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How to enable and set up Copilot in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI assistant, offers several promising features. Find out how to configure Copilot with Teams workflows and its licensing prerequisites.
Generative AI continues to be integrated into various aspects of our business lives. One such AI technology -- offered by Microsoft -- is Copilot for Microsoft 365.
Copilot is an add-on tool that uses large language models to enhance Microsoft 365 experiences across several applications, including Microsoft Teams. If businesses are interested in Copilot for Teams, they might ask: How can our organization acquire Copilot licenses, and how can my users use them?
Let's look closer at how to enable Microsoft Copilot, as well as its licensing, activation and management.
How does licensing work for Copilot in Teams?
As stated, Copilot is an add-on service for Microsoft 365 users. The service is available for businesses that have the appropriate Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise subscription. To access Copilot within Teams, organizations need a 365 subscription plan that includes the Teams service. Copilot also integrates with other Microsoft 365 apps, including Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and more.
With the right Microsoft 365 subscription in place, administrators can buy Copilot licenses at a cost of $30 per user, per month, with an annual commitment. Then it's just a matter of assigning licenses to the appropriate users within the Microsoft 365 admin center dashboard. Licenses are found in the Billing section of the admin center page. Once assigned, the Copilot licenses are activated and available for that user within Microsoft 365.
How to enable Copilot for use in Teams
Once a license is applied to a user, the user can control Copilot functions within the Teams app. The Copilot icon is located at the upper right corner of the Teams window.
Users simply click on the icon to open Copilot and are presented with different options depending on whether the user is in a Teams chat, channel or meeting. To use Copilot in Teams meetings, make sure transcription has been enabled. Copilot presents users with a summary of the meeting or chat, and prompts users to ask for more specific information using natural language.
For example, a user in a meeting can request a list of action items or unresolved questions that assist with post-meeting responsibilities. At the end of a meeting, a Recap tab is presented to team members, which provides meeting notes of the entire call.
How to manage Copilot in Teams
Microsoft 365 administrators can globally manage the Copilot experience within the Microsoft 365 admin center. To access the Copilot settings, simply use the left navigation pane and select Copilot. From there, click the Settings tab. Next, administrators can access various settings for improved intelligence sourcing, logging, and data security and compliance.
Copilot administrators also have the option to enable a handful of prebuilt Copilot plugins for Teams. These plugins offer more granular access to Copilot AI, making it easier to perform more complex tasks. Copilot plugins must be enabled on a user or group basis within the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Some examples of Copilot plugins include the following:
- Message extensions -- enables Copilot to engage with different services outside of Teams and post responses.
- Bots -- a learning chatbot where users can ask Copilot to perform common and repetitive tasks on their behalf.
- Meeting extensions -- a suite of tools that make Microsoft Teams meetings more productive and efficient during or after a call.
Given the wide range of Copilot features tailored specifically to Microsoft Teams, organizations could gain tremendous productivity efficiencies that create business value -- despite the $30 per user, per month pricing. Microsoft has done a fairly good job of streamlining the licensing, onboarding and management extensions, which makes acquiring, deploying and using Copilot pretty easy.
Andrew Froehlich is founder of InfraMomentum, an enterprise IT research and analyst firm, and president of West Gate Networks, an IT consulting company. He has been involved in enterprise IT for more than 20 years.
