Microsoft makes governance mandatory before AI rollout
Thrive published guidance on 18 May stating that AI tools such as Copilot need established governance before they can safely use company data. The recommendations focus on sensitivity labels applied at site, group, library and item level, plus lifecycle policies covering active, closeout and archive stages. Additional controls include restricted SharePoint search, limited content discoverability and Copilot activity logging.
Until now most mid-sized organisations treated governance as optional cleanup work that could wait until after the next project. Admins applied labels sporadically and left abandoned Teams and sites untouched for years. The shift makes governance a gate that must be passed before AI features are enabled. Teams and SharePoint sprawl now directly blocks Copilot from working safely, turning years of ad-hoc site creation into an immediate compliance barrier.
Analysis
Stop waiting for a perfect governance policy that your one-person team will never finish. Pick the single library holding the most sensitive data and run a native sensitivity label audit on it this week.
Citation
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