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Generating and storing AI archives for meetings is a powerful way to empower Microsoft’s AI tools like Copilot and Facilitator to be smarter and more useful in your organization, giving the tools durable knowledge and context from previous meetings. The AI archive of a meeting is an AI-generated artifact that condenses the essential knowledge from a meeting’s discussion and metadata so Facilitator, Copilot, and other downstream AI systems can ground their reasoning without storing raw user content. Copilot and Facilitator use the AI archive to answer questions about a meeting. The AI archive file is stored within a Teams-owned SharePoint Embedded container rather than a particular user's space and isn't visible or accessible by users in your organization. AI archive generation is default on for your organization.
Note
AI Archives are in preview and only available to organizations in the Teams TAP program.
What’s included in the AI archive?
The AI archive of a meeting is stored as a file with the .meeting extension and includes meeting metadata, such as the meeting title and date, as well as a summary of the key insights and meeting discussion.
Note
No raw user data or transcript excerpts are stored in the AI archive, only AI-generated content.
When is the AI archive created?
When enabled in the Teams Admin Center, the AI archive is generated for meetings where:
- A transcript was created and saved, and
- A Copilot-licensed participant was invited to the meeting, and
- The Allow Copilot and Facilitator meeting option was set to During and after the meeting. Learn more about how Copilot and transcription work together. An AI archive won't be created for meetings with sensitivity labels which include encryption, meetings with end-to-end encryption, or meetings where copying and forwarding content is restricted.
How is the AI archive used?
Facilitator, Copilot, and other downstream Microsoft AI tools reason over meeting archives to improve the quality of responses.
Content in the meeting archive is only accessible through Copilot, Facilitator, and other Microsoft AI tools. Users can't open or view the archive file directly.
If AI uses a meeting archive to generate a response, the response includes a citation that links to the meeting recap or meeting invite.
AI archive files are indexed for search. Opening an archive file from a search point redirects the user to the meeting recap page or meeting invite.
The archive file can't be moved, renamed, or modified.
Facilitator, Copilot, and other AI never shares insights from a meeting with users who don't have access to the meeting.
Who has access to the AI archive of a meeting?
The meeting archive is only available to users invited to the meeting and users who are given access by sharing the meeting recap. Users can't directly open or view the meeting archive file, but Copilot, Facilitator, and other Microsoft AI tools use the AI archive to answer questions about the meeting for users who have access.
How to delete the AI archive of a meeting?
The meeting organizer can delete the AI archive by deleting the meeting recap. First, navigate to the meeting recap. Then, open the … menu, and select Delete recap content.
Note
The AI archive won't automatically be deleted if the transcript or recording is deleted or expired.
A Microsoft Teams admin can also delete the AI archive for a meeting file through PowerShell:
Open PowerShell.
Run Connect-MicrosoftTeams and sign in with your Teams admin account.
Run the following command (ThreadId is required; CallId is optional)
Remove-AIGeneratedKnowledge -ThreadId <String> -CallId <String>
Managing AI Archive Generation for your Organization
Turning Off AI Archive Generation
AI archive generation is turned on by default for each tenant. AI archive generation can be disabled for your organization in the Teams Admin Center by turning off the Allow AI to archive meetings with .meeting file generation setting in the AI Memory & Archive section. AI archive generation can’t be turned on for only a subset of users.
AI archive generation can be turned off for a specific meeting by setting Allow Copilot and Facilitator to Only during the meeting in the meeting options.
There is no impact to existing Teams features and functionality if AI archive generation is turned off. AI archive generation is an optimization and enhancement that will help improve the quality of Copilot and Facilitator's meeting-related responses and may allow Copilot and Facilitator to continue answering questions about meetings beyond transcript retention periods, depending on the AI archive expiration date and retention policies set for your organization.
Setting Default Expiration of Meeting Archive Files
Default expiration of archive files is controlled through the Teams Admin Center. The default expiration time for archive files is five years (1,825 days), but admins can customize the expiration time as needed for their organization. Once an archive file expires, the file is deleted and can't be used by Copilot, Facilitator, and other AI to answer questions about the meeting. Microsoft recommends setting longer default expiration times to enhance Facilitator and Copilot’s functionality.
Microsoft Purview retention policies can also be configured to manage retention and deletion of AI archives. Purview retention policies will take precedence over the AI archive expiration setting in the Teams Admin Center. See below section Setting Retention Policies.
AI Archive Storage
AI archives are built on SharePoint Embedded and stored using Teams-owned Microsoft 365 File Storage Containers, or Containers for short. SharePoint Embedded is an API-only file and document management system. For more information about SharePoint Embedded, see Overview of SharePoint Embedded. The first archive file created for your organization creates a new Container. Each additional archive file uses an existing Container if that Container has available space or creates a new Container if it doesn't. Containers are dedicated to archive files and don't store other kinds of data. The archive file will be stored in Container in the preferred data location of the meeting organizer for multi-geo organizations.
Finding AI Archive Container URLs
In certain Purview tools, such as eDiscovery or Retention policies, you may need AI Archive Container URLs. A specific AI archive container URL can be found by the Teams admin through PowerShell:
Open PowerShell.
Run Connect-MicrosoftTeams and sign in with your Teams admin account.
Run the following command (ThreadId is required; CallId is optional).
Get-AIGeneratedKnowledgeContainer -ThreadId <String> -CallId <String>
Note
AI archive files use a different container model than Loop, Copilot Pages, and Copilot Notebooks. AI archives are stored in different SharePoint Embedded containers and are lifetime managed by the Teams infrastructure. Loop My workspace, Copilot Pages, and Copilot Notebooks are stored in user-owned containers whose application name appears as Loop in the SharePoint admin center.
eDiscovery and Legal Hold through Purview
Admins can perform eDiscovery searches on all SharePoint Embedded content using the All SharePoint Sites workload. Admins can also specify specific AI archive containers using AI Archive Container URLs. eDiscovery admins can perform eDiscovery Hold and Export on archive file content. Learn more about Security and Compliance for SharePoint Embedded Containers.
Setting Retention Policies
Retention policies on AI archive files are managed in the Purview Data lifecycle management tool. AI archives are included in SharePoint classic and communication sites, so no other configuration is needed to target AI archives with the same retention policy as other SharePoint content. To target AI archives with a different policy, you can use the include or exclude settings to scope your search to your AI archive Container URLs.
Purview retention policies will take precedence over the AI archive expiration setting in the Teams Admin Center.
Information Barriers
Meeting archive files do not yet support Information Barriers.
Are Admins able to use SharePoint Embedded APIs to directly manage AI archive containers?
AI archive containers are fully managed in Microsoft Teams' services. Admins can't directly use SharePoint Embedded APIs to manage AI archive containers.
What happens to an AI archive file when the organizer of that meeting is deactivated?
Since AI archive files are stored in Teams-owned Microsoft 365 File Storage Containers rather than a specific user's space, the AI archive still exists even if the meeting organizer's account is deactivated. The AI archive remains until the default expiration time specified in the Teams Admin Center, unless Purview retention policies are set. When the expiration time is reached, the AI archive is deleted and can't be recovered.