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If your workdays are dominated by meetings, you're in good company.
A recent Microsoft Work Trend Index report reveals that the time people dedicate to meetings has almost tripled since 2020.
However, the challenge lies in the fact that meetings aren’t always productive; the same report identifies “inefficient meetings” as the primary obstacle to accomplishing tasks.
Whether you find yourself running behind schedule, attending unprepared, or facing challenges in aligning everyone, here are nine strategies leveraging Microsoft Copilot and other AI tools to elevate your mastery of meetings.
You’re running late
If punctuality is a challenge for your meeting attendance, Copilot in Microsoft Teams offers assistance. It promptly summarises key points in real time, allowing you to catch up on the proceedings and seamlessly join the discussion without missing any crucial details.
In case you missed important context, you have the option to inquire with Copilot about areas of agreement or disagreement, and obtain a summary presented in less-technical language.
You’ve got meetings on top of meetings
If you need to miss a call, you can request a summary from Copilot in Teams detailing the discussions, decisions, and assigned tasks. Additionally, you can inquire about a pros-and-cons table summarising the ideas presented and insights into each participant’s opinion.
Copilot users will soon benefit from intelligent meeting recaps, encompassing automatically generated notes and recommended follow-up actions. In March, using Outlook, you’ll be able to “follow” a meeting that you cannot attend. This action prompts the organiser to record it in Teams, ensuring a recap is accessible later on.
You’re leading a meeting that’s going nowhere quickly
When your meeting hits a lull with moments of dead air or tangential discussions, Copilot in Teams can assist in regaining focus and injecting momentum.
You have the ability to inquire, for instance, “What questions can I pose to propel the meeting forward?” or “Which issues remain unresolved?” Copilot provides personalised answers exclusively for you, scanning through the transcript to offer real-time suggestions without disrupting the ongoing decision-making process.
You share a noisy office space
In situations where you’re unable to escape disruptive sounds, Teams’ noise suppression feature can analyse your audio input, preserving only speech and eliminating undesirable noises such as keyboard typing, crunching chips, or the playful sounds of children in your home.
Additionally, Teams will soon introduce voice isolation, a functionality that identifies your voice and dampens other voices and background noises. This ensures that only your voice is audible when you’re speaking.
You don’t have time to tidy up
When your workspace is in disarray and your upcoming meeting is imminent, the “Decorate your background” feature in Teams Premium can be your solution.
This generative background effect improves your actual surroundings by eliminating clutter and incorporating elements like houseplants, decorations, and other embellishments that enhance the visual appeal of your space.
You are worried you put people to sleep when you present
When it comes to refining your presentations, Speaker Coach has got you covered. It assesses various aspects of your speech, such as pacing, pitch, and the use of filler words and repetitive language, offering real-time insights and evaluations afterwards.
Additionally, it scrutinises your speech for culturally sensitive words, providing suggestions for more inclusive language.
You ran out of time to prepare
When you’re short on time to prepare for a call, the Meet app in Teams proves to be invaluable. It consolidates meeting materials into a single location, allowing you to swiftly review everything, including agendas and documents. Additionally, it offers intelligent insights, such as suggested content for upcoming meetings and indications if a meeting falls outside your regular working hours.
Beginning this summer, Copilot in Outlook will further simplify meeting preparation by furnishing summaries of the meeting’s purpose, necessary steps, and relevant documents.
You wish you had an assistant
Organising meetings may feel like a chore, but with Copilot in Outlook, the task becomes more streamlined. While the tool can already summarise email threads, starting in March, it will go a step further by proposing actions, such as scheduling a follow-up call.
If you opt for this, Copilot will automatically open a meeting form, provide a title, suggest participants and available times, and include an agenda, pertinent files, and a summary of the email thread. Voila! Scheduling a meeting becomes a breeze with just a few clicks.
You need a little help with language barriers
Conversations in meetings can be challenging when participants speak different languages or have varying levels of comfort with specific languages. Teams Premium’s live translation feature for captions and transcripts comes to the rescue, ensuring a smooth and seamless exchange. With support for 40 spoken languages, this real-time translation enables meeting participants to read captions and transcripts in their preferred language.
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Get in touch with our expert team today to get started with Microsoft Copilot and transform the way you and your colleagues work today!