How Does Microsoft Teams AI Transcription Work?

Ever wish you could fully engage in meetings on Microsoft Teams without the stress of jotting down every word? Microsoft Teams AI transcription makes this possible. By capturing and converting spoken words into text during your virtual meetings, it helps participants stay focused while ensuring you miss nothing important.

Having a reliable meeting transcript can save you time and effort, whether you're reviewing a project discussion or sharing updates with your team. In this article, we’ll discuss how Microsoft Teams AI transcription works, its features, and how to use it for your next meeting.

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What is AI Transcription in Microsoft Teams?

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AI transcription in Microsoft Teams transforms spoken words into written text during meetings, providing an accurate and searchable record of the conversation. With advanced speech recognition, it can capture every word spoken for future reference.

Here are features that make MS Teams AI transcription stand out:

• Real-Time Transcription - Captures and displays live transcriptions during meetings to help attendees follow along and stay engaged.
• Comprehensive Meeting Records - Generates a detailed Teams meeting transcription, allowing participants to revisit discussions, decisions, and key points.
• Intelligent Recap Features - Automatically generates summaries, topics, chapters, and action items after a meeting. This includes:
• Color-Coded Topics - AI identifies key topics from the meeting and organizes them into color-coded segments synced with the meeting recording. Participants can quickly skip to specific topics of interest.
• AI-Generated Notes - An “AI Notes” tab populates with “Meeting Notes” and “Follow-up Tasks,” giving teams a head start on documentation and action plans.
• Time-Saving Automation - Summaries and follow-up tasks are auto-generated, reducing the manual effort required for meeting recaps and enabling asynchronous collaboration.

With these features, Microsoft Teams Premium essentially acts as a virtual note-taker and ensures meetings are more productive and less time-consuming to recap.

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How to Enable AI Transcription in Microsoft Teams

With Microsoft Teams Premium, AI transcription is enhanced through Intelligent Recap, which adds auto-generated summaries, chapters, and action items. Here’s how to set it up:

1. Check Your Microsoft Teams Plan

• Ensure your Microsoft 365 subscription supports transcription. Intelligent Recap, which includes AI transcription and advanced features, is available with the Teams Premium plan. Basic transcription is also available in Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium plans. Note that Teams Essentials and the free version of Microsoft Teams do not include transcription.

2. ‍Enable Transcription in the Admin Center (For IT Administrators)

• Open the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.
• Go to Meetings > Meeting Policies in the left-hand menu.
• Edit an existing policy or create a new one.
• Turn on Transcription under the “Recording & transcription” settings.
• Save your changes.

3. ‍Start Transcription During a Meeting (For Meeting Organizers)

• Open Microsoft Teams and join your meeting.
• In the meeting controls, click on the More actions menu (three dots) > Record and transcribe.

• Select Start transcription from the dropdown.
• Participants will be notified, and the transcription will appear in real-time.

4. ‍Access the Transcript and Intelligent Recap

• Open the meeting chat to find the View Recap section.

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• For Teams Premium users, Intelligent Recap organizes the transcript into chapters and highlights key points, making it easy to navigate the recording.
• Use the AI Notes tab to view auto-generated meeting notes and follow-up tasks.

Pricing and Availability

AI transcription, including Intelligent Recap, is part of the Microsoft Teams Premium plan. Basic transcription features are included in:

• Business Basic: Offers essential transcription capabilities.
• Business Standard: Includes tools for collaboration and meeting recording.
• Business Premium: Provides enhanced transcription features.

For advanced functionality like Intelligent Recap’s summaries, notes, and action items, upgrading to Microsoft Teams Premium is required.

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Benefits and Limitations of Microsoft Teams AI Transcription

AI transcription in Microsoft Teams offers significant advantages, but it also has its limitations. Understanding both can help you make the most of this feature while being aware of its challenges.

Advantages of Using AI Transcription

Improved Accessibility

• AI transcription ensures all meeting participants, including those with hearing impairments or language barriers, can follow along through live captions or meeting transcripts.
• It provides an inclusive environment for teams working across different time zones by allowing members to review transcripts after the meeting.

Boosted Productivity

• Participants can focus on discussions rather than taking notes, knowing that every word spoken is being captured.
• Features like Intelligent Recap in Teams Premium summarize key points and action items to save time during follow-ups and task management.

Enhanced Documentation

• Meeting transcripts provide a reliable record of conversations to help teams avoid miscommunication and keep a clear track of decisions made.
• The ability to revisit specific topics or key points ensures critical information isn’t overlooked.

Current Limitations of Teams Transcription

Language Support

While Microsoft Teams supports multiple languages for transcription, the feature is not available for all languages. This can limit accessibility for multilingual teams.

Speaker Accuracy

The AI may occasionally misattribute comments to the wrong speaker, especially in meetings with overlapping dialogue or poor audio quality.

By being aware of its limitations, Microsoft Teams AI transcription can still be a valuable tool for improving team collaboration and communication.

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How to Use Tactiq's AI Transcription for Microsoft Teams

While Microsoft Teams AI transcription offers robust features, Tactiq enhances your experience with automatic real-time transcription and additional benefits tailored for productivity and collaboration. Here's how to make the most of Tactiq with your Teams meetings:

• Automatic Transcription - Tactiq integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, capturing every word spoken during meetings and providing live transcripts.
• AI-Driven Summaries - After the meeting event, Tactiq generates concise summaries, highlighting action items, decisions, and discussion points.
• Searchable Meeting Transcripts - Quickly locate specific moments or topics from your meeting by using the search function within Tactiq.
• Customizable AI Workflows - Beyond transcription, Tactiq offers AI workflows to automate tasks post-meeting, such as:
• Updating CRMs with meeting insights.
• Creating tasks in project management tools.
• Syncing meeting notes with knowledge bases.

Why Use Tactiq with Microsoft Teams?

By pairing Tactiq with Microsoft Teams, you can amplify the benefits of AI transcription:

• Tactiq ensures your meeting notes are actionable by turning key insights into workflows.
• It supports teams that need more than just a meeting transcript, offering tailored outputs for documentation, follow-ups, and team-specific needs.

With Tactiq, your Microsoft Teams meetings become more than just conversations—they become opportunities for productivity and collaboration. Download the free Tactiq Chrome Extension today!

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FAQs

How accurate is Microsoft Teams AI transcription?

Microsoft Teams AI transcription delivers high accuracy (85-90%) for clear audio and supported languages. However, factors like background noise or overlapping dialogue may impact its precision.

Can Teams transcription be used offline?

No, transcription requires an active internet connection. Without connectivity, transcription and related features like Intelligent Recap are unavailable.

Are transcriptions stored securely?

Yes, Microsoft Teams encrypts transcriptions and stores them securely within your organization’s compliance boundaries. Administrators control access and retention policies.

What's an alternative to Microsoft Teams AI transcription?

Tactiq offers an alternative with real-time transcription, AI-driven summaries, and customizable workflows, making it an excellent option for virtual meetings.