Microsoft's new Teams admin policy mandates organizer approval for external AI bots attempting to join meetings. The system automatically detects potential bots using behavioral and infrastructure signals, placing them in a meeting lobby and clearly identifying them. Organizers must explicitly confirm bot admission, even if participants are allowed to bypass the lobby. Bots are visually distinguished and grouped as 'Waiting' (registered bots and verified individuals) or 'Suspected threats' (unregistered bots). Independent software vendors can register their bots with self-identification markers to facilitate recognition. This policy enhances security by preventing unauthorized AI bots from joining meetings without approval and retires the previous CAPTCHA verification mechanism.

This policy reduces the risk of unauthorized AI bots joining Microsoft Teams meetings, which could otherwise lead to privacy breaches or exposure of sensitive information. By requiring organizer approval and improving bot detection, organizations gain greater control over meeting participants, mitigating potential security and privacy risks associated with automated external entities.

Microsoft has implemented an official fix by introducing this new Teams admin policy that requires organizer approval for external AI bots. Organizations should enable and configure the 'Manage external bots and their access to meetings' policy via the Teams Admin Center to benefit from these protections. Admins can assign this policy to users or groups as appropriate. The feature can be disabled if desired, but enabling it is recommended to enhance meeting security. Since this is a new built-in control, no additional patches are required. The previous CAPTCHA verification is retired and replaced by this more comprehensive approach.