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Microsoft has expanded its Copilot toolkit inside Teams, making the AI assistant available directly in group chats. The move aims to speed up collaboration by letting teams summarize conversations, pull in relevant files, and draft agendas without leaving the chat thread.
What Copilot adds to your group conversations
Imagine joining a crowded group chat and instantly getting a short, accurate summary of the key points. That is the core promise here. Once added to a Teams group chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot can:
- Summarize the chat history or answer questions about what was discussed
- Pull details from documents, files, or web sources when web search is enabled
- Draft meeting agendas or next steps based on the conversation
Copilot has access to the same documents and chat history a user can access, so its responses can reference internal files and previous messages for context. Think of it as a threaded research assistant and meeting facilitator rolled into one.
Important limits to keep in mind
Microsoft is shipping this feature with guardrails. Here are the practical limitations users should know:
- Copilot cannot be added to meeting chats or to chats where you are the only participant
- It cannot be added to the chat roster during the initial chat creation flow
- Users can share up to 10 messages from Microsoft 365 Copilot into Teams group chats
- Text to image generation is not supported in Copilot for Teams at this time
- Some mobile capabilities are missing: creating a Teams group chat from Copilot or removing Copilot from a chat is not yet available on Teams mobile apps
Who can use it and how to get started
Access to this integration requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription. If you have the Copilot license, you can add the assistant to an existing group chat or start a new group chat with Copilot as a participant. Users without a Copilot license will still see chats and Copilot responses initiated by others, but they cannot @mention Copilot or ask it questions directly.
Admins should also review tenant settings and data access policies, because Copilot uses documents and chat history that users can access. If web search is enabled, it can pull live web results as well, so security and compliance teams may want to check controls before rolling the feature out broadly.
Why this matters for teams
Team chats often become messy, with decisions scattered across threads and files. Adding Copilot to group chats is a practical step toward reducing that friction: fewer context switches, faster summaries, and quicker agenda prep. For product teams, project managers, and distributed groups, it can shave minutes or hours off routine coordination tasks. But like any AI assistant, it works best when teams combine it with clear prompts and good information hygiene.
Expect this to be an incremental improvement rather than a silver bullet. The current limits and the requirement for a Copilot subscription mean adoption will likely be phased, but the change points toward a more integrated, AI-driven collaboration experience inside Teams.
Source: neowin
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