Microsoft Teams continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Known as “Teams Mode for Microsoft 365 Copilot” this essentially means Copilot is coming to Teams Group Chats as a participant in Teams Chat and Channels. This is an example of how quickly new features are landing, and why organisations need to stay on top of change management and user awareness.
This latest feature is rolling out to Frontier firms (early adopters) now and to everyone else over the next month or so.
Teams Mode:Copilot in Group Chats
Copilot has been available in Teams for a while, but it’s now becoming a member of the chat space itself.
Since most conversations with Copilot happen in a “private, one-on-one setting”, this new feature let’s members of the chat have Copilot inside that chat instance, meaning it can chat and engage in a group setting rather than just one on one.
Note: you need to @ mention Copilot to add it to a chat, you cannot currently add it to the chat roster during chat creation.
Adding “Copilot” to a Teams Group or Meeting chat
When you add Copilot into a chat, you empower it to take care of tasks such as:
Summarise past discussions so no one has to repeat themselves.
Highlight decisions made and owners of tasks.
Help new chat or team members get up to speed in seconds.
Act as a knowledge anchor so people don’t have to chase information.
Instead of asking colleagues “where are we with the transfers”, you can now simply ask Copilot directly from the chat
“@Copilot give me an exec summary of where are we with the transfers?”, to get a clear, actionable answer instantly from Copilot, based on the threads, chats and files in the chat.
The Pace of Tech Change
These latest features show how fast the products we use every day are evolving and being updated. With changes happening across most apps we use every day, it also creates challenges and well as new ways to work.
Awareness: Many users don’t even know these features exist.
Adoption: Without guidance, people fall back to old habits.
Consistency: Teams only works well when everyone uses it in the same way and knows how to use all the features well.
Confidence: investing in change management and proper training helps users feel confident in using the tools and help prevent shadow IT
This is where change management and ongoing training become critical. It’s not enough to roll out Teams once and assume people will adapt. Organisations need to:
Build awareness campaigns around new features.
Provide bite-sized training and “what’s new” updates.
Encourage champions to model best practices.
Treat Teams as a living platform, not a one-off deployment.
Final Thoughts
Copilot in Group Chat is just of the new features coming to Teams this month. But this is not just about new features . This is part of a bigger story about how AI and collaboration tools are being fused together and reshaping teamwork and become one. The organisations and teams that thrive will be the ones that embrace the pace of change, invest in continuous learning, and help their people get the most out of these tools.
This is less about updates to the productivity tools we use as change and feature updates will continue to come thick and fast. Change Management is about ensuring you maximise your tech investment, reduce shadow IT and building confidence in the use of the tools you deploy and make available to people to empower them to get things done quicker, faster or better!
As a Cisco and Microsoft leading partner, it’s great to see that, yet again, both Microsoft and Cisco remain Leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for collaboration platforms with Microsoft taking the overlap top spot and with Zoom and Ring Central still hot on their heels!
The decision between them is no longer about feature lists alone; it’s about which vendor best maps to the customer’s identity, networking, device, compliance, and investment across the rest of the technology stack.
Garner UC Magic Quadrant 2025
Choice of which is not about point product picks and this year shows the leaders haven’t just added new features. The defining impact is more the wider foundations and positioning they play in the future of the AI workplace.
Here’s the key points from the Gartner report which you can read for your self here.
Microsoft
Gartner verdict on Microsoft, including the value, strengths, and cautions.
Value:
Collaboration embedded into the productivity fabric; Teams is the default surface for chat, meetings, files, and coauthoring, which accelerates user adoption and reduces friction for knowledge workers.
Strengths
End‑to‑end productivity integration across Microsoft 365 that turns meetings into action and content into workstreams.
Rapid feature velocity and AI investments that deliver meeting summarisation, live assistance, and extensibility for automation.
Cloud governance and identity that simplify centralised security and telemetry when customers standardise on Microsoft stacks.
Broad ISV and partner ecosystem that enables vertical solutions and compliance tooling.
Cautions
Licensing complexity creates procurement and total cost modeling challenges if not addressed early.
Experience variance across desktop, web, mobile, and room systems; careful device selection and validation are essential.
Microsoft 365 Data residency and compliance design must be planned for heavily regulated sectors to avoid surprises. These are often skills outside an organisations core UC team
Cisco
The value, strengths, and cautions reported by Gartner.
