Ilya Bukshteyn, corporate vice president, Microsoft Teams Calling, Meetings, and Devices–Microsoft, took to the stage Wednesday afternoon to present the Microsoft keynote
Exploring the Future of AI-Powered Collaboration and Connected Workplaces. David Labuskus, CEO, AVIXA, introduced Bukshteyn, and while he pointed out that Microsoft is reshaping the future of work, he asked the many in attendance: what’s next for meetings and communication as we face this transformation from AI?
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“I think you would agree with me that we are in a time of so much change, and whenever there is so much change, we tend to get polarized,” Bukshteyn said. Everything is a non-event or the end of the world. But the truth is the future lies somewhere in the middle. Right now, that is the evolving AI‑powered workplace, where communication and collaboration become intelligent, seamless experiences across both digital and physical spaces.
Over the next hour, Bukshteyn dove into AI enhancements to Microsoft Teams that will help teams move from discussion to action faster than ever. AI is becoming both a tool and a collaborator. No longer is AI simply inside hardware, like auto-framing, noise cancellation, and dictation. Instead of enhancing collaboration between humans, AI has become agentic colleagues, having conversations and collaborating between humans.
Bukshteyn feels the future of work is not sitting heads down at work while AI agents collaborate. AI will do work on our behalf, he said, and AI will allow for more work together that will create an unimagined innovation. He pointed to the work trend index in which two of three users using AI currently spend more time on high-value work, while 58% of those polled are producing work they couldn’t a year ago. As far as creative innovation, 86% treat AI output as a starting point, not an answer.
The future of work, for Bukshteyn, is centered around Microsoft Copilot. Work IQ is the intelligent layer that personalizes Copilot to an organization. Teams contributes to Work IQ through three ways: communication, collaboration, and work.
Bukshteyn then introduced multi-line for Teams Phone users. Communication is on the verge of being overwhelming. AI can help to streamline that communication, not just to free up more time effectively for us, but for the customers and end users we are helping. Multi-line for Teams Phone users allows up to 10 phone lines and can separate calls by department or subject area to come into one place where there is memory and knowledge. The Queues app was also introduced, which is a shared history of calls and voicemails. With Teams Phone Agent, an AI-powered auto attendant that can screen calls, take information, and even schedule meetings, enables agents to call other agents.
Collaboration is still very important to the future of work. Humans meeting other humans is vital, but these experiences need to be more seamless, more inclusive, and agent powered, making the meeting experience better. Bukshteyn introduced newly redesigned meeting and sharing controls that protect Teams Meetings against external bots. Microsoft will continue to invest in making Teams meetings more secure and simple to manage to make Teams meetings inclusive.
Bukshteyn added that the most used AI feature is recaps. Now there is a recap for everyone and every style, whether you like a transcript or video, and one tab allows you to find meetings you were mentioned in, you missed or weren’t able to make. There is a recap for everyone and every style.
While Bukshteyn also introduced a new Teams events app that becomes a one-stop shop to create and manage events, he also introduced a new training partnership with AVIXA. With more than 1.5 million Teams Rooms active licenses, AVIXA and Microsoft have partnered to have always on, always available training to get the most out of Microsoft Teams and an AI-empowered workplace. He called out several new devices that have also partnered with Microsoft Teams, bringing the CISCO G2 board, which is running on Android, and the MAXHUB all-in-one display, which runs on Windows, as well as the new Q-SYS Windows-powered bar. Whether it is a bar, board, or display, form factor shouldn’t determine your platform, Bukshteyn said.
Before he concluded, Bukshteyn introduced Teams Facilitator, which is now available on every Teams Room. Facilitator can help find rooms if you have more people and warn you if your room was left messy. It can start taking notes, share third-party (Zoom, Google Meet) meetings from Teams, and take all the friction out of meeting rooms. For us to move to a truly AI-powered future, Bukshteyn said the four key steps are: enroll the Frontier Program; enable voice and face enrollment; set up Teams phone agent and custom voice agent; and add facilitator to your meetings.
“This is just the beginning,” concluded Bukshteyn. “Having Ambient AI opens up boundless opportunities for us because literally, the entire world is at our fingertips.”
