Microsoft is developing a new feature for Teams that will help meeting admins better spot and block uninvited AI bots. According to a recent entry on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, the company is changing the way bots are handled in Teams calls, as meeting organizers will have to explicitly approve their participation.
Whenever a bot lands in the meeting lobby, organizers will see a specific visual indicator labeling it as an automated participant and not an actual person. This will completely remove any guesswork from deciding who belongs in a conversation.
Here is what the Microsoft 365 Roadmap entry says:
“During Teams meetings, if there is an external 3P bot trying to join the meeting, organizers will be able to see a clear representation of the bots while they wait in the lobby. Organizers will be required to explicitly and separately admit these bots into the meeting, if really required. This approach will ensure that no one inadvertently accepts the external bots into the meeting ensuring that the organizers have full control over the presence of these bots.”
With the recent developments in AI and automation, it is becoming increasingly common to start a meeting only to realize a random AI bot is quietly sitting in the corner, recording everything. That might not be a major problem if said bot is the company’s internal tool, even though not every employee appreciates their constant presence. However, bigger problems may arise when an intruder bot tries to infiltrate a meeting.
Late last year, Microsoft published a security blog detailing how threat actors actively abuse Teams meetings to launch sophisticated attacks. Malicious bots often exploit messaging and calls to hijack conversations and steal company data. The upcoming bot identifier for Microsoft Teams promises to give admins more power for identifying and handling these threat actors.
Microsoft has scheduled the rollout of the new bot identification feature for May this year. The feature is coming to Microsoft Teams on Android and iOS, as well as Windows and Linux.
Some more useful features that are already available in Microsoft Teams are internet signal strength indicators, content previews for the Files tab, and more.