Copilot Facilitator in Teams: What It Does, How to Turn It On, Who Needs a License
The short answer: Facilitator is Microsoft's meeting agent in Teams. It takes live AI notes everyone can edit, tracks decisions and open questions, answers questions in the meeting chat, and can write a Word document from the meeting. Adding it takes the paid Microsoft Copilot license. Internal participants see what it posts, but only licensed people can prompt it.
Below: how to turn it on, how it differs from Copilot and from transcription, where its output lands, and the limits to know before your next meeting.
What Facilitator actually does
Microsoft's own description: an agent that keeps meetings focused, organized and action-oriented by surfacing agendas, tracking progress and capturing key highlights in real time. In practice, 4 things.
1Live notes
AI-generated notes during the meeting that every participant can edit. They don't appear instantly. They start a few minutes in, based on what the transcript has captured.
2Decisions and open questions
It summarizes the key decisions and the open questions from the discussion as you go.
3Answers in the chat
You can ask it open-ended questions in the meeting chat. It answers there, for everyone.
4Documents and tasks
It can create a Word document from the meeting and upload it to your OneDrive. It also captures tasks, which you can sync to Planner (Microsoft still labels the Planner part a preview).
Facilitator vs Copilot vs transcription
These 3 get mixed up, and the difference matters the moment you type something.
1Copilot in Teams is private
Your prompts to Copilot and its answers are visible only to you.
2Facilitator is public
If you prompt Facilitator, everyone in the meeting sees it, exactly like writing in the meeting chat.
3Transcription is the raw material
Facilitator's notes are built from the discussion captured in the transcript. To prompt Facilitator after the meeting ends, turn transcription on before or during the meeting.
How to turn Facilitator on
1When you schedule
In the meeting, select Options, then Copilot and other AI. Set Allow Copilot and Facilitator to Only during the meeting or During and after the meeting, then turn the Facilitator toggle on.
2During the meeting
Select More actions in the meeting controls, then Turn on Facilitator. Only organizers or presenters on Teams for desktop or web can switch it on or off mid-meeting.
3In the room
For an in-person meeting, open Teams mobile, tap Calendar, the meeting, then Take notes with Facilitator. Microsoft plans to start rolling it out to Teams Rooms on Windows (with Teams Rooms Pro) in late October 2026.
4Still not there?
Ask IT. AI meeting notes have a tenant-wide admin switch, and admins can allow or block Facilitator in Manage apps.
Who needs a Copilot Facilitator license
1To add it
A Microsoft Copilot license (the paid add-on, formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) is required to add Facilitator to a meeting or turn it on during one. Microsoft says it's included with that license, subject to available capacity.
2To see it
Any meeting participant can see its real-time updates in the chat and the notes, license or not. External participants are excluded.
3To prompt it
Unlicensed people can't prompt Facilitator. They can see other people's prompts and its answers.
4Free Copilot Chat
Not enough. Facilitator, Copilot in Teams meetings and the AI recap all sit behind the paid license (the recap also comes with Teams Premium).
Give it the agenda, then ask out loud
Microsoft's own example is to hand Facilitator the agenda in the meeting chat. Microsoft describes it as surfacing agendas and tracking progress, so give it something to work with.
@Facilitator, here's the agenda: introductions (5 minutes), product discussion (25 minutes).
@Facilitator, add the pricing update and the Q4 hiring plan to the agenda.
@Facilitator, which agenda items haven't we covered yet?
@Facilitator, list the decisions we made so far and who owns each one.
@Facilitator, create a BRD based on this meeting for the executive review
More prompts for the notes themselves are in my Copilot prompts for meeting notes.
Where everything lands after the meeting
1The notes
Go to Chat, open the meeting, then Recap and Notes. It's a Loop page anyone in the meeting can edit, before, during or after. The AI summary tab holds a summary of the full transcript.
2Word documents
Anything you asked it to write lands in your OneDrive after several minutes. Microsoft stopped Facilitator's Loop file generation by 31 July 2026 in favor of Word documents (the live notes aren't affected).
3The raw data
A .loop file in a OneDrive folder called Meetings, owned by whoever turned Facilitator on. Microsoft treats it as meeting transcript data.
The recap itself (summary, chapters, follow-up tasks) is its own feature. Here's how the Copilot meeting recap works.
Limits, and what to check
1Scheduled meetings only
Not channel meetings, instant meetings or Teams calls. Microsoft plans channel meetings from mid-November to early December 2026.
2One spoken language
Notes only work when a single language is spoken, and the language selected has to match it, or no notes are generated. A meeting that switches between German and English is a problem.
3External guests: Microsoft's pages disagree
Microsoft Learn says Facilitator isn't supported in external meetings. A newer Message Center post says its web-search answers work in meetings with external or cross-tenant participants. My safe reading: guests can't use it, and whether it runs at all with guests depends on the feature. Test it before a client call.
4Compliance gaps
Facilitator's notes aren't automatically collected as cloud attachments in Purview eDiscovery and don't inherit the meeting's sensitivity label. Prevent copy and paste and watermarks aren't applied to its responses either. Tell your compliance team before a confidential meeting, not after.
5Read the notes
They're AI notes. Someone in the room should own the final version and fix names, numbers and owners before they go anywhere.
Questions about Copilot Facilitator
What is the Copilot Facilitator agent in Teams?
Facilitator is Microsoft's AI meeting agent in Teams. It takes real-time notes everyone can edit, summarizes decisions and open questions, answers questions in the meeting chat, and can create a Word document from the meeting.
Do you need a license for Copilot Facilitator?
To add or turn on Facilitator, yes: a Microsoft Copilot license. Internal participants without one can still see its notes, prompts and answers, but they can't prompt it.
How do I turn on Facilitator in a Teams meeting?
When scheduling, go to Options, then Copilot and other AI, set Allow Copilot and Facilitator to Only during the meeting or During and after the meeting, and turn the Facilitator toggle on. During a meeting, organizers and presenters can select More actions, then Turn on Facilitator.
Can Copilot Facilitator follow a meeting agenda?
Microsoft describes Facilitator as surfacing agendas and tracking progress, and its own example is to write @Facilitator, here's the agenda, followed by the topics and minutes in the meeting chat. You can also ask it to add topics to the agenda.
What's the difference between Facilitator and transcription?
Transcription is the raw text of what was said. Facilitator is the agent that turns the discussion captured in the transcript into notes, decisions and tasks. To prompt Facilitator after the meeting, transcription must be on before or during it.
Does Facilitator work in calls or instant meetings?
No. Facilitator works in scheduled meetings only, not in Teams calls, instant meetings or channel meetings. Microsoft plans channel meeting support from mid-November 2026.
Show your team Facilitator in a real meeting
I run live online Copilot sessions for teams, from workshops (1.5 to 4 hours, up to 20 people) to lunch and learns. Facilitator is easiest to understand when you watch it run in a real meeting.