Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Guide for SharePoint and Data
TL;DR: Microsoft 365 Copilot only surfaces what a user can already access, so readiness means fixing oversharing first. Find risky sites, apply interim restrictions, correct permissions, add labels and guardrails, then monitor. This guide maps each step to a read-only skill.
Why does Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness start with SharePoint permissions?
Microsoft 365 Copilot grounds its answers in data the user already has permission to access. Microsoft Learn states that well-governed, current and appropriately shared data lets Copilot respond accurately and securely. Oversharing in SharePoint therefore becomes oversharing in Copilot answers, so permissions are the first thing to audit.
Learn’s foundational deployment blueprint has three pillars: remediate oversharing, set up guardrails, and meet regulations. It is powered by Microsoft Purview and SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM). This guide follows that spine and adds the skills in this library that produce evidence for each step.
What should be in place before you start?
Learn’s configuration guidance lists the requirements below. Confirm them before running any skill.
- Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 (or Office 365 E3 or E5) for core services such as SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft Purview features.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, with SharePoint Advanced Management included.
- An appropriate admin role for each portal you will read from, such as SharePoint Administrator or a Microsoft Purview role.
- A test environment and a pilot group, as Learn’s Copilot setup checklist recommends.
- A review of Conditional Access policies, which Learn’s setup checklist lists as a readiness activity.
What is the ordered readiness path, and which skill audits each step?
The ordered path is: identify high-risk sites, apply interim protections, fix access, set guardrails, then govern and monitor. Each step below names what Microsoft Learn says and the read-only skill in this library that gathers evidence for it.
| Step | What Learn says | Skill to run |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Find oversharing | Use Microsoft Purview DSPM data risk assessments and the SAM Content Management Assessment to find overshared, ownerless, inactive or sensitive sites | SharePoint Oversharing Audit, Data Access Governance Report Review |
| 2. Interim protection | Enable Restricted Content Discovery and Purview DLP for Copilot while remediation is under way | Restricted SharePoint Search Readiness, Copilot DLP Impact Simulation |
| 3. Fix access | Run SAM site access reviews, remove company-wide links including EEEU, correct broken inheritance, confirm ownership | Everyone Except External Users Sweep, Broken Permission Inheritance Audit, Site Permissions Baseline |
| 4. Guardrails | Enforce Restricted Access Control, apply site sensitivity labels, auto-labelling and DLP for Copilot | Purview Label Coverage, Tenant DLP Coverage Audit |
| 5. Monitor and regulate | Review DSPM Activity Explorer, decide audit retention and Copilot interaction retention | Copilot Interaction Compliance Audit, Audit Log Retention Validator |
How do you find oversharing before Copilot does?
Start with discovery, because the rest of the path depends on it. Learn directs administrators to Microsoft Purview DSPM data risk assessments and the SAM Content Management Assessment, which identifies sites with oversized audiences, Everyone Except External Users (EEEU) usage, broken inheritance, inappropriate sharing, and inactive or ownerless sites.
Learn also lists the risk signals to combine. Sites where several overlap are high risk.
| Risk signal | Learn’s example of overlap |
|---|---|
| Anyone, Everyone or organisation-wide links | Sensitive data plus Anyone links |
| Unlabelled or public sites | Public site with no owner |
| Broken permission inheritance | Large audience plus broken inheritance |
| Ownerless, inactive or unreviewed sites | Public site with no owner |
SAM data access governance reports include a site permissions baseline report, an EEEU report and sharing link activity reports. Learn describes the EEEU report as covering the top 100 sites shared with the entire organisation in the past 28 days. Re-run the Content Management Assessment every 30 days, as Learn recommends.
What can you do while remediation is still under way?
Apply interim controls, then remove them once permissions are fixed. Learn recommends Restricted Content Discovery (RCD) to stop chosen sites appearing in Copilot or agentic experiences and organisation-wide search, without changing site permissions. It also recommends Purview DLP for Copilot to exclude sensitive content from grounding. Learn’s setup guidance also suggests considering restricted SharePoint search.
Validate the result through Microsoft Purview Auditing. Learn says to remove the interim protections after access and permissions are remediated.
How do you fix permissions and access in SharePoint?
Use SAM site access reviews so site owners can remove excess users, groups and company-wide links, including EEEU. Learn also says to correct broken permission inheritance and to confirm site ownership using SAM site lifecycle management. Apply site sensitivity labels to reflect data sensitivity and rescope sharing links to approved users or groups.