Value:
Network‑aware collaboration with purpose‑built endpoints and flexible deployment models that prioritise media quality and predictable meeting experiences.
Strengths
Device and room leadership delivering consistent meeting fidelity and management at scale.
Network and security alignment that leverages Cisco’s heritage to deliver reliable, measurable media quality.
Flexible deployments—cloud, hybrid, or on‑prem—useful for conservative migrations and regulated environments.
Strong contact centre capabilities that remain a differentiator for customer‑facing operations.
Cautions
Cloud transition perception for some buyers who default to hyperscaler narratives.
Integration effort when modernising estates that include legacy on‑prem assets and varied device generations.
Cost profile for large scale device estates unless lifecycle programmes and services are applied.
Overlap and where it matters
Hybrid work enablement: Both deliver mature toolsets for distributed teams, with a shared focus on meetings, chat, and room systems.
AI and productivity: Both vendors are embedding AI into meeting experiences, summaries, and assistive tooling.
Security and compliance: Identity, conditional access, encryption, and auditing are baked into roadmaps.
Partner ecosystems: Both rely on solution and adoption partners to deliver verticalisation, services, and adoption programmes.
Practical outcome: Many organisations can reach comparable functional parity by blending strengths – Microsoft for productivity and content workflows, Cisco for device fidelity and network‑centric quality.
How we work with our Customers
As a leading Cisco and Microsoft
Lead with outcomes and migration tempo rather than vendor slogans.
Treat device lifecycle management, change‑management, and telemetry as primary success metrics.
Present coexistence and integration plans so customers can mix platforms where it makes commercial sense.
Since we operate across the two leading partners in UC we help organisations assess and review across their entire modern workplace technology stack rather than just looking at the technology and products in silo. This is all understand how the business works, preserving future choice and reduce migration risk.
My take
As a partner working across both Cisco and Microsoft, I see clear, complementary strengths. Microsoft wins when organisations are already deep rooted into the Microsoft eco system and where collaboration must be embedded into the productivity fabric and scaled fast across knowledge workers.
Cisco shines where meeting fidelity, device leadership, and network‑centric operational control matter most. Organisations invested into the wider Cisco technology stack gain clear advantages in price and alignment with visibility.
Cisco and Microsoft are also now partners so choice is not black and white. Cisco Rooms on Teams for example is a fantasic alignment and demonstration of cohesion between both vendors and can make Co existence or migration between the two seemless.
The right choice always depands on many things. Business priorities, preference, legacy estate, preference over cloud and on prem, wider investments and usage of Microsoft 365 etc. Our
The role of IT and partners is to design pragmatic, phased paths that preserve choice, control costs, and deliver measurable user adoption.
It’s back! Starting November 1, 2025, Microsoft Teams is officially “back” in the Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Enterprise suites globally, but the choice to have it not sit with organisations and not Microsoft!
After years of regulatory issues, stalls, conceats and negotiations as well as regional licensing inconsistencies, Microsoft has reached a landmark agreement with the European Commission that reshapes how Microsoft Teams is packaged, priced, bundled and positioned across their modern work and productivity suites.
This agreement has spared Microsoft the potential antitrust fine and reputation damage.
The EU Commission decision makes Microsoft’s commitments (which were agreed) binding for seven years and for ten years regarding interoperability and data portability between platform.
Why This Matters
This isn’t just a licensing update it’s a fundamental “win” and global reset for Teams in Microsoft 365 and Office. After being forced to u bundle Teams from Office last year, causing cost increases, confusion and frustration for customers and partners, the change in decision actually follows a multi-year antitrust investigation originally triggered by Slack and Alfaview, who argued that bundling Teams with Microsoft 365 gave Microsoft an “unfair market advantage”. The European Commission had agreed, citing violations of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
To resolve the issue, Microsoft agreed and committed to:
Offering Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites with or without Teams globally, not just in Europe.
Introducing new pricing tiers that reflect organisations choice of whether to have teams or not have teams included, with clearer cost differentiation.
Enhancing interoperability and data portability, which will allow customers more transparent ways to migrate Teams data to other and competing platforms.
Providing APIs and developer tools to support third-party integrations to further promote a more open and fair ecosystem.
In short. The decision is “do you want Microsoft 365 with Teams or without“.
What’s Changing for Customers
Whether you’re an enterprise, medium or small business, the change is synonymous and ultimately gives organisations more choice and control:
Choice: in whether you want to have Microsoft Teams included as part of your Microsoft 365 or Office 365 suite. No more default bundling.
