Copilot in SharePoint Availability and Site AI Settings Review

TL;DR: This skill reviews where Copilot in SharePoint is available and how each site’s Site AI settings are configured, then lists what to migrate before Microsoft stops honouring the preview PowerShell availability settings on 1 November 2026, per Microsoft Learn.

What does the Copilot in SharePoint availability review cover, and how is it different from the agent publishing audit?

This skill reviews where Copilot in SharePoint is available across your tenant, how each site’s Site AI settings are configured, and which preview PowerShell settings need migrating before 1 November 2026, per Microsoft Learn. It differs from the SharePoint Agent Publishing and Data Source Audit, which inventories Copilot Studio agents published to sites, not Microsoft’s built-in Copilot.

Two other existing pages sit close by, so the boundaries are:

When should you run this skill?

Run it now if your tenant uses any of the preview PowerShell settings to opt tenants or sites in or out of Copilot in SharePoint. Learn says existing settings are honoured only until 1 November 2026.

• “Is Copilot in SharePoint on, off or partly on in our tenant?”
• “Which sites did we include or exclude with PowerShell during preview?”
• “What changes for us when general availability rolls out?”
• “Which sites have Restricted Content Discovery, and does it apply regardless of other availability settings?”
• “What must we move to Site AI settings before 1 November 2026?”

What is the status of Copilot in SharePoint as at 30 September 2026?

Per Microsoft Learn, the Get started page says Copilot in SharePoint is in public preview and that general availability begins rolling out on 30 September 2026, with capabilities appearing in tenants as rollout progresses. Everyday capabilities stay included with the Microsoft 365 Copilot licence; advanced work uses Copilot Credits. Confirm in your tenant before relying on general availability.

The wording above is “per Microsoft Learn” as at 2026-09-30. The Learn page was still describing the feature as public preview on that date, so treat general availability as rolling out, not complete.

Which availability controls is Microsoft retiring, and by when?

Per the Get started with Copilot in SharePoint page, the preview PowerShell controls KnowledgeAgentScope, KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesList and KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesListOperation are being retired. Existing settings continue to be honoured until November 1, 2026. After that date, Learn says to manage availability using Site AI settings and Restricted Content Discovery.

This is the date that drives the review. It is taken from one Learn page only, so re-read that page before you commit a change window.

Learn also says the parameter names keep the preview naming for compatibility, and that multigeo tenants run the PowerShell in each geo.

How do you review Copilot in SharePoint availability step by step?

You record the tenant-level PowerShell state, find sites with Restricted Content Discovery, record each site’s Site AI settings, and then list what depends on the preview controls. Every step below is a read. Each command or setting is taken from the Learn pages listed under Sources.

1. Confirm the module. Learn says to use SharePoint Online Management Shell version 16.0.26615.12013 or later. Record the installed version with (Get-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -ListAvailable).Version.
2. Connect to the SharePoint admin endpoint: Connect-SPOService https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com. For a multigeo tenant, repeat steps 2 to 4 in each geo.
3. Read the tenant-level preview setting: Get-SPOTenant | Select-Object KnowledgeAgentScope, KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesList. Record the scope value and every listed URL.
4. Interpret the scope using the table above. A scope of IncludeSelectedSites or ExcludeSelectedSites means site-level decisions currently live in a list that Learn says stops being honoured after 1 November 2026.
5. Find sites with Restricted Content Discovery. For one site, run Get-SPOSite -Identity <site-url> | Select RestrictContentOrgWideSearch. For the tenant, Learn documents Start-SPORestrictedContentDiscoverabilityReport, Get-SPORestrictedContentDiscoverabilityReport, and Get-SPORestrictedContentDiscoverabilityReport -Action Download -ReportId <ReportGUID>.
6. For each site in your list from step 3, and for any sensitive site, have a site owner open Settings > Site AI and record the three Learn-documented settings: which agent opens from the global header agent icon, whether the Copilot button is hidden for site visitors, and whether advanced document processing is enabled.
7. Mark each site where Restricted Content Discovery is on. Learn says that in this case Copilot in SharePoint and AI actions do not appear, regardless of other availability settings, so its Site AI settings are not the deciding control.
8. List the sites and the tenant scope that depend on the preview controls. For each, record the intended post-1 November 2026 state using only the two mechanisms Learn names: Site AI settings and Restricted Content Discovery.
9. Review Copilot Credits policy. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Copilot > Cost management and review existing spending policies for Advanced work in SharePoint, including the Allow new agents and services as they become available option that Learn says can add newly available services automatically.
10. Produce the output below and note every gap in the next section.

