The Facilitator agent in Microsoft Teams is a shared AI assistant that sits in your meeting, takes live notes everyone can edit, tracks the agenda, answers questions in the chat and summarises the decisions and open questions. It's included with a Microsoft Copilot licence, as of October 2026, and works in scheduled Teams meetings but not in instant meetings, calls or channel meetings.
The word that matters is shared. Most people already know Copilot in Teams, the private assistant that answers only you. Facilitator is the one the whole room can see and use, which changes how you'd use it, and when you wouldn't.
What Facilitator does in a meeting
Microsoft's FAQ sums it up: Facilitator "generates real-time AI notes during your meetings, answers questions in chat, keeps track of the meeting agenda, and summarizes key decisions and open questions" from the discussion. You talk to it by mentioning it in the meeting chat. Microsoft's own example is "@Facilitator add these topics to the agenda".
Here's what Microsoft's admin page lists as generally available, and what's still in preview, as of October 2026.
| Feature | What it means for you | Status as Microsoft states |
|---|---|---|
| Collaborative real-time notes | Everyone can edit the notes during the meeting, through the Notes tab | Generally available |
| AI Q&A | Ask questions answered from the meeting and from web content | Generally available |
| Timeline markers | Tracks topics and time, with reminders at midway and wrap-up | Generally available |
| Word document creation | Ask for a document during or after the meeting | Generally available |
| Teams Rooms experience | Chat, notes and timers on the meeting room screen | Generally available |
| Mobile capture | Records ad-hoc discussions and action items on your phone | Generally available |
| Task tracking with Planner | Links meeting actions to Planner tasks | In public preview |
The Word feature is the one I'd test first. Microsoft's example prompt is "@Facilitator, create a BRD based on this meeting for the executive review". Swap BRD for whatever your team writes after a meeting, such as a proposal outline, a project brief or a client summary, and you've cut out the hour of writing up that usually follows.
How it's different from Copilot in Teams
Microsoft draws the line clearly. A user's prompts to Copilot in Teams, and Copilot's answers, are private to that one person. Facilitator "acts like an assistant sitting in your users' meetings". If someone prompts it, everyone in the meeting can see the question, just as if they'd typed it to a colleague in the chat, and Facilitator posts its answer in the conversation for all to read.
That's useful when you want one agreed record. It's awkward when you'd have liked to ask "what did she mean by that?" quietly. For private questions, use Copilot in Teams instead. I've covered how Copilot works in Teams meetings separately.
What you need to use it
Microsoft says "Facilitator is included with a Microsoft Copilot license and subject to available capacity." To use it you also need an eligible Microsoft 365 base licence and an eligible Teams licence. If your business is on Microsoft 365 plans without Teams, Microsoft says you need to buy Teams licences separately. Preview features need you to be in the Teams Public preview programme.
Only licensed users can start Facilitator or prompt it. Unlicensed colleagues in the meeting can still read the notes, other people's prompts and Facilitator's replies. So you don't need a licence for every attendee, only for the people who'll drive it.
To add it, Microsoft gives two routes:
- When you schedule the meeting, select Add Facilitator in the scheduling form.
- If you're already in the meeting, select More actions, then Turn on Facilitator.
- When prompted, choose the language people will be speaking. It has to match, or Microsoft says notes aren't generated.
- During the meeting, mention @Facilitator in the chat to add agenda items, ask questions or request a document.
- Afterwards, open the meeting chat, select Recap at the top, then Notes.
Where the notes end up
Microsoft says Facilitator's meeting data is stored as a .loop file in a OneDrive folder called Meetings, belonging to whoever started Facilitator, and it's treated as meeting transcript data. That's worth knowing if the person who usually starts it leaves the business. Microsoft's page also says Loop file generation would no longer be supported by 31 July 2026, as Word document generation gets enhanced, with no impact on Facilitator's live notes.
A few compliance details catch people out. Microsoft says the notes don't inherit the meeting's sensitivity label, meeting settings like Prevent copy and paste and Watermarks don't apply to Facilitator's notes or replies, and the AI notes aren't automatically collected in Purview eDiscovery. If you run sensitive meetings with those settings switched on, Facilitator's notes sit outside them.
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Meetings where it won't work
- Instant meetings, Teams calls and channel meetings, according to Microsoft's FAQ.
- 1:1 chats, group chats and external chats and meetings, according to the admin page.
- Meetings in more than one language: notes are only taken for the parts spoken in the language you selected.
- Anything with outside guests, because external participants can't access the notes.
Microsoft also says the notes are attributed to a participant, not to Facilitator, and that agenda checkmarks appear at intervals rather than the moment a topic starts. Neither is a dealbreaker, but both are worth telling your team so nobody's confused.
For meeting rooms, Microsoft has a separate Teams Rooms version. In a scheduled meeting with a Teams Rooms device, people in the room see Facilitator's chat, notes and agenda timers on the front screen, and only the organiser needs a Copilot licence. Note-taking for unscheduled in-person chats on a room device is in preview and currently comes with Teams Rooms Pro.
The admin switch
Microsoft says Facilitator is allowed by default, unless your organisation blocks all apps. An admin can change that in the Teams admin center: go to Teams apps, then Manage apps, search for Facilitator, then choose Allow or Block from the actions menu. To limit it to a group of people, the admin creates an app permission policy and assigns it to those users. Loop experiences in Teams have to be switched on too, because Facilitator's notes depend on them. Users themselves can't customise how Facilitator behaves.
If you're new to the platform, my Microsoft Teams tutorial covers the basics, and Facilitator is one of several agents Microsoft builds into Copilot.
Is it worth switching on?
I'd turn it on for your recurring internal meetings first: weekly team catch-ups, project stand-ups, planning sessions. That's where one shared set of notes and a running agenda save the most time. I'd skip it for client calls with external guests, because they can't see the notes and Microsoft doesn't support it in external meetings anyway. And tell everyone it's there, because anything you ask it, the whole room reads.
If your team lives in meetings and you'd like AI to handle the notes and actions, that's the kind of AI enablement I help with. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement and workflow automation, so the busywork runs itself and people get time back. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.
Frequently asked questions
Can guests from outside my company see Facilitator's notes?
No. Microsoft says external participants can't access meeting notes, and Facilitator isn't supported in external chats and meetings at all.
Does everyone in the meeting need a Copilot licence?
No. Only licensed users can start or prompt Facilitator, but Microsoft says unlicensed users can still see the notes, other people's prompts and Facilitator's replies. In a scheduled meeting with a Teams Rooms device, only the organiser needs a Copilot licence.
Where do I find the notes after the meeting?
Go to the meeting chat where Facilitator was active, select Recap at the top, then select Notes. Microsoft says the notes are stored as a .loop file in the Meetings folder of the OneDrive belonging to whoever started Facilitator.
Why didn't Facilitator take any notes?
The most likely reason is language. Microsoft says the language you pick when you turn Facilitator on must match the language being spoken, or notes aren't generated. Notes also only cover one language per meeting.
