Microsoft launches Teams Premium, which is powered by OpenAI
Microsoft Teams just got an AI upgrade
Microsoft has rolled out a premium version of its workspace chat and video conferencing app Teams that includes several features powered by OpenAI’s artificial intelligence model ChatGPT.
The AI-powered “intelligent recap” feature will automatically generate meeting notes, recommended tasks and personalized highlights from video calls, as well as divide recorded meetings into chapters and generate transcripts. If you’re in a meeting with participants that speak different languages, it will also provide real-time translations from 40 languages in live captions.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Microsoft Teams Premium
😲 Microsoft has launched Teams Premium
🪙 The paid-for tier of the workplace chat app costs $10 a month
🤖 It features a bunch of new features, the snazziest of which are powered by AI
💵 Microsoft made a huge investment in research company OpenAI just days ago
Personalized timeline markers will indicate when you join or leave a meeting, so you can quickly listen to the segment you missed, and a full speaker timeline will show who spoke and when. As Microsoft describes in an announcement post, those markers are “intelligently organized by who you work most closely with” so you can quickly see what your manager or immediate colleague said without having to listen through a bunch of unrelated conversations.
“AI-generated chapters for PowerPoint Live and personalized timeline markers for when you leave and join a meeting are available today,” Microsoft said. “The additional intelligent recap capabilities shared here will be available in the second quarter of 2023.”
The AI tools are being pitched as Teams’ swanky new productivity tool that will save you time clearing up after a meeting so you can focus on what’s being said in the moment.
Microsoft Teams Premium will cost $10 a month, but is available for $7 a month as a launch discount until June 30.
Other non-AI features will also be included, such as personalization options like the ability to brand meetings with company logos, colors and backgrounds. Extra meeting protections add additional safeguards to prevent the sharing of confidential information or leaks. These include watermarking meetings and limiting which participants can record them.
New business-oriented features also include virtual, branded lobby rooms for clients to wait in before a meeting starts, and a ready-made webinar system set up to include a waiting room, Q&A and virtual green room for guests.
Microsoft only recently announced it had made a multi-million dollar investment in OpenAI, hoping to “accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure these benefits are broadly shared with the world”. At the time, it said it would be deploying the AI models in its consumer products, and rumors suggest it’s looking for ways to supplement Word, PowerPoint and Outlook with the tech.
OpenAI has been busy, too. It just announced a premium subscription tier of ChatGPT tailored to those who want to get the most out of the AI language engine, and before that released a free online browser tool that can, partially, detect and verify AI-created content.