Picture a Year 7 transition evening run as a Teams webinar. A parent joins on their phone, picks their language and hears the head talking to them in it, live.

Microsoft says that's on the way. AI Interpreter for Teams Events is on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap for General Availability (GA) in November 2026. It brings real-time, AI-generated audio interpretation to town halls and webinars.

Organisers choose which languages the event supports. Attendees then listen in the language they prefer, which goes a step further than the translated captions Teams already offers.

For schools with lots of families who speak English as an additional language (EAL), it sounds like the right tool for parent information evenings and trust-wide briefings. But there are two things I'd check before anyone puts it in a letter home.

Check the language list

Interpreter already works in ordinary Teams meetings and calls. There, it supports nine languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Now pull the home languages recorded in your Management Information System (MIS) and compare. In a lot of schools, the languages families need most, such as Polish, Romanian, Urdu or Arabic, aren't on that list.

The roadmap entry doesn't say which languages the events version will support. It may launch with more. But until Microsoft publishes the list, I wouldn't build next term's parent engagement plan around it.

Then check the licence

In meetings, Interpreter comes with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Each person who wants to hear translated audio needs one, and it includes 20 hours of interpretation a month.

If the events version works the same way, it's no use for a parents' webinar, because parents won't have your licences. Microsoft hasn't said how it will be licensed for events, so ask your reseller before you budget for it.

Check the devices too. The roadmap lists the Teams apps on desktop, Mac, iOS and Android. Teams on the web isn't listed, and that's how plenty of parents join a webinar from an emailed link. Test it with a browser before you rely on it.

In meetings, admins control Interpreter through Teams meeting policies in PowerShell, including whether it copies the speaker's own voice by default. Work out now who in your school or trust owns that decision.

Be open with families

Tell attendees at the start that the interpretation is AI-generated and can get things wrong. Names, dates and school jargon are probably where it slips.

Keep the key details in writing as well. Send the slides and a translated summary afterwards, so families have something to check against.

And keep human interpreters for the conversations where accuracy carries real weight: safeguarding meetings, special educational needs reviews and exclusions. Interpreting a one-way briefing is a different job from interpreting a meeting where a family has to make a decision.

Which events in your calendar would you run differently if every family could listen in their own language?