An external bot is an automated software participant that joins a meeting from outside the organization, often through a third-party app or service. In collaboration platforms, these bots may transcribe, take notes, moderate audio, or trigger workflows. Because they are not human guests, they create a separate access-control problem: the bot may be able to see, hear, store, or forward meeting content even when the account owner is not in the room.
In cyber security, external bots matter because they can become a privacy and data-loss risk if they are untrusted, overprivileged, or misconfigured. Attackers can abuse a bot-like integration to collect sensitive discussion data, while defenders use meeting policies, approval workflows, lobby controls, and admin review to block or limit identified bots. Good governance means treating automation as a participant that must be vetted, logged, and explicitly allowed rather than assumed safe.