What do Site AI settings and Restricted Content Discovery control?

Per Microsoft Learn, Site AI settings let site owners choose the agent behind the global header icon, hide the Copilot button for site visitors only, and enable advanced document processing. Restricted Content Discovery is a separate setting that Learn says is respected: where it is on, Copilot in SharePoint and AI actions do not appear on the site, regardless of other availability settings.

Restricted Content Discovery does more than hide a button. Per Learn it limits discovery of site content in organisation-wide search and Microsoft Copilot responses, although it does not change permissions or remove content from the search index. Do not treat it as a like-for-like replacement for an exclusion list without a decision from the site owner.

What does the output look like?

The skill returns a tenant summary row and one row per site that needs a decision. The rows below are an illustration of the format, not real tenant data.

Tenant-level preview setting

Per-site review

Summary

• Tenant KnowledgeAgentScope value: N
• Sites on the include or exclude list: N
• Sites with Restricted Content Discovery on: N
• Sites needing an owner decision before 1 November 2026: N
• Existing Copilot Credits spending policies reviewed: N

What could not be confirmed from Microsoft Learn?

The pages cited here do not document several things this review would otherwise need, so the skill records them as open questions and does not infer answers.

• The pages cited here do not document how each KnowledgeAgentScope value maps to Site AI settings after 1 November 2026, so the skill does not prescribe a mapping.
• The pages cited here do not document what happens to the stored scope value, including the NoSites default, after 1 November 2026.
• The pages cited here do not document a tenant-wide report or PowerShell read for each site’s Site AI settings; the review relies on each site’s Site AI panel.
• The Learn Get started page says everyday capabilities are included with the licence and need no opt-in step, but the pages cited here do not state how that interacts with a tenant that set NoSites. Confirm with Microsoft before relying on either reading.
• The Set-SPOTenant reference page lists AllSites, ExcludeSelectedSites and NoSites for KnowledgeAgentScope, describes the list as an exclusion list, and uses the name “Knowledge Agent” for the feature, while the Get started page also lists IncludeSelectedSites. Check the values your installed module accepts.

Scope and safety

Read-only. This skill reads tenant settings, site settings and report output. It does NOT:

• Run Set-SPOTenant or change KnowledgeAgentScope, KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesList or KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesListOperation.
• Change any site’s Site AI settings.
• Enable, disable or delegate Restricted Content Discovery.
• Create, change or remove Copilot Credits spending policies.
• Change Microsoft 365 Copilot licences or site permissions.

Start-SPORestrictedContentDiscoverabilityReport generates a report. The pages cited here describe it only as generating a report for identifying sites where Restricted Content Discovery is enabled. Run it only with that understanding.

Licensing and permissions

Licences and add-ons

Least-privilege roles

• SharePoint administrator. Learn’s Set-SPOTenant page says you must be a SharePoint Online administrator to run that cmdlet. The pages cited here do not document a narrower role for the read commands used here, so this skill does not prescribe one.
• The pages cited here do not document a Microsoft Graph permission set for this review, so this skill does not prescribe one.

Related skills

• SharePoint Agent Publishing and Data Source Audit: run alongside to inventory Copilot Studio agents published to the same sites.
• Restricted SharePoint Search Readiness: run first to choose which high-risk sites suit Restricted Content Discovery.
• SharePoint AI Skills Governance Audit: run alongside to review AI Skill files on sites where Copilot in SharePoint is available.
• SharePoint Advanced Management Governance Audit: run after to review the Advanced Management capability set that Restricted Content Discovery depends on.
• SharePoint Copilot Readiness Guide: the pillar guide that places this review in the Copilot-readiness sequence.

Notes

• Status and dates are stated per Microsoft Learn as at 2026-09-30. The general availability rollout start (September 30, 2026) and the PowerShell honouring date (November 1, 2026) both come from the Get started with Copilot in SharePoint page; no second Learn page was found that repeats them.
• Restricted Content Discovery applies to SharePoint sites only, not OneDrive.
• Microsoft Learn names the feature Copilot in SharePoint, while the PowerShell parameters keep the preview name KnowledgeAgent for compatibility.

Sources

Reviewed 2026-09-30.

• Get started with Copilot in SharePoint (Microsoft Learn) 
• Restrict discovery of SharePoint sites and content (Microsoft Learn) 
• Set-SPOTenant (Microsoft Learn) 

Licensed under CC BY 4.0  by EDUC4TE .

Last reviewed 2026-09-30