Transparency: with clearer pricing including reduced rates for suites without Teams Included.
Flexibility: Long-term license holders can switch to the “Teams-free” versions should they wish.
Consistency: The same options and pricing structures apply globally for every organisation across every region, meaning and end to regional licensing differences and rules.
In short. The decision is “do you want Microsoft 365 with Teams or without“.
Strategic Implications.
For organisations globally, this is a opportunity to reassess their productivity and collaboration strategy.
The global unbundling option opens the door to hybrid environments where Teams coexists across the business or departments meaning it’s more cost effective (IT integrations and support aside) to have multiple collaboration platforms such as to Slack, Zoom, or Webex for example.
Microsoft’s commitment to interoperability means third-party tools can now also fully embed Office Web Apps and access Teams-like functionality without being locked into the Microsoft stack or needed cumberson plug-ins which break the user interface and confuse users.
From a licensing perspective, this should also simplify procurement and renewals. There will be no more navigating region-specific bundles or opaque pricing.
For developers, the expanded API access is also a win and should help with line of business integration and interoperability across the board.
In short. The decision is “do you want Microsoft 365 with Teams or without“.
Talk to your Microsoft Partner
If you’re navigating Microsoft licensing or wondering how this impacts can positively impact your business come talk to your Microsoft Partner.
Whether you’re rethinking your collaboration strategy, looking to better understand and optimise your licensing or need help with technology deployment, adoption or training, we can help.
Teams has a powerful new capability called the Facilitator Agent – a Copilot-driven meeting assistant designed to make collaboration smoother, smarter, and more productive. Think of it as a virtual chairperson that keeps your meeting on agenda, on-time and to point,whilst allowing participants to focus more on the meeting than taking notes.
Facilitator in Teams Rooms – Image (C) Microsoft.
Facilitator auto-drafts agendas, keeps people on track of the agenda and timings, provides rolling summaries, decisions, and action items all in a secure shared Loop page that everyone can co-author / edit across desktop, web, mobile, and even now in Teams Rooms direct from the room controls in Teams Rooms.
What is the Teams Facilitator Agent?
The Facilitator Agent is an AI-powered feature built into Microsoft Teams that works alongside Microsoft 365 Copilot (you need a Copilot license to activate it and interface to it). It acts as a shared assistant within your meetings and chats, providing:
Real-time AI-generated notes: Captures discussion points, decisions, and action items as the meeting unfolds.
Collaborative editing: All participants can view notes and Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users can co-author notes live – this ensures accuracy and inclusivity.
Meeting moderation: Helps manage agendas, prompts for goals if none are set, and even nudges participants to wrap up discussions.
Time management: Includes a meeting clock and reminders to keep sessions on schedule.
Post-meeting recap: Provides a structured summary and tasks in the Recap tab, stored securely in Microsoft Loop in the meeting organisers’ OneDrive.
How is it Facilitator different from the old “AI Notes” feature?
Previously, Teams offered AI Notes as part of Intelligent Recap, which generated summaries after the meeting. While useful, it was a passive experience—participants couldn’t interact with or influence the notes in real time.
The Facilitator Agent replaces and enhances this by:
Working live during the meeting, not just after.
Real-time co-authoring of notes by both AI and humans as the meeting progresses.
Acting as an active participant, responding to @mentions and questions in chat.
Providing dynamic updates as discussions evolve, rather than static summaries.
Keeps a track of the meeting, who has spoken, actions and topic/agenda drift (in otherwords it politely nags you!)
What is Facilitator good at?
Facilitator can or could if trusted, replace the chair or act as a chair/co-chair in a meeting. In my personal experience I have foudn it to be really really good at:
Real-Time Note-Taking & Summarisation Capturing key discussion points, decisions, and action items during meetings, with live co-authoring – I love how it writes as the meeting prgresses and even corrects itself.
Meeting Moderation & Structure Detects if a meeting lacks an agenda and prompts participants to define goals. If a meeting has an agenda it attempts to chunk the meeting into sections and helps keep the meeting on topic and ontime.
Improved Collaboration Works in meetings and group chats, keeping everyone aligned—even late joiners. It allows people to talk to the agent too – by mentioning @facilitator if you need it to do something like set an action or recap a point.
Post-Meeting Recap & Accountability Generates structured summaries and suggested tasks in the Recap tab for people to go back to or generate an email follow from etc,.
