Wrapping Up a Microsoft Teams Meeting Will Be Harder Than Ever Thanks to This New AI Tool

Most meetings can be conducted via email. At the very least, most meetings can be much shorter. Microsoft appears to be rejecting this concept with its new AI feature for Microsoft Teams, which suggests follow-up questions to “keep the conversation going.”

Microsoft co-pilot will ask additional questions during team meetings

Microsoft’s Copilot, like Google’s Gemini, is an “everyday AI assistant,” according to Google. Microsoft Supportdesigned to simplify tasks so you can focus on meaningful work rather than menial tasks. While efficiency is the goal, Microsoft’s latest update to Copilot for Teams, the virtual meeting app for Windows and Mac, may actually encourage longer meetings.

Announced via Microsoft 365 RoadmapCopilot’s sidebar will soon automatically suggest follow-up questions during a Teams meeting:

“When a co-pilot in Teams Meetings responds to a request, it also suggests next steps to continue the conversation. These questions are usually based on an answer he gave earlier and may involve honing in on a specific topic, asking for more detailed information, or asking what a specific person said during the meeting.”

According to Microsoft Support, Suggest additional questions already exists as a co-pilot invite in Teams. However, soon the AI ​​assistant will issue them automatically after any answer. So, if you ask Copilot to clarify a team member’s point of view or list actions, it will not only respond to your request, but also suggest thoughtful follow-up actions.

The role of artificial intelligence in meetings

If virtual assistants interfering with your meetings sound familiar, that’s because Microsoft Teams isn’t the only app touting its AI-powered sidebar. Launched in October 2024, Zoom’s AI Companion 2.0 offers conferencing tools to help you understand what we are talking about. Like Zoom’s companion, Microsoft’s Copilot creates a transcript of the meeting and can even help you catch up if you’re running late.

Ideally, AI tools can help you navigate the meeting and clarify next steps. At best, they ensure that meetings don’t become a waste of time. However, they can also encourage greater multitasking. After all, if your AI companion asks you follow-up questions, you don’t actually have to be there to synthesize the information for yourself.

In my opinion, these tools run the risk of leading to distraction. We’ll likely end up back where we started: Was this meeting really supposed to happen, or could it have been an email? With meeting transcripts, the line between a meeting and an email is becoming increasingly blurred.

However, not all meetings are created equal. Let’s hope that the latest update to Microsoft Copilot will truly improve the meeting experience in a big way. If a follow-up question encourages colleagues to get the clarity they really need from each other, then maybe it’s better than an email after all.