Use Microsoft Copilot to Create Meeting Minutes

What This Does

Microsoft Copilot in Teams can automatically transcribe and summarize a meeting — producing draft minutes that include the topics discussed, decisions made, and action items assigned. For court administrative meetings that currently require a clerk to type up minutes from handwritten notes, this cuts a 30–45 minute task to a 5–10 minute review.

Before You Start

• Your court uses Microsoft 365 and has Microsoft Teams
• Your organization has Microsoft 365 Copilot enabled (requires Copilot license — check with IT)
• The meeting must happen via Microsoft Teams (not an in-person meeting without a recording device)
• Get consent from all meeting participants before recording

Steps

1. Start the Teams meeting and enable transcription

1. Open the meeting in Microsoft Teams
2. Once everyone has joined, click the three-dot menu (...) in the meeting controls
3. Select Start transcription — a notification appears telling all participants
4. The transcription runs automatically in the background for the entire meeting

What you should see: A "Transcription started" notification in the meeting, and a small indicator showing transcription is active.

2. Run the meeting normally

Conduct the meeting as you normally would. Copilot captures the audio and identifies speakers automatically. You don't need to do anything special — just speak clearly and ensure everyone identifies themselves by name at the start.

3. Access the transcript and summary after the meeting ends

1. After the meeting ends, go to the Teams Chat for that meeting
2. Click the Recap tab — this is where Copilot puts the meeting summary
3. Click Notes to see the AI-generated summary with key points and action items

What you should see: A structured summary with: topics discussed, decisions made, and a list of action items with names assigned to each.

4. Use Copilot to draft formal minutes

1. Open a Word document for the minutes
2. In Word with Copilot enabled, click the Copilot button in the Home ribbon
3. Type: "Using the following meeting notes, draft formal meeting minutes in official court format: [paste the Teams summary]"
4. Copilot formats the content into the structure appropriate for formal minutes

5. Review, edit, and finalize

1. Compare the AI-drafted minutes to your handwritten notes for anything that was missed
2. Ensure all attendees, case-specific names, and action items are correct
3. Have the presiding officer review and sign off before distributing

Real Example

Scenario: The monthly clerk supervisor meeting covered three items: (1) new e-filing fee schedule effective next month, (2) shift coverage for the upcoming court holiday, (3) update on the CMS upgrade timeline.

After the meeting: Teams Recap shows a clear summary: "Fee schedule: New fees effective [date]. IT to update the kiosk display by [date]. Action: Supervisor Jones will send updated fee schedule to all clerks by Friday. Holiday coverage: Schedule assigned. CMS upgrade: Delayed to Q3. No action required."

What you do: Paste this into Word, ask Copilot to format as official minutes, add your court header and signature block, review — done in 10 minutes instead of 45.

Tips

• For courts where Teams is not used, an alternative is to record the meeting on your phone using Otter.ai (with consent) and use the Otter summary as your draft source
• Copilot works best when participants speak clearly and one at a time — parallel conversations or side discussions often don't transcribe well
• You can ask Copilot follow-up questions about the meeting: "What did we decide about the holiday schedule?" — useful when a detail is unclear in your notes

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.