Does your sales team get overwhelmed with all the information discussed during meetings? Do your meetings consistently launch effective task plans? Does everyone know their action items and have access to the information they need to execute? 

If your team members spin their wheels after meetings, Microsoft 365 Copilot can increase productivity to streamline meeting follow-up items and task lists. Copilot uses AI and, as noted in a Microsoft blog, “combines the power of large language models with your data in Microsoft 365 apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet.” 

Copilot is embedded into Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, PowerApps, and Power Automate. The technology can also work in conjunction with calendars, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts. You can give Copilot natural language prompts like <How did we update our product strategy?> to generate an answer based on recent meetings, emails, and chat threads. 

Making Teams Meetings More Effective  

One of the ways you can use Copilot is during your Microsoft Teams meetings. With a Teams Premium account, you can record and automatically transcribe conversations, and Copilot applies AI to summarize the meeting notes, breakdown speaker participation, and identify action items. Copilot senses when meeting topics change, allowing it to segment the meeting summary into chapters based on the major topics discussed. 

As shown in the image above, when opening a Copilot recording in Microsoft Stream, chapters are automatically created to quickly review specific content. 

These capabilities allow meeting attendees to truly focus on communicating with each other—rather than getting distracted while they record copious notes. Your meeting organizers will appreciate Copilot even more. They can reduce the time it takes to summarize meetings and create task lists to get everyone on the same page for what to do after the meeting. 

Your sales team can also use Copilot during Teams meetings with customers. They can share the meeting summary and identify action items. Copilot generates the transcript, summary, and action items anywhere from 5-30 minutes after your meeting is completed. Once the organizer sees the content, they can edit to clarify key points before distributing meeting notes to customers and other external contacts.  

Tested by the Western Computer Sales Team

To help our customers understand how to use Copilot, Western Computer has tested the tool with our internal sales team. One of the key benefits we realized included using Copilot for discovery note-taking. When our pre-sales team gets on a call with a prospect and cannot take every single note to pass along to the solution design team, Copilot transcribes the call and identifies the major themes. The solution team can then work from those notes, knowing every detail has been captured.

With Copilot capturing all the notes from prospect and customer meetings, our sales team is also able to engage better in the conversations. This typically enables deeper conversations that allow us to connect with prospects and customers and make sure we understand their needs. Our sales team can also work more efficiently as communications take less time, and task lists are clearly stated.

Synergy with Other Microsoft Productivity Tools 

Copilot is another example of how Microsoft continues to help with “To Do” management. You can use Copilot in conjunction with other Microsoft tools like SharePoint sites that bring together all the resources your sales team uses the most, such as product documents and upcoming events for customers. Following the action items that Copilot helps you identify coming out of meetings, you can use Microsoft Planner to manage group communications, assign tasks with due dates, and then track the progress of tasks.  

As you get to know Copilot and test its features, keep in mind the results are not always 100% accurate. As part of your process in disseminating the information, we recommend assigning a user to verify the content and its context to catch any errors. 

For more information or a demo on how Copilot can help you leverage AI to collaborate and run meetings more effectively, contact Western Computer today.