How to Use Copilot to Summarize a Meeting

Quick Tips

• Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered tool that can summarize documents, search results, and even meeting minutes.
• Always ensure you have a transcript of every meeting — without this, Copilot can’t summarize anything.
• Meeting hosts may activate Copilot within Microsoft Teams. However, the below steps work on any meeting transcript as long as you can transfer it into Word or the Copilot website.

Sometimes, you don’t need every detail from a meeting — just the abridged version. Microsoft Copilot handily summarizes complex text to provide key points or different perspectives. Discover the crux of meetings in seconds without scouring lengthy documents.

You can use Copilot in Microsoft Word for this if you have a Copilot Pro subscription, or you can simply access the Copilot website directly via your browser or browser extensions.

How to Use Copilot to Summarize a Meeting in Microsoft Word

Step 1: You must have a Copilot Pro subscription to utilize Copilot in Word. Check if it’s active by looking for the Copilot symbol in the top-right corner of the MS Word taskbar.

Step 2: Ask the meeting host for a copy of the transcribed minutes of the meeting. If they’re not already in .doc or .docx file format, copy them into a fresh Word document.

Step 3: Click the Copilot icon in the top-right to open the Copilot window.

Step 4: Use the text entry box to ask Copilot to summarize the meeting for you. This may be a preselected suggestion, however, you can also just type in the request, as shown below.

Step 5: Press the “Enter” key and Copilot will produce the requested summary. This may take 2-3 minutes, but Copilot will let you know it’s still working on the task.

You can now copy and paste the text in the Copilot window and use it for emails, action points, or just to bring yourself up to speed.

Using the Copilot Website to Summarize a Meeting Transcript

Step 1: Open a browser window and head to the Copilot website: https://copilot.microsoft.com/

Step 2: Follow the onscreen prompts until you’re presented with a text box that allows you to ask any questions. Ask Copilot if it can summarize a meeting transcript.

Step 3: Copy the entire transcript into the “Message Copilot” box and press Enter.

Step 4: After 2-3 minutes, Copilot will produce a summary based on the content of the transcript that you can copy and save.

More Actions You Can Do With Microsoft Copilot

Once you’ve learned how to use Copilot to summarize a meeting, you’ll probably want to know what else you can do with this AI tool. Use the same “Message Copilot” functions to:

• Ask what a particular person’s perspective on the meeting was.
• Get Copilot to highlight any objections or conflicts during a meeting.
• Discover overarching themes or strong talking points.

You can also use Microsoft Copilot to use the information held within the meeting transcript to create new documents. For example, you could create an agenda for a follow-up meeting or a reminder email with the key points on. You could even list out action points and send those as a “To-do” list to your colleagues.