Microsoft has announced Team Copilot, an expansion of its flagship AI assistant into becoming a “valuable member of your team”.
Unveiled at this week’s Microsoft Build 2024 event, Team Copilot intends to transform the AI-powered assistant from a behind-the-scenes helper into a meeting facilitator, group collaborator and project manager—while ensuring users have complete control over assigning its tasks and responsibilities.
Team Copilot will be available in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Loop, and more, and intends to boost user productivity and collaboration even further than what Copilot currently offers.
In a blog accompanying the announcement, Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President of AI at Work at Microsoft, wrote:
Team Copilot expands Copilot beyond a personal assistant to act as a valuable team member—participating and contributing along with the team. And, of course, you’re always in control—assigning tasks or responsibilities to Copilot so the whole team can be more productive, collaborative, and creative together.”
These capabilities will be available in preview later in 2024 for customers with a Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license.
Okay, What Does It Actually Do In Practice?
Team Copilot enhances meeting productivity by managing the agenda, taking notes that anyone in the meeting can coauthor, and producing follow-up items. It’s fully integrated with Microsoft Teams Rooms, so it can still produce notes and follow-up items for ad hoc meetings.
Users can add Copilot as a collaborator or team member in chats. Copilot aims to help colleagues get more out of them by highlighting important information, responding to messages and shared files, tracking action items, and addressing unresolved issues.
Additionally, it ensures smooth project management by creating and assigning tasks, tracking deadlines, and notifying team members when their input is needed. Project owners can even have Copilot adopt specific tones when addressing other team members.
