Microsoft responds to Teams privacy concerns by adding a way to disable its AI mid-meeting

Summary

Microsoft Teams adds an in-meeting toggle to turn Meeting AI (Copilot, recap) on/off

Organizers and presenters can enable AI for insights or disable it for sensitive discussions

US rollout delayed to early/mid July; global rollout expected by end of July

AI assistants have permeated the world of online meetings quite a lot. People holding meetings deploy AI assistants to keep notes of everything said and covered. Attendees will sometimes invite their own bots to keep track of everything, or even stand in for them. However, with all these bots listening in and keeping notes, it creates a privacy issue. Where’s all that information going, and who can get access to it?

People had similar concerns when Microsoft Teams began getting AI tools. It’s a very understandable concern; if people are holding data-sensitive Teams meetings with Copilot listening in, that alone could be a privacy risk. Fortunately, Microsoft has added a way to disable Teams’ Copilot AI assistant mid-meeting.

Microsoft Teams is getting Copilot controls mid-meeting

You can turn it off and on at any time

Credit: Microsoft

As reported by Windows Latest, the website got in touch with Microsoft asking if it had any plans to cut back the amount of Copilot integration Teams has. Microsoft pointed Windows Latest to this message from the Microsoft 365 Message Center, called “Microsoft Teams: In‑meeting toggle to turn Meeting AI on or off”.

Here’s what it will do:

Microsoft Teams will introduce a new in-meeting toggle that allows licensed meeting organizers and presenters to turn Meeting AI (including Copilot, Facilitator, and meeting recap) on or off during a live meeting. This change builds on existing Meeting AI behavior and provides real-time flexibility to control when AI is active.

Licensed organizers and presenters can capture insights when discussions are valuable and turn off AI when conversations shift to sensitive topics. The toggle respects existing tenant policies and compliance controls.

It seems that Microsoft originally wanted this feature to roll out in the US in early June, but something pushed it back to early July, with the rollout completing in mid-July. The rest of the world will receive it at the end of July.

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