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Consultant-focused KB for Microsoft Teams: implementation notes, gotchas and configuration decisions beyond the official docs — across chat and collaboration, meetings, webinars and town halls, Teams Phone, PSTN connectivity (Direct Routing, Operator Connect, Calling Plans, Teams Phone Mobile), auto attendants, call queues and contact centre integration, Teams Rooms and devices, apps and extensibility, Copilot in Teams, administration and governance, security and compliance, network and call quality, and licensing — plus cross-cutting decision guides.

teams/08-copilot-and-ai-in-teams/feature-teams-copilot-in-phone-calls.md
feature-teams-copilot-in-phone-calls.mdv1 · history
CurrentApplies to Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams PhoneUpdated 3 weeks agoSource Microsoft Learn ↗

What it does

Copilot during and after 1:1 Teams calls and PSTN calls: private prompts for the licensed participant, live catch-up, who said what, and suggested follow-ups. It's controlled by the calling policy, not the meeting policy, and unlike meetings, its default doesn't need a saved transcript.

Key facts

  • Learn scopes the article to 1:1 Teams calls and PSTN calls, and states that calling policies control Copilot in one-to-one and group calls. Scheduled meetings and Meet now are governed by the meeting policy instead.
  • Admin control is -Copilot on Set-CsTeamsCallingPolicy, or Voice > Calling policies > Copilot in the Teams admin center.
  • Values: Enabled (On) — the default, Copilot works with or without transcription; EnabledWithTranscript (On with saved transcript required) — Copilot only appears once a licensed user starts transcription; Disabled (Off).
  • There's no EnabledWithTranscriptDefaultOn equivalent for calls — three values, not four.
  • "Only during the call" mode is achieved by setting Copilot on and turning call transcription off. Nothing — transcript or Copilot content — is kept after the call ends.
  • Call transcription is the separate -AllowTranscriptionForCalling parameter on the same calling policy. Learn's sample for the transcript-required pattern sets both: -Copilot EnabledWithTranscript -AllowTranscriptionForCalling $true.
  • With Disabled, users can still transcribe the call if transcription is allowed — they just don't get Copilot.
  • Licensing: a Microsoft 365 suite with Teams (or a "no Teams" suite plus a Teams licence) and the Copilot add-on. For PSTN calls, add a Teams Phone licence and a calling plan.
  • If a 1:1 call is escalated to a group call, recording, transcript and Copilot content stay tied to the original 1:1 chat. People added later can't get at it afterwards — Learn lists this as a known limitation.
  • Not available in end-to-end encrypted calls. Available in public and GCC clouds; not GCC High.

When to use / skip

For sales, account management and anyone who lives on the phone, this is the most underrated part of a Copilot licence. The default Enabled value is sensible: users get live help on every call and only get a saved transcript when they choose to start one. Most clients can leave it there.

The transcript-free mode is the interesting one for regulated voice. Plenty of organisations are fine with an AI listening live but not with a stored transcript of a customer call landing in OneDrive and eDiscovery. Turning call transcription off while leaving Copilot on gives them exactly that. Learn calls this out as the compliance-and-eDiscovery choice.

Don't confuse this with contact-centre analytics. It's personal productivity for the person on the call, not quality management, not a recording platform, and it doesn't replace compliance recording for regulated lines. If the requirement is "record and keep every call", that's a certified compliance recording solution and a different conversation.

Configuration decisions

  • Leave the global calling policy on Enabled, or move regulated user groups to a policy with -AllowTranscriptionForCalling $false for during-call-only use.
  • Whether any population should be forced into EnabledWithTranscript (for example, teams where the post-call summary is the actual business value).
  • Which users get Teams Phone plus Copilot together — PSTN Copilot is only useful where both licences land on the same person.
  • PSTN connectivity: Learn wording mentions a calling plan; confirm the client's own entitlement position for Direct Routing or Operator Connect users against the current Microsoft licensing guidance before promising PSTN Copilot.
  • Retention and eDiscovery treatment of call transcripts, agreed with compliance.
  • How the calling policy and meeting policy line up — users notice when the two behave differently.

Gotchas

  • The defaults differ. Calls default to Enabled (no transcript needed); meetings default to EnabledWithTranscript (transcript enforced). Users will tell you "Copilot works on calls but not meetings" and they're right.
  • Escalating a 1:1 call into a group call keeps the content on the original chat. The new participants are locked out of the recording, transcript and Copilot content afterwards.
  • EnabledWithTranscript hides the Copilot button entirely until someone starts transcription. Users think they've lost their licence.
  • E2EE 1:1 calls lose Copilot. If you've switched E2EE on for a group, tell them.
  • Calls (including ad hoc group calls) follow the calling policy; Meet now and anything scheduled follow the meeting policy. Users don't see the difference, so check both when troubleshooting.
  • Policy changes take a while to reach clients. Don't test five minutes after a Set-CsTeamsCallingPolicy.

Consultant notes

  • Run Get-CsTeamsCallingPolicy | Select Identity, Copilot, AllowTranscriptionForCalling at discovery and put it next to the meeting-policy equivalent in the design doc.
  • Build a small truth table for the client (transcription on/off by Copilot value) — Learn has one, and it ends most of the support tickets before they start.
  • For voice-heavy pilots, include at least one PSTN user with Teams Phone in the cohort, otherwise you'll only ever test VoIP.
  • Where the client has a certified contact centre or compliance recorder, check with that vendor how Copilot and Teams transcription interact with their bot before go-live.
  • Intelligent call recap after the call is a related but separately licensed feature (Teams Premium or Copilot) — don't present them as the same thing.

Worth revisiting when Learn updates the PSTN licensing wording for Direct Routing and Operator Connect users, or if a fourth calling-policy value appears

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