transcript and cites where its answers come from.

Prompts to copy

Catch up:

Summarize what's been discussed so far. What did I miss in the last 10 minutes?

Decisions and owners:

List the decisions made in this meeting and the action items, with who owns each one and any dates mentioned.
Put it in a table.

Where people disagree:

Where did people disagree, and what were the main arguments on each side?

A follow-up email:

Draft a short follow-up email to attendees with the decisions, action items and next meeting date.

Example

The meeting: a 45-minute planning call for a store reopening, transcription on.

You ask after the call: “List action items with owners and deadlines.”

A good result: a table with five or six tasks, each with a name and a date where one was said, plus citations to the transcript. You check one or two against the transcript, then paste the table into your follow-up email.

Mistakes to avoid

• Forgetting transcription. Without it, Copilot can’t answer questions about the meeting afterward, and the Recap tab won’t have Copilot’s history.
• Treating the recap as the minutes. It can miss a quiet “no” or a joke taken literally. Check anything you’ll act on.
• Assigning tasks nobody agreed to. If the transcript says “someone should,” Copilot may guess an owner. Confirm with people.
• Expecting it in other companies’ meetings. Microsoft says Copilot doesn’t work in meetings hosted outside your organization.

When not to use it

Sensitive conversations, such as HR or legal matters, may be better without transcription; check your organization’s rules first. And in recurring meetings, Microsoft notes that earlier Copilot history can be lost when a later meeting in the series is transcribed, so save what you need.

Related: use Copilot in Outlook and use Copilot Chat at work.