Generative AI Enhancing Temporal Work in Meetings

Designing Interfaces that Support Temporal Work Across Meetings with Generative AI

Let’s face it: meetings are the heartbeat of modern knowledge work, yet they often feel like fragmented moments scattered across our calendars. We hop from one Zoom call to another, juggling projects, deadlines, and a flood of information. But what if our digital tools could do more than just schedule and record? What if they could truly understand and support the temporal nature of our work—the way we reflect on past meetings and plan for future ones—across days, weeks, and even months? Welcome to the evolving frontier where generative AI meets the art and science of temporal work.

Why Temporal Work Matters in Today’s Workplace

Temporal work refers to how knowledge workers manage and connect tasks, discussions, and decisions over time. It’s about retrospection—looking back at what was discussed or decided—and prospection—anticipating and planning future actions. In our hyper-connected, multitasking world, temporal work is critical. Yet, most current meeting platforms treat meetings as isolated events rather than parts of a continuous workflow.

This fragmented approach often leads to lost context, duplicated efforts, and cognitive overload. According to a 2025 study by Microsoft Research, knowledge workers spend up to 35% of their time just linking information across meetings and projects, highlighting a significant inefficiency that technology can address[1].

The Generative AI Breakthrough: Beyond Transcriptions to Temporal Intelligence

Generative AI has already transformed how we interact with technology—from drafting emails to creating art. The latest wave, however, focuses on supporting temporal work by designing interfaces that understand and anticipate the flow of work across multiple meetings.

Microsoft’s recent research, presented at the Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS 2025), introduces a novel framework that blends cognitive science insights with generative AI capabilities to create tools that do more than summarize—they actively connect the dots across time in the workplace[1][2].

For example, imagine an AI assistant that doesn’t just transcribe a meeting but synthesizes key themes, tracks decisions, and reminds you of unresolved action items from previous sessions. Better yet, it could forecast potential bottlenecks or suggest agenda items for upcoming meetings based on historical data and project timelines.

How Microsoft and Other Industry Leaders Are Pioneering Temporal AI Interfaces

Microsoft is at the forefront of integrating these concepts into practical tools. Their recent updates to Microsoft Teams, unveiled in May 2025, include AI-powered meeting features that generate post-meeting insights such as key takeaways and follow-up actions accessible via Microsoft Graph API[5]. This allows developers to build intelligent workflows that span multiple meetings, enhancing continuity without requiring users to manually piece together information.

Similarly, the Microsoft AI Tour 2025 showcased how generative AI is being embedded across platforms to not only automate routine tasks but to foster collaboration by creating “memory” across sessions, essentially creating a persistent workspace that evolves with the user’s projects and conversations[4].

Other tech giants, including Google and Meta, are also investing heavily in temporal AI. Google’s Workspace has been experimenting with AI-driven meeting summaries that link related documents and emails across time, while Meta’s Horizon Workrooms is exploring AI agents that assist with meeting preparation and follow-up in virtual reality environments.

Designing for Temporal Scales: Interface Concepts and Real-World Applications

The Microsoft Research team has proposed several interface prototypes that accommodate different scales of temporal work[1]. These include:

• Temporal Dashboards: Offering a bird’s-eye view of ongoing projects, past meeting outcomes, and future milestones, all in one place.

• Contextual Meeting Assistants: AI agents that provide real-time prompts drawing from past discussions and anticipate questions or concerns.

• Collaborative Memory Spaces: Shared repositories where teams can store and curate knowledge extracted from meetings over time.

These designs were informed by an exploratory analysis of recurring meetings across industries, emphasizing the importance of tools that adapt to varying time scales—from daily stand-ups to quarterly reviews[2].

The Human Factor: Balancing Automation and Intentionality

One concern often raised about AI in meetings is the risk of over-automation, which might dilute human intentionality—the conscious planning and decision-making process that drives productive collaboration. The research underscores the need for AI interfaces that augment rather than replace human cognition, providing support that is transparent, customizable, and aligned with users’ goals.

Rishi Vanukuru, lead author of the Microsoft study, notes, “Our goal is to design AI that respects the rhythms of human work—supporting retrospection and prospection without overwhelming users with irrelevant suggestions or automation”[2].

What’s Next? The Future of Temporal AI in Knowledge Work

Looking ahead, temporal AI interfaces promise to redefine how organizations approach meetings and project management. We can expect more seamless integration across tools, smarter AI agents that adapt to individual and team workflows, and enhanced multi-agent collaboration capabilities.

Microsoft’s new vendor-neutral AI protocol, introduced in May 2025, is a game-changer here. It enables AI agents from different platforms to share memory and tools over a common interface, facilitating complex workflows that span multiple applications and teams[5].

Moreover, advances in natural language processing and multimodal AI mean future meeting assistants won’t just process text or audio—they’ll understand visual data, emotions, and even group dynamics to provide richer support.

Comparison Table: Current Leading Generative AI Meeting Tools Supporting Temporal Work

Final Thoughts: Embracing Temporality to Unlock Productivity

As someone who's been following AI breakthroughs for years, I find the shift toward supporting temporal work with generative AI not just exciting—but essential. Meetings don’t happen in isolation; they’re threads woven into the fabric of our work lives. Designing interfaces that recognize and support this continuity can transform productivity, reduce cognitive load, and make collaboration feel less like a chore and more like a natural flow.

By grounding AI tools in the temporal realities of knowledge work, companies like Microsoft are setting a new standard. Sure, there are challenges—privacy, data security, and ensuring the right balance between automation and human control—but the potential rewards are enormous. As we move deeper into 2025 and beyond, expect your digital meeting assistant not only to recall what was said but to help you think ahead.

**