Microsoft announced that the premium service for the Teams collaboration platform is on its way as part of a phased rollout that will end in 2023.
At this year’s Microsoft Ignite event, the company explained that optional additional premium features for it video conferencing software make meetings more personalized, smart and secure.
Teams Premium preview will be available in December 2022. General availability will follow in February 2023, while the most impressive features using artificial intelligence (AI) will be introduced in the first half of next year.
Microsoft Teams Premium features
Intelligent Summarization will allow AI to transcribe meetings, use recordings to mark important moments, and use chapters in meeting recordings to easily play back relevant sections.
Artificial Intelligence will also support real-time meeting transcripts in 40 languages. Microsoft said that this would make the meetings more inclusive. This is undoubtedly true, but it’s a shame the feature is locked behind a paid subscription once it’s finished previously announced for the general release.
Advanced security features such as watermarked documents and restricting recording permissions keep businesses safe from leaks. Microsoft 365 E5 customers will also be able to apply their existing Information Protection labels from Microsoft Purview in meetings and apply appropriate restrictions.
Organizing meetings will also be easier as users will be able to choose from a variety of meeting types that will be customized by IT teams to attend meetings faster with the right settings.
Webinars that can already be hosted on Microsoft 365 also require an upgrade to Teams Premium. Users will have access to a waiting list for registration with manual approval, automatic email reminders, a virtual green room and control over what attendees see.
But with the new service, not only internal company meetings will be reviewed. Engagement between businesses and consumers (B2C) also benefits from an “advanced” face-to-face meeting system that will allow SMS reminders for meetings to be sent, “branded lobby branding” and scheduled and on-demand meetings.
Microsoft has clearly worked to make Teams Premium profitable for businesses of all shapes and sizes. What value remains to be seen, however, as Microsoft has yet to announce any prices.