Microsoft Teams AI Feature Tells You Who is Enjoying The Call the Most

Microsoft has created a new artificial intelligence tool that will inform Teams users if participants are involved with meeting.

The AI, dubbed AffectiveSpotlight, can identify participants in a video call and uses a neural network to detect emotions such as sadness, happiness and surprise from their facial expressions. It can also detect movements like head shaking, nodding and uses an eyebrow detection system to pick up signs of confusion.

“The ability to monitor audience reactions is critical when delivering presentations,” the Microsoft research team explained. “However, current videoconferencing platforms offer limited solutions to support this. This work leverages recent advances in affect sensing to capture and facilitate communication of relevant audience signals.”

Studies have shown positive responses from speakers using the tool noting that they felt better about speaking, although some Audience members have not noticed much of a difference in the quality of the presentation with or without the AI in operation.