52 So what does this mean for the everyday work experience? In short, a lot less friction. AI-powered recap and summarisation tools have already made it easier for employees to catch up on missed meetings, but the latest Teams and Copilot updates are taking this a step further. One example is Facilitator, a meeting agent that drives the agenda, captures notes and simplifies follow ups. Facilitator can proactively extract the agenda shared in chat and automatically surface it right at the top of the meeting window, tracking agenda progress for the whole team. Agentic tools in Teams act like personal assistants, pulling together everything you need before a call and creating documents in Microsoft Word or Loop based on requests during the meeting – while Channel Agent lets whole teams stay on track by automatically capturing discussions, decisions and next steps. “Having AI features that work on behalf of an individual or group is crucial for frontier firms,” says Bukshteyn, referencing Microsoft’s concept of a ‘frontier firm’, an organisation that has intelligence on tap and AI agents working alongside humans. “The companies that lead in productivity and innovation will be those letting AI do the repetitive work so their people can focus on ideas, decisions and creativity. “Microsoft is making Teams a true platform for intelligent collaboration by introducing tools to build agents that automate workflows and deliver contextual insights. The Microsoft Teams SDK provides a unified framework for creating apps and agents that work seamlessly across Teams and other Microsoft 365 experiences. Combined with the Teams Developer Portal, developers get a streamlined environment for app registration, configuration and publishing, making it easier than ever to build, integrate and manage solutions at scale.” That idea of simplification also underpins the redesigned calendar in Teams, which is now seamlessly integrated with the calendar in Outlook with access to Copilot features like intelligent scheduling suggestions and conflict resolution. “Most of us already juggle those two calendars,” says Bukshteyn. “The update brings them together in one place, reducing apphopping and helping you plan your day more easily.” The update is more than just a design refresh; it’s helping Teams start to understand the context of employees’ workdays. Linked with Microsoft Places, it can detect if you’re working in the office, with consent, and make smart suggestions. “It can help with where you’re going,” explains Bukshteyn. “If you’re scheduled to be in the office today, AI will identify your meetings that don’t currently have a room and make recommendations. Or, it may be that two people “ AI tools will ensure every meeting has a note taker, an action-point maker, and follow-upper, even in the physical meeting space” FEATURE
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