Microsoft's Teams Premium service uses AI to recap your meetings
Premium can also translate live captions and help with virtual appointments.
Microsoft might have a way to make Teams a more enticing option for meetings: make AI tackle the dirty work. The company is launching a Teams Premium offering for Microsoft 365 that uses AI to greatly simplify meeting management. Most notably, an "Intelligent Recap" feature automatically creates tasks, chapters and even personalized highlights. Miss a review meeting and you might know which segments to watch when catching up, not to mention what you'll need to work on.
Premium also uses AI to translate captions in real time for 40 spoken languages, so you won't always need to wait for after-the-fact translations to understand what happened. Meeting guides automatically set up the "right" options for a discussion, too.
Other upgrades include virtual appointment support (think doctors and consultants) as well as "high-quality" webinars. Improved protections for sensitive data add confidentiality labels and watermarks, so an unscrupulous coworker can't steal trade secrets just by taking screenshots during presentations.
We've asked Microsoft for details on availability and the 365 plans needed to use Teams Premium. The service already makes the company's strategy clear. It's hoping to counter the likes of Google Meet and Zoom by making Teams indispensable to businesses that don't always have the time or money to create recaps and translations. With that said, Microsoft's rivals aren't standing still — Premium's extras may become necessities before long.
Update 10/13 11:10AM ET: Microsoft told Engadget that Teams Premium will be available in February at a price of $10 per user per month. You'll need a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan if you want to add it to existing services. We've shared the full list below.
Enterprise. Microsoft/Office 365 E1, E3, E5
Small Business. Microsoft Teams Essentials (Azure AD), Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium
Frontline. Microsoft 365 F1 and F3 and Office 365 F3
Education. Microsoft/Office 365 A1, A3, A5
Government. Microsoft/Office 365 G3 and G5