For sites that must be limited to a defined group, Learn describes Restricted Access Control (RAC). Users outside the specified Microsoft Entra security group or Microsoft 365 group cannot access the site, even if they previously had access through permissions or a link.
Which guardrails keep Copilot from oversharing again?
Guardrails make the secure state the default. Learn’s Step 2 lists secure defaults and content protection, summarised below.
| Guardrail | What Learn says |
|---|---|
| Restricted Access Control | Enforce by default for business-critical sites at provisioning |
| Sharing links | Disable or restrict company-wide sharing groups and Anyone links at tenant level |
| Site sensitivity labels | Require at provisioning through Microsoft Purview Information Protection |
| Auto-labelling and default labels | Configure so sensitive files and emails are protected |
| DLP for Copilot | Restrict Copilot processing of files with specific labels, and of prompts with specified sensitive information |
| Insider Risk Management | Detect inappropriate or noncompliant Copilot usage |
Sprawl control belongs here too. Learn’s SAM guidance covers site ownership, inactive site and site attestation policies, and Microsoft 365 Archive for inactive content. Learn states that Copilot is not trained on archived content.
How do you monitor Copilot activity after go-live?
Monitor continuously. Learn advises using Purview DSPM Activity Explorer to review Copilot interactions, DSPM data risk assessments to confirm sensitive data stays protected, and Insider Risk Management and DLP alerts to investigate risky AI usage. It also says to decide audit log retention, decide how long to keep Copilot interactions, and use Purview eDiscovery for audits or legal requests.
Learn’s Step 3 adds Purview Compliance Manager to assess your tenant against AI-related regulatory requirements.
What do you run, in order, and why?
Run the skills in this order. Each is read-only and produces evidence you can hand to owners.
- Copilot Readiness Assessment to set a maturity baseline and decide what to remediate first.
- SharePoint Advanced Management to audit which SAM capabilities are configured.
- Data Access Governance Report Review to turn SAM reports into an owner-assigned plan.
- SharePoint Oversharing Audit to rank active links and site permissions by risk.
- Everyone Except External Users Sweep to find organisation-wide access Copilot could surface.
- External Sharing Deep Audit to attribute external shares to recipient domains.
- Sharing Links Activity Audit to spot risky link trends and stale links.
- Site Permissions Baseline to record a least-privilege baseline.
- Broken Permission Inheritance Audit to rank unique permissions.
- Site Lifecycle Review to handle inactive and ownerless sites.
- Teams and Groups Sprawl Audit and Teams External Access Audit to close collaboration exposure. Teams Meeting Policy Audit covers recording and label gaps.
- Restricted SharePoint Search Readiness to stage Copilot access while you remediate.
- DSPM for AI Remediation to convert oversharing findings into a checklist.
- Purview Label Coverage and Data Classification SIT Coverage to see where sensitive data is unprotected.
- Tenant DLP Coverage Audit and Copilot DLP Impact Simulation to tune DLP before enforcing.
- Copilot Control System Governance Validator and Conditional Access Coverage Gap to check the surrounding controls.
- Inactive Licence Recovery to reclaim unused licences.
- Purview AI Activity Explorer, Copilot Interaction Compliance Audit, Audit Log Retention Validator and Retention and Records Audit to monitor after go-live.
- SharePoint Agent Publishing Audit and SharePoint AI Skills Governance once agents are in use.
What do these skills produce, and what do they not?
Skills in this library are read-only unless a page names exactly what it changes. They produce evidence: reports, ranked findings and remediation lists. They do not certify that your tenant is ready, compliant or secure, and they do not replace Microsoft’s own assessments. Treat the output as input to your decision.
Where should you read next?
- What is an AI skill? explains how the skills in this library work.
- Copilot governance guide covers the Microsoft Purview side of guardrails and monitoring.
- Australian Copilot compliance covers Australian framework packs.
- Agent governance guide covers governing agents once Copilot is live.
- This page is the Copilot readiness guide for SharePoint and data.
Sources
- Secure and govern Microsoft Copilot: Foundational deployment guidance (Microsoft Learn)
- Configure a secure and governed foundation for Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft Learn)
- Get ready for Microsoft Copilot and agents with SharePoint Advanced Management (Microsoft Learn)
- Set up Microsoft Copilot and assign licenses (Microsoft Learn)
Licensed under CC BY 4.0 by EDUC4TE .
Last reviewed 2026-09-30