Microsoft Teams Premium, what is it? Do I need it?

Microsoft Teams Premium unlocks functionality that can boost your meeting intelligence and productivity. But is it the right choice for you?

Microsoft Teams has become a cornerstone for many organisations, providing a robust platform for meetings, chats, and collaboration. However, for businesses looking to elevate their Teams experience, Microsoft offers Teams Premium and the Copilot for Teams. This blog will explore what Microsoft Teams Premium offers, how it enhances meeting efficiency, and how it compares to other tools like Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai. We’ll also delve into the differences and complementary aspects of Teams Premium and Copilot, along with their limitations.

• What is Teams Premium?
• Key Features of Teams Premium
• Limitations of Teams Premium
• What is Copilot for Teams
• Key Features of Copilot for Teams
• Overlapping functionality between Teams Premium and Copilot for Teams
• Differences between Teams Premium and Copilot for Teams
• Alternative AI transcription and summarisation services

What is Microsoft Teams Premium?

Microsoft Teams Premium is an add-on license designed to enhance the standard Teams experience. It builds on the existing capabilities of Teams, offering advanced functionality.

Although there are a few versions of Teams, the version that most people have as part of a Microsoft 365 license is Teams Standard. Premium sits above this and is not included in any new Business or Enterprise licenses such as Microsoft 365 Business Premium or E5.

Key Features of Microsoft Teams Premium

Microsoft released a very detailed 77 page fact sheet about Teams Premium but if you want the short version of what it can do, read on.

1. Intelligent Meetings

   • AI-Powered Meeting Insights: Meeting notes automatically generated after the meeting has concluded provide a summary of the meeting, recommended tasks for each person, and personalised highlights so that you can quickly see what's relevant to you. These notes are only available to attendees who have a Teams Premium licence.
   • Chapters and Markers: Available to all attendees, not just those with licences, Teams Premium analyses the meeting recording and breaks it into chapters based on the topic discussed or the PowerPoint slide being shown at the time.
   • Live Translated Captions: Real-time translated captions are available in multiple languages, making meetings more inclusive and accessible.
     
     

2. Standardised Meetings

   • Custom Meeting Templates: Create and deploy custom meeting templates tailored to specific types of meetings, ensuring consistency and efficiency. For example, a meeting template can specify whether attendees join muted, whether meetings are end-to-end encrypted, or whether a meeting is set to auto-record. This is especially useful if you plan to conduct village hall-type meetings where you don't want attendees to be able to talk.
   • Branded Meetings: Add organisational branding to meeting lobbies, backgrounds, and invites, to increase the professional appearance of your meetings.
     
     

3. Enhanced Security

   • Advanced Meeting Protections: Implement features to keep meetings confidential and secure like
     • watermarks
     • sensitivity labels for information protection (e.g. Microsoft Purview)
     • end-to-end encryption (yes you read that correctly - only in Premium!)

4. Virtual Appointments and Webinars

   • Advanced Virtual Appointments: Streamline appointment management with features like appointment reminders, custom waiting rooms, and post-appointment follow-ups.
   • Enhanced Webinar Capabilities: Host large-scale webinars with advanced registration, attendee engagement tools, and detailed reporting.

Together these functions greatly enhance the usefulness of your Microsoft Teams meetings. In particular, we find the AI summaries and focus on actions to be the most helpful. This becomes even more helpful when you aren't able to attend a meeting in person. The summary saves you from needing to watch lengthy meeting recordings or read long transcripts.

What are the limitations of Teams Premium?

Teams Premium has some undisputable strengths but it's not necessarily the perfect product anymore. When it launched in February 2023 it was at the top of the class but since then Microsoft has released Copilot, and other third-party providers have rolled out similar AI-powered meeting assistants.

Teams Premium's meeting summary was game-changing, but Copilot in Teams introduced the ability to query meeting transcripts in real-time and after the event.  This means that attendees no longer need to rely on what's included in the summary and action notes. They can ask anything they want, whenever they want.

