Copilot in Meetings: Before, During & After
Never miss a key decision again. Learn how Copilot helps you prepare for meetings, follow along in real time, and create summaries with action items afterward.
Copilot makes meetings actually useful
We’ve all been there: back-to-back meetings, frantic note-taking, and afterward you can’t remember who said what.
Copilot in Teams changes the game at every stage:
- Before: “Prepare me for this meeting — who’s attending and what should I know?”
- During: “What’s been discussed so far?” / “What action items have been mentioned?”
- After: “Summarise this meeting with decisions and next steps”
For meetings you missed entirely: “What happened in the standup I couldn’t attend?” — and Copilot gives you the recap.
Before the meeting — preparation
Open the Teams meeting invite and ask Copilot:
- “Who’s attending this meeting and what are their roles?”
- “What was discussed in the last meeting with this group?”
- “What emails or documents are relevant to today’s agenda?”
This is especially powerful for recurring meetings — Copilot can pull context from previous meetings in the series.
During the meeting — real-time help
While the meeting is running (with transcription on):
- “What’s been discussed so far?” — real-time summary
- “What action items have been assigned?” — tracks commitments
- “What did Sarah say about the budget?” — find specific moments
- “Are there any unresolved questions?” — surfaces open items
Important: Copilot in meetings requires transcription to be enabled. If your organisation has disabled meeting transcription, Copilot can’t summarise meetings. This is a common exam question.
After the meeting — follow-up
After the meeting ends:
- “Summarise this meeting” — decisions, discussions, action items
- “List all action items with owners and deadlines”
- “Draft a follow-up email to attendees with the key takeaways”
- “What questions were left unanswered?”
Real-world: Marcus's operations standup
Marcus runs a daily 15-minute standup with the Horizon Logistics operations team. Here’s how Copilot helps:
Before (8:55 AM): Marcus asks Copilot: “What happened in yesterday’s standup?” — gets a quick recap of pending items.
During (9:00-9:15 AM): Marcus focuses on the discussion while Copilot tracks action items in real time. When Kenji mentions a delayed shipment, Marcus asks: “What was the delivery status Kenji just discussed?”
After (9:16 AM): Marcus asks: “Summarise today’s standup with action items. List owner and deadline for each.” He shares the summary in the Operations Teams channel.
When Fatima misses the standup: She opens the meeting afterward and asks Copilot: “What did I miss? Were any procurement items discussed?”
| Phase | What Copilot Does | Example Prompts |
|---|---|---|
| Before | Pulls context from attendees, previous meetings, related documents | Who's attending? What was discussed last time? |
| During | Real-time summary, action tracking, moment finding | What action items have been mentioned? What did X say about Y? |
| After | Structured recap, action item list, follow-up drafts | Summarise with decisions and next steps. Draft follow-up email. |
| Missed | Full meeting recap from transcript | What happened in the meeting I missed? |
🎬 Video walkthrough
Flashcards
Knowledge Check
Dana at Oakfield Healthcare missed an important HR policy meeting. She wants to know what was decided about the new leave policy. What should she do?
Copilot in a Teams meeting is unable to summarise the discussion. The meeting has been running for 30 minutes. What is the MOST likely reason?
Next up: Meetings generate ideas. Copilot Pages helps you capture and build on them collaboratively. Learn how Pages works as your team’s AI-powered collaboration canvas.