Improved Pre-Meeting, In-Meeting, And Post-Meeting User Efficiency

Evidence and data. The interviewees and survey respondents noted that Microsoft 365 Copilot enables users to more easily prepare for Teams meetings, engage in these meetings, and determine and act on follow-up tasks resulting from these meetings. They noted that these efficiencies are consistent across hybrid users leveraging Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams Phone, and Microsoft Teams Rooms; users with Microsoft Teams Premium licenses take advantage of additional functionality, such as Microsoft Places, to greatly improve efficiency while coordinating meetings.

• The senior manager enterprise collaboration at an IT services firm explained that users within their organization not only spend less time on meeting preparation and follow-up but also do the work more efficiently and consistently. They explained: “The turnaround time between finishing a meeting and getting the recap notes has become faster and more consistent. We finish a meeting now and if there’s an action item for me, I know right away, even if I hadn’t taken notes or realized it. I can now add that to my to-do list because I get that information quickly.”

• According to the principal IT architect at a construction equipment organization, productivity features within Teams and Copilot transcend the specific role of the user and can provide benefit to nearly anyone in their company. “[Microsoft 365 Copilot] has become an immediate killer app for our users,” they concluded.

• With Microsoft 365 Copilot in Microsoft Teams meetings, participants who join late can receive a catch-up recap from Copilot without disrupting the meeting in progress. “Instead of asking for a recap and losing everybody for 5 minutes, we’re using Copilot. So, we’re saving time and staying on track,” summarized the senior director at a North American bank.

• The catch-up recaps and post-meeting summaries in Microsoft 365 Copilot were major productivity drivers for users who are often double-booked, according to the director of IT at a software organization. They noted that Copilot allows users to attend parts of overlapping meetings while staying informed on what they missed. They explained: “If I have two overlapping meetings, I’ll attend the first meeting for maybe 30 minutes, and then I will join the other meeting, using Copilot in Teams to ask for a summarization of the first 30 minutes in real time. In the past, you would barge in and disrupt the natural flow of the meeting. Across the company, we find this to be a huge advantage of Microsoft Copilot. [The monthly license fee] could be worth it even for a single meeting.”

• The same interviewee also explained the benefit of Teams chat recaps when preparing for other meetings or staying informed on current happenings. They explained: “Say we had a customer issue at 5 a.m. my time. I log in, and there’s a 3-hour conversation between multiple teams on a Teams chat discussion. Before Copilot, I’d spend half an hour scrolling down to read the thread or I’d have to call my team lead and spend 15 minutes on the phone getting up to speed. The team lead catching me up is also going to spend 15 minutes to re-summarize, but I’m also going to get their potentially biased version of what happened. With Copilot, I can ask for a summary and hear what happened, who was involved, and I’ll get right up to speed in a few minutes.”

• The senior director at a North American bank explained that during a merger with another bank, the Copilot translation features within Microsoft Teams have been helpful in reducing the language and collaboration barriers that inherently exist between the two organizations, allowing the appropriate personnel to be assigned the right project regardless of language. They noted: “In the past, if we wanted to get our best talent on projects with people who didn’t speak English, they needed to be bilingual. So, we lost productivity, we lost a lot of best practices, and we missed deadlines because we did not have the right people on the job. Using translation in Copilot will help us because we can be fully [present] during meetings where you’re not all necessarily fluent in other languages. Tools like Copilot in Teams ease up the relationship to allow better collaboration.”

• The digital center of excellence lead at a utilities organization used Viva Insights to track productivity improvements; it showed significant time savings across the 520 users licensed to Microsoft 365 Copilot. They said: “[Viva Insights] estimates that we’ve saved nearly 16,000 hours in Microsoft Teams-specific tasks so far. We set an organizational goal of achieving 40,000 assisted hours by the end of 2025, which we’re tracking toward closely.” The interviewee broke this number down further, noting that 12,000 hours have been saved summarizing meetings, 3,000 hours on drafting meeting messages and agendas, and 1,000 hours on summarizing Teams chat conversations: “I used to spend an hour drafting meeting notes. With Copilot, I can now complete the task in just 3 minutes.”

How much additional time have end users saved/do you expect end users to save on the following areas with Microsoft 365 Copilot across Microsoft Teams products?

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• Across all roles, the average user has two 30-minute meetings per day.

• Forty percent to 60% of these meetings require either preparation work, follow-up work, or both. Preparation and follow-up takes an average of 20 minutes (low) to 40 minutes (high) per meeting to complete.

• Based on the customer interviews and survey responses, users can avoid 15% (low) to 25% (high) of this preparation and follow-up work through features and functionality in Microsoft Teams with Microsoft 365 Copilot, including meeting recaps and summaries, Copilot-generated agendas and brainstorming prompts, and post-meeting organization.

• The average user saves 10 hours (low) to 50 hours (high) annually.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for an end user is $42.