Facilitator Agent – Current Limitations
I do love usig it – its been GA for a few weeks now, but there are few limitations which I hope/expect will “go away soon”. These include:
Not Available Everywhere: Facilitator currently doesn’t work in external, instant, or channel meetings; mobile users can view notes but not start Facilitator (yet)..
Compliance Gaps: Sensitivity labels don’t automatically apply to notes yet but this is in thge public roadmap.
Using Facilitator in Meetings
Turning it on: By Default, when you create a meeting via Teams, Facilitator is “off” and needs to be enabled by switching the toggle as illustrated below. It can also be enabled from “within” the meeting.
In Meeting Interaction: When the meeting starts, you are notified that Facilitator is running via an in-app notification. Note the meeting does not need to be recorded for this to be active. You also see this indicator under the notes section at the right of the meeting pane.
By the way, if you join a meeting where Facilitator is not active, you can enable it anytime from the menu under “…more”.
You still get a notification when Facilitator is running, and it will period chat to you in the meeting chat to keep you updated on the meeting.
Facilitator in Meeting
In Meeting – Meeting Notes and Actions Beng taken by Facilitator
Actions Generated by Facilitator
During the meeting (and afterwards, which you can find by going back to the meeting in your calendar), you can view and of course edit the notes, actions and also see any “related” content and “insights” that Facilitator has sufaced that it “thinks” might be relevant to the meeting dsicussion you have been in. These notes are captured in a Loop Space which is stored on the meeting organisers OneDrive and shared (automatically) with all meeting participants.
Post Meeting Notes, Actions and Insights.
Facilitator Agent Use Cases
I use this in most meetings but there are loads of use cases I see and hear about.
Daily stand-ups or project huddles to log progress and blockers
Customer calls and scoping meetings capturing commitments and next steps to eliminate follow-up churn
Project update or planning calls.
Facilitator Agent – What is Coming (Roadmap)
This is in preview and will be fully rolled out (GA) by September, and there are a few thinsg still nt he works which I expect will be out soon enough.
Editable Canvas for Chat Notes: AI notes in chats will move to an editable canvas backed by SharePoint Embedded.
Teams Rooms Integration: Facilitator will also (now in Preview) support ad-hoc and scheduled meetings in Teams Rooms, with QR code invites and speaker attribution.
Improved Compliance: Sensitivity label inheritance and enhanced governance via Microsoft Purview will be supported.
Q & A
Q: Is the Facilitator Agent just a rebrand of the previous AI notes feature? A: It builds on that toggle but expands into a full-blown agent. Beyond post-meeting summaries, Facilitator prompts agendas, generates live recaps, drives collaboration via Loop, and integrates with Teams Rooms by QR code.
Q: How does it differ from using Copilot in a Teams meeting? A: Copilot in a meeting is a private assistant—only you see its responses. Facilitator operates in the group context: prompts, highlights, and action items appear for everyone to view and edit in real time.
Q: What’s the added value over just recording and transcribing? A: Recording and transcription are passive: you consume them after the fact. Facilitator is proactive—drafting agendas, nudging for goals, surfacing decisions, and giving every attendee an editable canvas mid-meeting.
Q: Where does Intelligent Recap fit in? A: Intelligent Recap synthesizes speech and on-screen visuals after the meeting ends. Facilitator closes the loop instantly – keeping the conversation structured, accountable, and collaborative from start to finish.
Q: What are the alternatives to Facilitator Agent?
1. Native recording + transcription then manual or Copilot/ChatGPT note generation 2. Intelligent Recap for post-meeting slide and data context 3. Private Copilot chats for ad-hoc AI queries 4. Manual note-taking or shared OneNote pages 5. Third-party assistants like Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai
Q: Do I need a Copilot license to use the Facilitator Agent? A: Any user who initiates or edits AI-generated notes in meetings or chats must have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Unlicensed participants can view meeting AI notes but cannot start or edit them.
Q: What about in-person meetings? A: Coming soon – a new feature in the Teams mobile app will let you start a dedicated in-person meeting with Facilitator right from your phone. This will then kick off a recorded, transcribed session – again with real-time agendas, notes, and follow-up tasks. When you end the meeting, notes save automatically and a “in the past” calendar event is created—everything is surfaced in Recap. – This will requires a Copilot license and is due to be in preview Auguist/Sept – I’ve seen it but don’t have it yet myself!
