Getting the best out of Teams Facilitator Agent

In April 2025, Microsoft will start rolling out the Teams Facilitator Agent feature that automatically generates meeting notes based on the transcript. This feature makes following up on the tasks decided during the meeting easier when they are written right there on the go. But there are things to be considered when having people from different organisations in the meeting.

• 
  
  
  TL, DR
  

  
  

  The Teams Facilitator Agent is an AI-driven tool that automates transcription and note-taking during Teams meetings. It generates real-time meeting notes as a Loop component saved in OneDrive. However, this tool’s effectiveness depends on setting the correct transcript language before the meeting starts. The setup is straightforward for internal meetings, but external meetings require additional considerations, such as Copilot licenses and manual sharing of Loop components.

It all starts with the correct language

It’s good to remember that for any of the AI capabilities (including the Facilitator Agent) to be useful, you need to start with the correct language. If the transcript language is incorrect, you won’t be able to get anything out of it. No notes, no tasks, no returning things discussed back to your memory. Currently, a new Teams meeting setting is rolling out, where you can choose the transcript language before the meeting. Especially for us who are not speaking in English in every meeting, this is an important setting, because every time the transcript is turned on automatically, the default language is English. The person who sent the meeting invitation will be able to change the language (another new feature, since previously it was anyone) if only they remember. Teams has the helpful banner showing up if it interprets that the spoken language differs from the transcript setting, but something might already be lost in the discussion.

Understanding the Facilitator Agent

The Facilitator Agent is an AI-driven tool that automates the transcription and note-taking process during Teams meetings. When enabled in the Teams meeting settings before the meeting begins, it turns on the transcript immediately when the meeting begins and generates meeting notes in real-time, without any manual effort from humans.

The meeting notes are created as a Loop component and saved in OneDrive. And as always with Loop components, the question is: whose OneDrive account? Well, it depends. It depends on who sends the invitation, who joins the meeting first and who sets the transcript on (if it’s not set automatically). The rule of thumb could be: be the first in the meeting or set the transcript on and you will own the Loop component – most of the time.

For example, I had a meeting with a colleague from the same organisation, whom I invited and set the facilitator on before the meeting. I also joined the meeting before them, but still, that Loop component was saved to my colleague’s OneDrive account. I have no idea why. In all the other meetings I joined first, the Loop component was saved to my OneDrive account. 🤷🏼 Why does it matter? We’ll get to that later in the post.

The Facilitator Agent interprets the transcription and creates the meeting notes on the Loop component and even Follow-up tasks if the discussion about the tasks has been clear enough. At least in my tenant, it couldn’t yet tag the person to the Follow-up tasks table, but it clearly stated in the task description whose task it is.

According to my experience, the meeting notes are getting better and better all the time, even in Finnish. It significantly improves the efficiency of meetings, allowing participants to focus on the discussion rather than note-taking. I don’t know about you, but for me, writing meeting notes with conclusions and tasks while I speak and present is very laborious. And if the discussion covers many topics and the meeting is more than an hour long, I might not remember what we agreed during the first 15 minutes. Of course, you, as a human, still need to ensure that all key points and tasks are recorded in the meeting notes and that the facts are correct. That is your responsibility, no matter what kind of AI tool you are using.

Internal meetings vs. external meetings

When all the meeting attendees are from the same organisation, letting the Facilitator Agent make meeting notes is rather straightforward. Only the meeting inviter needs to have the Copilot license to set up the Facilitator Agent before the meeting, and everyone will automatically have access to the meeting notes Loop component.

People outside your organisation change some aspects of the setup. Currently, only the attendees in the same organisation as the inviter can benefit from Copilot & AI features. Even when I have a Copilot license, I cannot use it in any external meetings I have been invited to.

Microsoft hasn’t announced that this will change anytime soon. So, when it comes to meetings with attendees from different organisations, you need to consider the following:

1. Who will send the invitation & do they have a Copilot license? The ones who have can set up the Facilitator Agent for the meeting. Only the inviter and people in their organisation will have the Copilot features in use during the meeting.

2. Are the external attendees invited as guests in the inviter’s tenant? If so, they can be shared with the Loop component with the meeting notes, but that needs to be done manually. The Loop component is not automatically available in the meeting resources for the external attendees.

3. If the external attendees cannot be invited as guests in the inviter’s tenant, the only way to share the meeting notes with them is by email.  

If you have become heavily reliant on the Copilot meeting features, you might want to make sure you or other attendees from your organisation will send the meeting invitations. Just be sure to share the meeting notes with others afterwards.

Conclusion

The upcoming Facilitator Agent feature in Teams meetings can greatly improve the efficiency and productivity of your internal meetings. Nonetheless, it is important to recognise the limitations when involving external participants and ensure they are shared with at least the meeting notes.

Original Post https://www.sarisoinoja.com/blog/2025-3-16-getting-the-best-out-of-teams-facilitator-agent