Microsoft Purview and Copilot Readiness: A Governance-First Approach

Why Copilot Changes the Governance Equation

Microsoft Copilot is built on top of Microsoft Graph and surfaces content based on user permissions. In theory, users only see what they already have access to. In practice, most organisations have years of accumulated oversharing: open SharePoint sites, Teams channels with guest access, OneDrive folders shared broadly and sensitivity labels that were never applied.

Before Copilot, this oversharing was a latent risk. With Copilot, it becomes an active exposure vector. A user asking Copilot to summarise project updates might receive content from HR, finance or legal departments they technically have read access to but were never intended to see.

The Governance Prerequisites for Copilot

Preparing for Copilot is fundamentally a data governance exercise. Before enabling AI across your tenant, your organisation needs:

• Sensitivity labels applied consistently so that content is classified and Copilot respects protection boundaries
• DLP policies enforcing label-based controls to prevent sensitive content from flowing to unprotected locations
• Access reviews and permission audits to reduce oversharing across SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive before Copilot amplifies it
• Information barriers where required, particularly in regulated sectors like financial services and healthcare
• Adaptive protection policies to monitor and respond to unusual data access patterns that Copilot might trigger

How PurLayer Supports Copilot Readiness

PurLayer includes a dedicated Secure AI Adoption objective that generates a complete Purview governance strategy specifically designed for Copilot readiness. When you select this objective, PurLayer produces:

• Sensitivity label hierarchies optimised for AI workloads
• DLP policies that prevent Copilot from surfacing sensitive content inappropriately
• Workload-specific controls for Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive and Endpoint
• Compliance framework mappings relevant to AI governance
• Risk-scored recommendations prioritised for pre-Copilot remediation

The simulation runs entirely in the browser with no tenant access required. This makes it ideal for consultants preparing Copilot readiness assessments or internal teams building a business case for governance investment before AI rollout.

Governance Before AI, Not After

The organisations that succeed with Copilot will be those that treated data governance as a prerequisite, not a remediation exercise. Simulating your Purview strategy before deployment lets you identify gaps, align stakeholders and build confidence that your environment is ready for AI.