Use Microsoft Copilot in Teams to Recap Meetings

What This Does

After any Teams meeting, Copilot automatically generates a structured summary with key decisions, action items, and a transcript — so you never have to type up meeting notes from scratch again.

Before You Start

• You have Microsoft Teams open and are logged into your work account
• Your organization's M365 license includes Copilot (check with IT if unsure — it's included in M365 Business Premium, E3 with Copilot add-on, and E5)
• The meeting was recorded or transcription was enabled during the call

Steps

1. Enable transcription before your next meeting

In Teams, open Calendar → click on your meeting → select "Edit" → under "Meeting options," set "Record automatically" or enable "Transcription." Alternatively, once you're in a live meeting, click the three dots (More) in the meeting toolbar → "Record and transcribe" → "Start transcription."

What you should see: A notification banner at the top of the meeting window that says "This meeting is being transcribed."

Troubleshooting: If you don't see the transcription option, your organization may have restricted it. Ask your IT admin to enable meeting transcription in Teams admin center.

2. After the meeting, open the Recap

Once the meeting ends, go to your Teams Calendar → click on the completed meeting → select the "Recap" tab (visible alongside "Chat," "Files," etc. in the meeting details).

What you should see: A panel with tabs: Summary, Chapters, Action items, Mentions, and Transcript.

3. Review the AI-generated summary

Click "Summary" in the Recap panel. Copilot generates a 3-8 bullet summary of what was discussed and decided. Click "Action items" to see who is responsible for what, with due dates if they were mentioned.

What you should see: Clean bullet points with key decisions and owners — usually accurate to 85-90% without any editing.

4. Copy and distribute the notes

Select the summary text and action items → copy → paste into a new email to meeting attendees. Add your own subject line and a brief intro ("Here's a recap of today's discussion"). Send within the hour for best results.

Real Example

Scenario: You facilitated a 45-minute Q2 budget review meeting with 6 managers. Instead of spending 40 minutes writing notes and chasing people for action item owners, you:

What you do: Open the meeting recap in Teams Copilot → click "Summary" → review the 5 bullets → click "Action items" → see 3 items with owner names → copy both sections into an email and send.

What you get: A polished meeting recap email in your outbox within 10 minutes of the meeting ending instead of the following morning.

Tips

• Enable transcription at the start of every meeting — build this as a habit for all meetings you facilitate, not just big ones. The transcript is there for you even if you don't use Copilot.
• The action items tab is the most valuable part. Review it carefully — Copilot pulls direct quotes from the transcript to identify commitments. If someone said "I'll get that to you by Friday," it's in there.
• Add context Copilot can't know. The summary won't capture the emotional temperature of the meeting or unstated tensions. Add 1-2 sentences of your own context if needed before distributing.

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.