• Forrester assumes a 50% productivity recapture, as not all time reclaimed will necessarily be repurposed to value-adding work.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $10.4 million (low) to $52.2 million (high).

User Productivity Improvement From Efficient Meeting Participation

Evidence and data. The interviewees and survey respondents cited “meeting fatigue” across their organizations as a significant pain point; they brought in Microsoft 365 Copilot to reduce this fatigue across their organizations’ Microsoft Teams meetings. Before the Copilot implementation, users frequently joined meetings where they were not a direct participant in order to stay informed. In many cases, users only needed some of the information from a meeting but were required to attend the entire meeting regardless. Meeting recaps and summaries from Microsoft 365 Copilot across Microsoft Teams products allow users to avoid spending time in meetings that they otherwise did not need to join.

• The senior manager enterprise collaboration at an IT services firm explained that Copilot in Teams empowers users to make smart decisions around whether they need to actually join a meeting by ensuring that they receive meeting recap notes and relevant information after a meeting. In most cases, users who are not presenting or participating in these meetings are sufficiently served by the AI recap, saving significant amounts of time from meetings that would otherwise involve passive participation. “We’re getting our users in two places at the same time now [with Copilot],” the interviewee concluded, stating that users across the organization report spending 13 to 15 fewer hours in meetings per month on average — while the meetings they are attending are more engaging and productive.

• The principal IT architect at construction equipment organization noted that by having AI meeting recap notes and automatically generated follow-up tasks directly in Microsoft Teams, users are more likely to act on meeting follow-up activities than before, improving the outcomes and value of the meeting. They said, “People are taking post-meeting actions that they never would have taken before without having action items directly in Teams, which makes the whole meeting more effective.”

• The senior director at a North American bank explained that Copilot within Teams is also effective at serving their users who are frequently double- or triple-booked, improving “offline” meeting participation while reducing anxiety about missing out on key information or discussion topics. “As someone who’s usually triple-booked, Copilot gets me the summary [without] attending the meeting, so I can react or follow up as needed. I can ask Copilot, ‘What are the next steps? What are the key issues?’ Copilot gives me the information that I need without attending.” Copilot users within the organization reported average savings of 1.5 to 2 hours per week from avoided Teams meetings alone.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• The average user (across all roles) joins two 30-minute Teams meetings per day — or 500 meetings per year.

• Based on the interviews and survey responses, users can avoid 15% (low) to 25% (high) of these meetings thanks to AI recaps and Microsoft 365 Copilot functionality in Microsoft Teams.

• The average user saves 38 hours (low) to 63 hours (high) per year in “avoidable” meetings.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for an end user is $42.

• Forrester assumes a 50% productivity recapture, as not all time reclaimed will necessarily be repurposed to value-adding work.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $39.2 million (low) to $65.3 million (high).

Avoided Telephony Costs With Microsoft Teams Phone

Evidence and data. According to the interviewees and survey respondents, Microsoft 365 Copilot delivered the same level of productivity benefits to users who need a phone for customer/external communication or collaboration while offsetting existing telephony costs by consolidating into the Microsoft Teams environment.

• The senior director at a North American bank explained that the Microsoft 365 Copilot features within Teams Phone greatly benefit the productivity of users who are required to adhere to client documentation requirements. They explained: “When our advisors talk to clients on the phone, they have to document what they talked about and what decisions have been made in terms of investments, for instance. For these folks that have Copilot [within Teams Phone], why not utilize it and have Copilot do the summary of the client meeting to put in the file?” For advisors handling the typical number of clients, the interviewee quantified 90 hour of savings per advisor per year on client documentation through Copilot in Teams Phone.

• Survey respondents estimated that Microsoft 365 Copilot features in Teams Phone allow users to be 26% more productive on call-related activities.

• Survey respondents noted several role-specific efficiencies for users with a Copilot in Teams Phone license: On average, they noted a 21% increase in call volume, a 27% reduction in average call time, and an improvement in resolution time of 25% attributable to Copilot productivity functionality in Teams Phone.

• The survey respondents’ organizations that use Microsoft Teams Phone have avoided an average of $1.0 million per year in telephony costs since adopting Microsoft Teams Phone.

• The principal IT architect at a construction equipment organization explained that when moving telephony into Microsoft Teams with Teams Phone, they were able to rightsize the number of licenses they actually needed given the calling requirements of the specific user. In this case, their organization was able to save tens of thousands of dollars on licenses and physical phone system upkeep; Microsoft holds the phone numbers for the organization in case they are needed later.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• 4,000 end users across roles that require external communication avoid between $30 (low) and $40 (low) on monthly voice and usage telephony costs.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $3.6 million (low) to $4.8 million (high).

