Microsoft released a new feature for AI summaries in Teams meetings. Now you can create your own custom template with your instructions and save it. After the meeting, you can use it whenever you want. Let’s check how it works.

Introduction

An AI meeting recap is a meeting summary created by AI based on the meeting transcript. You can use it if you have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a Teams Premium license. It’s generated automatically after the meeting. Usually it takes a few minutes.

The default summary template contains notes divided into chapters (topics) and follow-up tasks. Everything is hardcoded – tone, sections, wording, internal instructions, etc.

It’s a good starting point, but in many cases, people need to customize it using Copilot chat. You can put your own instructions into the chat and wait for the customized summary. It’s not the hardest task, but you need to do it manually every time!

Custom AI Summary

The latest update to Teams enabled an option to create a customized AI summary and save it as a template! To create a custom one, you have to prepare your custom prompt instruction.

1. Navigate to an existing meeting recap and select the Custom summary section.

2. There are 3 options:

• Create a template – use it to create a custom template with your own instructions.

• Speaker summary – a predefined template focused on speakers.

• Executive report – a predefined template focused on meeting topics and key updates.

If you select any predefined template, Teams will start generating a summary from the existing transcript.

To create a custom one, select the Create template button.

3. Provide the instructions that you want to use (1). The more details, the better the summary. When you’re ready, select the Preview button (2), and Teams will generate a preview from the existing transcript. When you’re happy with the results, select the Save and Apply button (3), provide a template name, and confirm.

4. When it’s saved, you can just select the template you want, and Teams will generate a customized meeting summary.

Summary

The feature looks like a small addition to AI summary and Copilot in Teams, but it’s powerful and fills the gap in summaries options. Standard out-of-the-box summary isn’t bad, but it’s generic, and usually we need something more tailored to our specific needs or organization requirements. In most cases, a user with a Copilot license needs to copy a predefined prompt and generate a customized meeting template in Copilot chat.

This feature addresses this requirement and gives users a powerful tool to save prompts inside the Teams meeting area. You can create multiple templates – for example, Project meeting, Sales meeting, Marketing meeting, 1:1 meeting, Management Board meeting. Each one is specialized, and you can just select it when you need it, and Teams will generate a summary.

Custom templates are not used automatically instead of the default one. The default is always generated, and you can select a custom one on demand. You can even go back to any past meeting with transcripts and use your custom templates. Plus, all templates are yours, and only you can use them.