Get Automatic Meeting Summaries from Microsoft Teams

What This Does

Teams Copilot automatically transcribes your meetings and generates a summary with key discussion points and action items — delivered to you within minutes of the meeting ending, no manual note-taking required.

Before You Start

• You use Microsoft Teams for client or internal meetings
• Your Microsoft 365 license includes Teams Copilot (M365 Copilot license or Teams Premium)
• You're the meeting organizer OR the organizer has enabled transcription for the meeting
• Time needed: 5 minutes to enable; zero time per meeting after that
• Cost: Included in M365 Copilot or Teams Premium license (~$10/user/month add-on at many firms)

Steps

1. Start or join your Teams meeting

Open Microsoft Teams and start or join the meeting as usual.

2. Enable Copilot at the start of the meeting

Once in the meeting, click the three-dot menu (...) in the meeting controls at the top of the screen. Select "Copilot" from the dropdown. A Copilot pane opens on the right side of the meeting window.

Note: The meeting organizer may need to enable transcription first (it may be set at the admin level for your firm). If prompted, click "Start Transcription" when you see the option.

What you should see: A Copilot pane on the right showing that it's active and listening.

Troubleshooting: If Copilot isn't available, your firm's IT admin may need to enable the feature in the Teams admin center.

3. Let the meeting run normally

Copilot works in the background during the meeting. You don't need to do anything differently. All participants are notified that the meeting is being transcribed (a banner appears at the top of the meeting for all participants).

4. Ask Copilot questions during the meeting (optional)

While the meeting is still live, you can type questions into the Copilot pane: "What decisions have been made so far?" or "What action items have been mentioned?" This is helpful during long planning calls or when you join late.

5. Get the recap after the meeting ends

After the meeting ends, go to your Teams Calendar and open the meeting event. Click "Recap" at the top. You'll see:

• Full transcript (searchable)
• AI-generated summary (3–5 bullet points)
• Action items with names attached (e.g., "David to send the engagement letter by March 15")
• Chapters/topics organized by time

6. Share or export the summary

Copy the action items directly into your task manager or send them to the client as a follow-up email. Click "Download transcript" to save the full text if needed for the engagement file.

Real Example

Scenario: You have a 45-minute client planning call discussing document needs, timeline, questions about their QuickBooks setup, and action items for both sides.

Setup: Enable Copilot at the start of the call.

What you get: Within 2 minutes of ending the call:

• 4-bullet summary of what was discussed
• Action items: "Client will send QuickBooks export by March 10. David will confirm audit scope letter by March 12."
• Full searchable transcript

Time saved: 30–40 minutes of post-meeting note-writing eliminated; zero risk of forgetting an action item.

Tips

• All participants are notified about transcription — tell clients beforehand if it might feel intrusive for sensitive discussions
• The action item extraction is good but not perfect — always review before sending to clients
• Use the transcript search feature to find specific things that were said during a long meeting: "search for 'depreciation'" and jump to that part of the recording

Tool interfaces change — if Copilot options have moved, look for AI/Recap options in the meeting controls or the Teams Calendar recap view.