Microsoft introduces OpenAI-powered features in Teams Premium

Microsoft introduces OpenAI-powered features in Teams Premium

OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 AI language model powers the features of Microsoft Teams Premium, which are now available. In addition to branded meetings, custom meeting templates, and features like watermarking to better protect meeting contents, the new premium tier of Microsoft Teams includes an intelligent recap feature that, thanks to GPT-3.5, automatically generates notes, tasks, and highlights of meetings.

The major new feature in Microsoft Teams Premium, intelligent recap, may entice users to pay the $7 per user introductory price ($10 per month after June 30) just to see how useful it will be. Even if you weren’t there, Intelligent Recap uses OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model to generate meeting notes and highlights.

When meetings are held at awkward times or when employees are out of the office or in different time zones, it is much easier to catch up. Each speaker’s contributions are highlighted in a neat timeline of topics and chapters, with notes, mentions, and a complete transcript available. You can even get personalized timeline markers to quickly see what was shared and discussed if a colleague mentions you in a meeting. While the majority of intelligent recap features are currently available, Microsoft claims that others won’t be available until the second quarter of 2023.

Additionally, Microsoft is restricting some features of Teams to Premium customers only. Captions that can be live translated, scenes that can be organized by customizing Together Mode, and a number of virtual appointment features will now only be available to Premium members. Existing Microsoft Teams users will have access to live translated captions for a “60-day grace period,” but virtual appointment features will only be available for 30 days.

Advanced meeting security is one of the other features of Microsoft Teams Premium that might be more appealing to businesses. This includes safeguards like the ability to restrict users from recording meetings and copying text from the meeting chat, as well as the ability to watermark and label sensitive content during meetings. According to Microsoft, these features might “prevent leaks” or keep conversations private.

Businesses can host events with registration waitlists, customizable start and end times, and virtual green rooms thanks to the inclusion of webinars in Microsoft Teams Premium.

Microsoft Teams Premium now includes OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model, just a few days after Microsoft made a “multibillion dollar investment” in its OpenAI partnership. Microsoft is also said to be working on bringing OpenAI technology to Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and the AI chatbot ChatGPT is said to want to be added to Bing.

As a preview of the features that are currently available, Microsoft released a 30-day trial version of Teams Premium in December. Microsoft Teams Premium is now available to all businesses at an introductory price of $7 per user per month until June 30th, when it will return to the standard $10 per user per month pricing.