Contextual Document Summaries for High-Volume Collaboration Data

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing collaboration systems fail to efficiently summarize large volumes of data, leading to productivity loss and inefficient use of computing resources, particularly when users miss significant events or are away for extended periods.

Innovation Solution

A system that generates 'Just-in-Time' summaries of documents by analyzing user-defined segments, distinguishing between computer-generated and quoted content, and adjusting summaries dynamically based on user input, while considering permissions and document relevance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If users manually review large volumes of collaboration data, then they can obtain detailed information, but productivity decreases and time consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoiduser productivity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts and summarizes key information from large volumes of collaboration data, presenting only the most relevant content to users. This extraction principle allows users to obtain essential information without manually reviewing entire datasets, thereby maintaining information completeness while significantly improving productivity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

An automated summarization system acts as an intermediary between the large volume of collaboration data and the user. This mediator processes the data, identifies key points, and presents condensed summaries, eliminating the need for users to manually review all data while ensuring they receive comprehensive information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If users review all messages in channels with hundreds or thousands of entries, then they can catch up on all events, but time consumption and computing resource usage increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveevent coverageVSAvoidcatch-up time
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the most significant events and messages from channels with hundreds or thousands of entries, creating condensed summaries that cover all important events. This allows users to catch up on complete event coverage without spending time reviewing every single message.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of reviewing all messages (excessive action), the system performs partial action by selectively summarizing only the most relevant content. This partial review approach ensures users capture all essential events while dramatically reducing the time required to catch up on channel activity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Loss of information

If systems provide detailed collaboration data, then information completeness is maintained, but computing resource efficiency decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata completenessVSAvoidcomputing resource efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts and processes only the essential elements from collaboration data, creating summaries that maintain information completeness while requiring significantly fewer computing resources. This extraction approach eliminates the need to load, process, and display entire datasets.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs partial processing by analyzing and summarizing only the most relevant portions of collaboration data rather than processing all data in detail. This partial action maintains the completeness of essential information while dramatically improving computing resource efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP3924915B1Intelligent summaries based on automated learning and contextual analysis of a user input
Publication Date: 2025.11.19 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • EP3924915B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3924915B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3924915B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The techniques provided herein improve existing systems by automatically generating summaries of a document in response to a user input that defines selected segments of a document. The document can include any type of content such as, but not limited to, channel conversations, chat threads, transcripts, word processing documents, spreadsheets, etc. As the user indicates a selection of segments, a system can dynamically update a summary of the segments to inform a user of salient information that is shared in the selected segments. A summary can include a text description of the information having a threshold priority level. A system can analyze documents that are referenced within the selected segments and provide summaries of the documents. The techniques disclosed herein also provide a number of graphical elements that communicate additional context of each part of the summary.