There’s a lot of talk about AI In our industry, typically around products and tools that we use to help customers have better meetings. We talk mostly about AI in microphones or cameras to improve audio quality, triangulate meeting participants, and create better camera shots of attendees as they speak.

As integrators, we also help customers maximize the use of their meeting platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

If you are a Teams user, Microsoft has introduced the ability to use their AI tool, Copilot, during your meetings. Copilot not only gives intelligent transcription of the meeting, creating cross referenced links to sections of the recorded video, but it can also be used to do things like summarize points of agreement and disagreement, assign action items, and even create an agenda for the next meeting based on all of the above.

The promise of tools like Copilot to make our meetings more efficient may be the unlock to the endless meeting loop we seem to get stuck in by assuring our meetings actually deliver the results and value they were intended to.

My team has had the privilege of using Copilot for the last few months and we have seen this value first hand.

I was on an AI panel at Infocomm ’24, where I had prepared a brief presentation on Copilot to show the output it is able to create. The panel topic changed and I was never able to share the content I created for that event, so I thought it may be fun to share here in my blog.

Given that I couldn’t share the real output of an internal or customer meeting, I decided to tap a couple of my team members to do a fictitious meeting and let Copilot do it’s thing.

What topic did I pick? Well, there is a famous argument in the movie Clerks about Star Wars regarding the Death Star and whether or not the contractors working on the project were innocent victims of the rebel attack, or whether they willingly entered into the risks associated with taking work with the Evil Empire.

The Clerks Star Wars Debate- according to Copilot

• The contractors on the Death Star: The document raises a moral dilemma about the destruction of the second Death Star, which was still under construction and might have involved innocent contractors who were not affiliated with the Empire. 5 6 

 

• The roofer’s analogy: The document provides an example of a roofer who declined a job from a gangster, knowing the risks involved, and argues that any contractor working on the Death Star should have been aware of the consequences. 7 8 

We then went off the Clerks script and discussed the potential construction of Death Star #3.

Key Topics:

• Death Star construction liability: Mark, Scott and Ridge discussed the risks and challenges of working on the Death Star project and how to avoid previous mistakes. 1
• Insurance: Mark agreed that getting good insurance was a given for the project. 2
• Exhaust ports: Mark suggested making the exhaust ports smaller than womp rats to prevent rebel attacks. 3
• Force detection: Scott proposed installing force detection and AI camera recognition to stop force users and old guys in bathrobes from sabotaging the power generator. 4
• Family issues: Ridge advised against working with family members, as it could get messy and compromise the project. 5

Action Items:

Death Star construction:

• Get insurance for the project. (Mark) 1
• Research force detection and AI camera recognition technologies. (Scott) 2 3
• Distribute meeting notes and action items. (Mark)

A possible agenda for your follow up meeting could be:

• Review the insurance options and the risks involved for the third Death Star project. 123
• Discuss the technical specifications and design improvements for the exhaust ports, the force detection, and the security cameras. 4567
• Address the ethical and moral implications of working with the Empire and the potential backlash from the rebels and the public. 891011
• Assign roles and responsibilities for the contractors and the Empire Construction Company. 12131415
• Set a timeline and a budget for the project and agree on the payment terms and conditions. 16171819

The numbers that you see at the end of these are actually hot links to the portions of the video where the topics were discussed, which means you can revisit the conversation to get its nuances or review a meeting you missed in a more efficient way.

Here is a look at the output on the screen from Teams as well in case you’ve never experienced it.

Hopefully this fun exercise opens your eyes to how the AI era may actually do more than select camera shots but improve overall efficiencies, knowledge sharing, and meetings in general.

The real question is, If you use Copilot for a Star Wars based meeting, should it be called Chewbacca???