How to have Microsoft Copilot recap a Teams meeting when you’re late

Running late to a Microsoft Teams meeting can land you seriously out of sync with your colleagues and the latest updates from work. A coworker is resigning, you’re about to get a promotion, the company is being liquidated — these are just some of the real-life bombshells that could have been dropped while you were waiting for your morning coffee order to arrive.

You could spend the whole rest of the meeting interrupting your colleagues to find out what juicy tidbits you missed, but doing that isn’t going to win you any fans. A better option is to just use Copilot to recap what happened in your absence.

A few things first…

For Copilot recap to work in Teams you’ll need to have a current license for Microsoft 365 and Copilot. If you have those things and can’t see Copilot at the top of your Teams meeting window, you’ll need to enable it in the three-dot menu.

Additionally, the meeting host will need to have “transcription or recording enabled.” Or, alternatively, use “Copilot without Transcript” selected in the meeting settings.

Copilot will only work if someone in your organization created the meeting. It also needs enough meeting time to have transpired with enough participants talking to be able to recap. So, if that coffee order is taking longer than usual, you can relax and have a sip or two before booting up your PC.

Now what to do…

In the Teams meeting window click the Copilot icon at the top of the screen. This will open Copilot in your sidebar. Now type: What did I miss in the meeting so far. This will generate a summary of what was discussed when you weren’t there. That’s it!

Now that you’re up to speed on what you’ve missed it’s time to contribute to the meeting. Chances are your colleagues won’t know this tip, so you can have fun impressing them with your “clairvoyant ability.”

Tip: Once the meeting has finished, a transcript will automatically be generated. If you wish to send a summary to all of the meeting’s participants outlining the key action points discussed, then type: Write an email for all participants with meeting summary and include action points.