What changed
Microsoft has begun creating AI meeting archives for eligible Teams meetings by default. Previously, a meeting left a durable AI record only if someone turned on recording or transcription. Now an archive can be created without anyone asking for one, so Copilot has something to refer back to later.
The archives hold AI-generated summaries and meeting insights rather than a raw word-for-word transcript. They are stored in your organisation's SharePoint, not in an individual's personal storage. That distinction matters: the file belongs to your employer, and your employer's retention rules apply to it.
Why this is worth ten minutes of your attention
Most people assume that if a meeting was not recorded, it was not kept. That assumption is now out of date. A discussion about someone's performance, a frank conversation about a supplier, a half-formed idea you would not put in writing — any of these can end up summarised in a file that outlives the meeting and sits somewhere searchable.
There is a second wrinkle. If the underlying recording or transcript is deleted, an AI-generated summary of that same meeting may still exist. Deleting the source does not automatically delete everything derived from it.
None of this is a scandal. It is a change in default behaviour that most staff will never be told about, and the people most affected are the ones who have sensitive conversations in Teams as part of a normal week.
The three things to check
1. Whether your meetings are eligible
Not every meeting gets an archive — it depends on your organisation's licences and settings. The fastest way to find out is to look at a recent meeting in your Teams calendar and check the meeting's chat and files for a recap or summary you did not create. If one is there, the feature is on for you.
2. The in-meeting toggle
After pushback earlier this year, Microsoft added a control that lets meeting organisers and presenters turn Meeting AI — Copilot, Facilitator and recap — on or off during a live meeting, not just before it starts. Look in the meeting toolbar under the Copilot or More actions menu. If you are running a meeting where the last ten minutes turn sensitive, you can switch it off then and there.
3. Who can read the archive
Ask your IT team two questions in one email: who has access to meeting archives in SharePoint, and how long are they kept. You are not accusing anyone of anything. You are finding out whether a summary of your Tuesday one-on-one is readable by someone outside that conversation, and for how long.
What to change in how you run meetings
Say it out loud at the start. "Just so everyone knows, Teams may keep an AI summary of this one." It takes four seconds and it changes how people treat the conversation, usually for the better.
Move genuinely sensitive conversations off the platform. Performance issues, complaints, legal matters and anything involving someone's health belong in a room, a phone call, or a meeting where you have turned Meeting AI off first.
And check the summary before you rely on it. AI recaps get names, decisions and action owners wrong often enough that treating one as the record of what was agreed is a bad habit. Read it, correct it, then send it.
Open the last three meetings in your Teams calendar and look for a recap or summary file you did not create. That tells you in two minutes whether this is switched on for your account. If it is, do the same check on your next sensitive meeting invite before it runs, not after.
This week
Send the email above to whoever handles IT at your workplace, and add one line to the top of your next sensitive meeting agenda: Meeting AI off for this one. Two small habits that keep you in control of what gets written down about conversations you thought were temporary.