Reduction In Hybrid Meeting Disruptions

Evidence and data. As organizations increasingly adopt hybrid work across their employee populations, interviewees and survey respondents noted that enabling efficient and valuable hybrid meetings with both in-person and remote participants is a continued priority. They said that before implementing Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot, hybrid meetings were often plagued by logistical challenges (getting the right participants to the right meeting at the right time in the right place) and technical challenges (ensuring the room’s technology worked without interruption); the effort involved called the value of hybrid meetings into question. Microsoft Teams Rooms with Microsoft 365 Copilot allowed the hybrid meeting participants at the interviewees’ and respondents’ organizations to take advantage of the Copilot-related benefits for users detailed in benefits A and B in this report while ensuring seamless meetings both logistically and technically. This further improved the efficiency of meetings while reducing the burden on IT resources to resolve technical issues as they arose.

• The senior manager enterprise collaboration at an IT services firm noted that maximizing the impact of hybrid meetings is an increased focus for their organization and that Microsoft Teams Rooms and Microsoft Teams Premium (Places) with Copilot allows them to maximize their impact. They explained: “We are very much a hybrid shop. But people are having a hard time knowing when people are in the office. If they’re going into the office, we want to make sure that the time spent there is fruitful. We’re very passionate about making moments together that matter, which is why [Microsoft Teams Premium] Places works so well for us. We want to make sure that we are making moments that matter with our co-workers.” The interviewee noted that previous efforts to coordinate hybrid meetings used custom schedules or calendars that required manual effort to manage.

• The principal IT architect at a construction equipment organization noted that Microsoft Teams Rooms and Copilot together bring tremendous value to users, even given the upfront and ongoing licensing costs: “The costs are greatly offset by the reduced amount of downtime and general frustration that folks experience when they go into meeting rooms. We have confidence that it’s going to work. We don’t have to show up early. We don’t have to schedule the same room every time because we know it works. There are all of these indirect benefits as well.”

• The senior director at a North American bank described their Teams Rooms with Copilot experience as “flawless,” as the technology allows remote participants to interact with in-person participants as if they were actually in the same room.

• The IT director at a conglomerate stated that by moving conference rooms to Teams Rooms, in-person meetings are no longer at risk of delay due to technical or connectivity issues, while corporate IT personnel no longer spend time supporting such issues.

• Seventy-five percent of the survey respondents whose organizations are using Teams Rooms cited the accuracy of in-room speaker recognition and the related Copilot features, such as intelligent recap, as major drivers of value for hybrid meetings. Respondents estimated that hybrid Teams Rooms meetings are over 30% more productive with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• On average, each conference/meeting room hosts 10 meetings per week.

• Before outfitting and licensing the composite organization’s 40 meeting rooms with Microsoft Teams Rooms, 5% (low) to 15% (high) of meetings experience a technical delay that results in a 5-minute delay to the meeting. Across the organization’s meeting rooms, this results in 87 hours (low) to 260 hours (high) of delays per year.

• Each meeting includes an average of 12 hybrid participants.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for a meeting participant is $42.

• One IT resource avoids 1 hour of troubleshooting, support, or maintenance per room per week, on average, after adopting Microsoft Teams Rooms.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for an IT resource is $55.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $393,000 (low) to $610,000 (high).

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees and survey respondents mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Promoting an organizational culture of more productive and engaging meetings. Interviewees told Forrester that Microsoft 365 Copilot features within Microsoft Teams not only allow users to save time as quantified in this report but also enable them to remain informed on meetings that they would otherwise not attend. Interviewees explained that meetings across the organization are often more engaging and productive than before as a result of removing barriers common to meetings, such as catching up after it starts, notetaking, recapping, and unproductive brainstorming. The senior manager enterprise collaboration at an IT services firm summarized this: “We’re more present and we feel like we’re contributing more in meetings. We don’t have to worry about going back and clarifying things we missed since we can just ask Copilot at the end of the meeting. As a result, we can be more present [in meetings] since we’ll have access to all the information after the fact.”

• Getting more out of hybrid work. Interviewees noted that beyond the productivity benefits quantified for this report, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams Premium (Microsoft Places) provide teams with the tools to seamlessly coordinate office days, meeting times, and meeting rooms to ensure the right people are in the right place at the right time.

• Improving the employee experience. Interviewees explained that while the time savings for their employees through Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams will have a significant impact on the business from a productivity standpoint, time savings are also valuable in combating employee burnout and supporting a better employee experience.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• The downstream benefits of getting users “ahead of the curve” on AI productivity tools. Interviewees were optimistic that onboarding users to Microsoft 365 Copilot would allow their users to develop the skills required to adapt to new ways of working, providing additional productivity over time.

• The benefits of Microsoft 365 Copilot beyond Microsoft Teams. While beyond the scope of this report (Microsoft 365 Copilot benefits across Microsoft Teams licensing scenarios), interviewees explained to Forrester that the benefits of Copilot go far beyond Teams in an organization’s Microsoft environment, providing additional value for each Copilot license. The senior manager enterprise collaboration at an IT services organization explained that Copilot utilization is always over 90% across several Microsoft products (including Microsoft Teams).

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).