What is Copilot for Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft's Copilot is an AI-powered assistant integrated into Microsoft Teams. The only way to get it (at the time of writing) is as part of a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence which is only available as an annual licence making it an expensive commitment. It is designed to enhance productivity and collaboration during meetings by leveraging Microsoft's advanced AI capabilities to provide real-time assistance and insights.

Key Features of Copilot in Teams

1. Real-Time Meeting Summaries

   • Copilot can, when asked, summarise key discussion points, highlight areas of agreement or disagreement, and suggest action items during a meeting.

2. Meeting Recaps

   • After the meeting, Copilot provides a comprehensive recap, including meeting notes, action items, and follow-up questions. This feature overlaps with Teams Premium and provides the same functionality.

3. Interactive Assistance

   • Participants can interact with Copilot to ask questions, seek clarifications, and get insights on specific topics discussed during the meeting.

4. Integration with Microsoft 365

   • Copilot integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft 365 apps, allowing users to query relevant documents, emails, and data from the meeting chat.

Overlaps between Teams Premium and Copilot

While both Teams Premium and Copilot enhance the Teams experience, they serve different purposes and therefore offer generally distinct features with only one real overlap.

The crossover is that both services provide the same AI-powered summaries to attendees after the meeting.

Differences Between Teams Premium and Copilot

Because of their different purposes, the differences between Teams Premium and Microsoft Copilot for Teams are significant.

Teams Premium unlocks significant functionality and control across a range of areas in Teams including security, standardisation, and meeting types. It allows users to get more out of their meetings through a better experience before, during, and after a meeting. 

Copilot for Teams on the other hand is primarily focused on assisting attendees by allowing them to ask questions about their meeting in real-time. Attendees can request help to clarify points, dispel any confusion about what has been discussed, or obtain a recap during lengthy meetings.

Are there other options that provide similar functionality?

There are many, sort of.

The third-party tools available provide meeting transcription and summaries but none can do everything described above. There really aren't any competitors for Teams Premium that unlock Teams functionality (unless you look at a platform like Zoom as a completely different alternative). Equally, none of the third-party options gives you an in-meeting real-time ability to query the transcript like Copilot.

So maybe there aren't any direct competitors.  That said, there are some options that are worth looking at if you don't want to splash the cash on both a Teams Premium licence and a Copilot licence.

Two of the top-rated competitors are Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai both of which provide meeting transcription and note-taking with the ability to query the transcripts after the meeting.

Let’s compare their features and benefits to Teams Premium and Copilot.

Both services are platform agnostic and will work with Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet and perform pretty much the same way. In our opinion, the way that they enter your meeting as another attendee also makes the fact that meetings are being recorded and transcribed much more transparent for all attendees. Microsoft's offering relies on the meeting organiser telling attendees that they're being recorded as the visual queues are much more subtle.

In terms of cost, both otter.ai and fireflies.ai are broadly similar offering tiered packages to suit business needs. When we looked at the terms and conditions we found that fireflies.ai has much more privacy favourable terms and so this would be the alternative that we'd suggest looking at. Otter.ai's terms and conditions suggest that they may use your data to train their algorithm.

Conclusion

Microsoft Teams Premium and Copilot offer powerful enhancements to the standard Teams experience, making meetings more intelligent, and secure. While Teams Premium focuses on meeting customisation and security, Copilot provides real-time AI assistance and insights. Both tools complement each other, addressing different aspects of the meeting experience.

When compared to transcription tools like Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai, Teams Premium and Copilot offer a broader range of features and deeper integration with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. However, Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai excel in transcription accuracy and search capabilities, making them valuable tools for capturing and reviewing meeting content.

Ultimately, the choice between these tools depends on your organisation’s specific needs and priorities. By leveraging the strengths of these types of tools, businesses can enhance their meeting efficiency and drive better collaboration and productivity.

Next Steps....

If you would like assistance with your Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Copilot, or meeting intelligence solutions then we can help you. Just get in touch with your team of experts today.