How to Use Copilot in Teams Meetings: Setup and Limits

Meetings are where good decisions get made and then forgotten. If you run a small team, or you're a freelancer dialling into client calls on Teams, having an assistant that can tell you what was agreed is a real time saver.

This guide covers how Copilot works in Microsoft Teams meetings, what has to be switched on first, and the limits Microsoft documents. It follows Microsoft's own support article on Copilot in Teams meetings, which is the page I'd check for the latest wording.

What Copilot in Teams does during a meeting

According to Microsoft, Copilot summarises the key discussion points, including who said what, suggests action items and answers questions during or after the call. You can open a private Copilot chat from the meeting controls and ask things like where people disagreed or which ideas came up. A View prompts option offers suggestions if you're not sure what to ask.

Microsoft adds a handy detail for latecomers: if you join more than 5 minutes after the meeting starts and Copilot is active, it offers to catch you up. In the Teams desktop app you can also pop the Copilot pane out into its own window.

Switching Copilot on for a Teams meeting

The organiser sets this up, not the attendees. Microsoft describes the route like this:

1. Open the meeting in the scheduler and go to its Settings.
2. Select Online meeting options, then Copilot and other AI.
3. Choose Allow Copilot and Facilitator, then pick when it should work.

The choices matter for privacy, so it's worth reading them slowly:

Setting	What Microsoft says happens
During and after the meeting	Transcription is required. Copilot starts when transcription begins and stops when it ends
Only during the meeting	Copilot works from speech-to-text during the call. Untranscribed speech and your Copilot chats aren't available afterwards
Off	Copilot, recording and transcription are all disabled for the meeting

One point people miss: Microsoft says you don't need transcription to turn Copilot on, but you do need live transcription on to prompt Copilot about the meeting or see your conversation history once it has ended.

Using Copilot in Teams after the meeting has ended

Afterwards, open Copilot from the meeting chat in the upper-right corner or from the Recap tab. Microsoft says both show the same conversation history. Copilot can draw on the chat messages and the transcript, and it cites its sources, so you can check where an answer came from. If transcription started during the meeting, it can include chat from up to 24 hours before the meeting.

If a reply is long or has a table, Microsoft says you can open responses over 1300 characters in Word, and tabular answers in Excel. Exports are blocked if a sensitivity label prevents exporting meeting content or if the option that turns off copying and forwarding of chat, captions and transcripts is on.

Limits of Copilot in Teams that Microsoft documents

• Copilot doesn't work in meetings hosted outside your organisation, so a call on a client's Teams may not offer it.
• After a meeting you can ask about what was said only if a transcript exists.
• For recurring meetings, earlier Copilot conversation history is lost if a later meeting in the series is transcribed.
• If a transcript is no longer available, Copilot becomes unavailable for that meeting and its history is removed.
• This article covers meeting chats. Copilot in regular chats and channels has its own separate help articles, which I haven't covered here.

Whether you see Copilot at all depends on your account. Microsoft Learn says Microsoft 365 Copilot users can summarise Teams meetings and capture action items, and that experiences differ by licence. Check which Copilot option your organisation has, or ask whoever manages your Microsoft account.

How a small business can use Copilot in Teams day to day

• Ask for the agreed action items straight after a client call and paste them into your task list.
• Catch up on a team meeting you joined late, without interrupting anyone.
• Ask where the group disagreed, so you can follow up on the sticking points.
• Use the cited sources to check a quote before you put it in an email.

Recording and transcribing people has consent and privacy sides too. I wrote about one side of that in how AI meeting notes can make you look worse, and it's worth reading before you switch transcription on for client calls.

Checking Copilot answers from Teams meetings

Treat the summary as a draft. It's built from speech-to-text, which can mishear names or numbers. Before you send anything to a client, glance at the cited source. And if you want help working out where AI belongs in your team's routine, that's part of my work as an AI consultant.

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn on Copilot in a Teams meeting?

The organiser opens the meeting's Settings, selects Online meeting options, then Copilot and other AI, and chooses Allow Copilot and Facilitator with the timing they want.

Do I need transcription to use Copilot in Teams?

Microsoft says you don't need it to turn Copilot on, but you need live transcription on to prompt Copilot about the meeting or see its history after it ends.

Can Copilot summarise a meeting I joined late?

Yes. Microsoft says that if you join more than 5 minutes after the start and Copilot is active, it offers to catch you up.

Does Copilot work in meetings run by another organisation?

No. Microsoft says Copilot doesn't work in meetings hosted outside your organisation.

Can I get Copilot answers into Word or Excel?

Microsoft says responses over 1300 characters can be opened in Word and tabular responses in Excel, unless a sensitivity label or copy and forward restriction blocks it.