Save Time, Reduce Mistakes and Improve Meeting ROI

Meetings are the basis of collaboration. But for many businesses, they’re inefficient and unproductive. Poor preparation, vague objectives and forgotten follow-ups waste valuable time and resources – leaving teams frustrated and projects delayed.

Microsoft Copilot is fully integrated into Teams to help you tackle these challenges head-on.

As an AI-powered assistant, it takes the hassle out of organising, running and following up on meetings. This means it delivers the immediate benefits and ROI that many AI systems do not, freeing your team to focus on what matters most. Getting results.

In this guide, we’ll see five impactful ways Microsoft Copilot can improve your meetings. From automating error-prone tasks to giving you clear insights, learn how this AI-powered assistant can save time, improve teamwork and get better business outcomes.

What Is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-driven assistant. It’s seamlessly embedded within popular Microsoft 365 applications, including Teams, meaning it works with your current IT setup.

Using natural language processing and machine learning, Copilot performs tasks like summarising discussions, generating action items and providing real-time insights. The best bit? It does this all with just a simple prompt.

Microsoft Copilot helps you have more productive meetings by:

• Guaranteeing every meeting has a clear purpose and measurable outcomes

• Reducing the manual aspects of scheduling, note-taking and follow-up

• Giving you insights based on your actual business data

• Keeping hybrid teams together, no matter where they’re working from

• Using inclusivity features to make sure everyone is involved.

With these capabilities, Microsoft Copilot is essential for any business looking to make meetings more results-driven.

The 5 Key Ways Microsoft Copilot Improves Meetings

1. Setting Clear Agendas

One of the biggest barriers to productive meetings is unclear objectives. Instead, Copilot makes it easy to create a structured agenda by analysing past conversations. It then suggests relevant topics while aligning meeting goals with future deadlines.

How It Works

Type a simple request like, “Prepare an agenda for our project kickoff meeting.” Copilot will then generate a detailed plan with bullet points, milestones and time allocations, based on your unique business needs.

Example in Action

For your weekly marketing meeting, Copilot might suggest that you:

• Review campaign performance metrics

• Discuss creative ideas for upcoming campaigns

• Assign next steps with deadlines.

Your Key Benefits

• Save hours of preparation while creating more focused meetings

• Make sure everyone arrives prepared and on the same page

• Have a consistent framework for meetings of all types.

2. Tracking Discussions in Real Time

Keeping up with fast-moving conversations is challenging. We’ve all tried keeping detailed notes but ended up lost and confused. Copilot does the tedious work for you, capturing and summarising key points in real-time.

What Copilot Captures

• Summaries of discussions that keep everyone on track

• Overarching themes to help categorise topics

• Key decisions and follow-ups, making sure nothing is overlooked.

Imagine The Scenario

You’re in a brainstorming session with ideas flying around. Instead of relying on error-prone and time-consuming human notes, you have an AI assistant doing the work. By the end, Copilot provides a clear summary, categorising ideas by themes and highlighting the most discussed points.

Your Key Benefits

• Allow team members to focus on contributing instead of taking notes

• Help late joiners or remote participants get up to speed

• Create an instant reference for follow-ups and implementation.

3. Removing Post-Meeting Admin

Action items often fall through the cracks after a meeting. Copilot addresses this by automatically identifying, assigning and logging tasks during discussions.

How It Works

Copilot listens for actionable statements. It can also assign them to the right team members. Tasks are logged directly into project management tools like Microsoft To-Do or Planner, further removing lengthy, mistake-prone admin time.

Practical Application

In a product development meeting, Copilot can track tasks, create deadlines and assign them to the right people. For your business, it might look like this:

• “Complete market research by next Wednesday” (assigned to Jane)

• “Prepare prototype designs for review” (assigned to Alex)

These tasks are placed straight into your Microsoft project software to keep everyone on track.

Your Key Benefits

• Ensure accountability and timely progress

• Reduce the manual work involved in tracking tasks

• Keep teams aligned on next steps without extra effort.

4. Helping Make Key Decisions

Decision-making depends on having the right data at the right time. Copilot keeps meetings efficient by providing real-time insights based on your actual business data.

What You Can Ask Copilot

• “Show me last quarter’s sales performance.”

• “Highlight top-performing products from this month.”

• “Give me an overview of upcoming projects.”

…and many, many more.

Real-Life Application

There are endless potential uses for Copilot’s data engine. For example, in a budget review meeting, Copilot can pull up trends and anomalies. You can use this information to decide where to allocate resources without having to manually sift through data.

Your Key Benefits

• Keeps discussions focused on actionable outcomes

• Eliminates delays caused by searching for information

• Reduces the potential errors of manual data collection.

5. Making Meetings More Inclusive

Hybrid work environments come with accessibility challenges. Copilot helps your business address these gaps with features specifically designed to increase inclusivity.

Making a Difference

• Real-time transcription and translation in over 90 languages

• Summaries for team members in different time zones

• Accessibility options for participants with hearing or language barriers.

Bring Teams Together

In a multinational team meeting, Copilot’s translations keep every participant, regardless of location, fully engaged. Offices in different locations? Summaries help those in different time zones catch up on key points if they’re out of work hours.

Your Key Benefits

• Better collaboration across teams

• Keep everybody updated on key meeting outcomes

• A level playing field for all participants, building inclusivity

How You Can Get Started with Microsoft Copilot

Step 1: Confirm Your Plan

Copilot is included with specific Microsoft 365 plans. Ask your IT team or visit Microsoft’s licensing page to confirm eligibility. If needed, you can then discuss upgrading to access Copilot’s full suite of functionality.

Step 2: Optimise Your Setup

Once you’ve got your Copilot plan in place, configure Teams to integrate with tools like SharePoint and OneDrive. Proper setup means Copilot can access relevant data and operate at its full potential during your meetings.

Step 3: Get Your Team Ready

It’s important to introduce Copilot to your organisation through interactive training sessions. Provide resources and encourage hands-on practice to help your team understand its full potential. Then, they’ll get the most out of it in meetings.

Step 4: Test and Scale

First, try Copilot in select meetings to refine how you want to use it. Gather feedback and adjust as needed before rolling it out more broadly. Highlighting success stories can help with adoption across departments.

Ready to Implement AI that Makes a Difference?

Microsoft Copilot is a fantastic way to make your meetings more productive, efficient and results-driven. Tasks like streamlining agendas, tracking discussions, simplifying follow-ups, delivering insights and building inclusivity all help unlock your teams’ full potential.

No matter if you’re a small business or a global enterprise, now is the time to take advantage of smarter, AI-powered meetings. After all, with Copilot, better collaboration is just a few clicks away.

Ready to see the difference Microsoft Copilot can make for your business?

Book your free consultation with Bridgehampton to learn how we can help you integrate Copilot.

Let’s help your team work smarter today.

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