We’ve all been called into meetings that could have been discussed over email, but with Microsoft’s new artificial intelligence chatbot set to launch soon, the days of wasting time in conference rooms may be coming to an end.
Earlier this year, the tech giant launched Copilot, the workplace artificial intelligence assistant it is developing, billing the product as a “work co-pilot.”
The technology will be available starting November 1 and will be integrated into subscribers’ Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, Teams and PowerPoint for an additional $30 per user per month.
As part of the new offering, employees at companies that subscribe to Microsoft Copilot will theoretically be able to send an artificial intelligence assistant to attend meetings on their behalf, effectively allowing them to skip or double-book meetings and shift their attention to other work.
‘Busy work gets us into trouble’
Microsoft has been testing Copilot with companies including General Motors, KPMG and Goodyear, and it can help users perform tasks ranging from writing emails to coding. Early feedback from these companies suggests it is being used to quickly respond to emails and ask questions about meetings.
“(Copilot) combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data…turning your language into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Modern Work and Business Applications. President Jared Spataro said, said in a blog post in March.
Spataro promised that AI assistants would “take the burden off” workers, noting that for many white-collar workers, “80 percent of our time is spent doing busywork that bogs us down.”
So-called “busy work” includes many meetings of office workers.recent Study in UK Research has found that office workers waste 213 hours (or 27 full working days) in meetings every year, when the agenda could be outlined in an email.
Some companies, like Shopify, are actively limiting unnecessary meetings.The e-commerce company Make headlines all summer long When it launched an internal “cost calculator” for staff meetings, company leadership claimed that each 30-minute meeting cost $700 to $1,600 in lost business.
Now, Microsoft’s Copilot will provide a way to avoid this so-called fee.As part of its offering, Artificial Intelligence Assistant Available for “Follow” meetings and produce transcripts, summaries, and notes at the end.
In July, Microsoft announced the “next wave of generative artificial intelligence for Teams,” which included further integration of Copilot into Teams calls and meetings.
“You can also ask Copilot to draft notes for you during the call and use natural language commands to highlight key points such as names, dates, numbers and tasks,” the company said explain. “You can quickly synthesize key information in a chat thread, allowing you to ask specific questions (or use one of the suggested prompts) to help you understand the current conversation, organize key discussion points, and summarize information that is relevant to you. “
“Every meeting with Copilot in Teams is a productive meeting,” Spataro said earlier this year. “It can summarize key discussion points – including who said what, where people agreed and where they disagreed – and recommend action items, all in real time during the meeting.”
Microsoft isn’t the only tech giant working to make employee meetings less burdensome. Both Zoom and Google have launched artificial intelligence assistants that can Participate in meetings on behalf of usersand update them About what happened during the party.
‘A meaningless status symbol’
While Copilot promises to let employees participate in meetings with minimal (or no) input, some managers and white-collar employees are skeptical about people using artificial intelligence to replace themselves during internal meetings.
Oliver Stainforth, Content Manager and Senior SEO Strategist at London Marketing Agency superiorTell wealth He could see the AI assistant being useful in performing administrative tasks during meetings, but he wasn’t planning on sending one to replace him entirely.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable having an AI robot attend a meeting, or more specifically, contribute to a meeting on my behalf,” he said. “I believe that artificial intelligence lacks the nuanced human judgment and social skills that many meetings require. It cannot fully understand the subtleties of human interactions, nonverbal cues, or emotional dynamics that are so important in a variety of professional and personal meetings. critical. It is also less likely to understand the wider context and impact of the decisions made.”
Ed Palmer, managing director of British creative agency St Luke’s, also believes that while artificial intelligence may play a “valuable role” in meetings, there are also “significant drawbacks” to over-reliance on technology for attending meetings.
“First, their use runs the risk of becoming a meaningless status symbol: proving that your time is more valuable than someone else’s by sending a robot in your place,” he argued. “Second, relationships drive business. If managers start missing meetings continuously and rely on AI assistants, relationships will suffer; they will lose sight of nuance and will feel increasingly alienated from the dynamic of their team. Ultimately, This means that efficiency will again be sacrificed.”
Meanwhile, Verena Hefti, founder of the British organization Leader PlusTell wealth She doesn’t think it’s appropriate for managers to choose not to attend meetings simply because an AI assistant can help them.
“Leaders need to understand not only the facts but also people’s fears, visions, hunches and ideas,” she explains. “If leaders send chatbots to every meeting, many employees will no longer feel comfortable sharing their true thoughts because they don’t trust where the AI bots store their audio and video.”
Hefti noted that while AI has the potential to make meetings more efficient, replacing managers entirely with chatbots could undermine inclusion policies.
“If meetings are not the primary place where big decisions are made, it also means that groups like working parents who can’t go to a bar after get off work won’t be able to participate in key decision-making moments,” she said. “Artificial intelligence, like human-generated content, has biases. If you invite an AI chatbot to your meeting, you may inadvertently introduce sexism and racism.”
Svlook
