AB-650 Step by step · Lab 11

Copilot Readiness Checklist: Fix These 4 Things First

Get a tenant ready before Microsoft 365 Copilot reaches every desk: readiness checks, oversharing reports, restricted sites and Copilot meeting policies.

8 November 2026 · 5 min read

SharePoint data access governance reports for site permissions and sharing — Watch the lesson: Lab 11: Copilot readiness and oversharing | AB-650 Microsoft 365 Step By Step

Copilot does not create new access. It reveals the access you already gave. So before it reaches every desk, an admin checks four things: the tenant, the data, SharePoint, and Copilot in meetings. This is Lab 11 of the AB-650 course at Pragati Industries.

Step 1: Tenant readiness

Microsoft 365 admin center → Copilot → Overview. Copilot analytics show active users, adoption score and assisted hours, all zero until people start. Top actions is the readiness checklist: Copilot hidden in Windows, Copilot Chat not pinned in the apps, mobile usage, intranet websites, and a community for adoption.

Copilot overview Top actions: Copilot hidden in Windows, Copilot Chat not pinned — Top actions: the readiness checklist, built into the admin center.

One more item: the Microsoft 365 Apps update channel. Copilot features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint arrive in Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel first.

Step 2: Data readiness

SharePoint admin center → Reports → Data access governance. Snapshot reports cover site permissions across the organisation, permissions for one user, content open to Everyone, and where sensitivity labels are; activity reports cover new sharing links.

Data access governance report tiles for broad permissions, sensitivity labels and sharing links — The first report takes up to five days; then it can run every thirty days. Fix oversharing at the source.

Step 3: Keep sensitive sites out of Copilot

Active sites → Contracts → Settings → Restrict content discovery: On. Members still open the site, but its content no longer appears in Copilot or organisation-wide search for anyone else.

Contracts site settings with Restrict content discovery set to On — Restricted content discovery, a SharePoint Advanced Management feature that comes with Copilot.

Restricted site access goes further: only chosen groups can open the site at all. Enable the organisation setting first, then on the site add Pragati Legal next to the site’s own group.

Restricted site access for Contracts: the Contracts group and Pragati Legal — Anyone else loses access, even with a sharing link, and so does Copilot on their behalf.

Good answers also need organisational knowledge: in Search and intelligence → Answers, an acronym such as PGI = Pragati Industries is what Copilot and search reply when someone asks.

Step 4: Copilot in meetings

Teams admin center → Meetings → Meeting policies. Under Copilot and other AI:

On: Copilot works during the meeting from speech, and nothing is kept.
On with saved transcript required: Copilot only works when the meeting is transcribed.

Teams meeting policy Copilot setting with options On and On with saved transcript required — Two policies: Pragati Meetings with a saved transcript, and Legal Meetings with Copilot on but nothing kept.

Assign each policy to a group with a rank; a direct assignment to a user wins over both, and group assignments take a few hours to apply.

What a tech lead should take away

Readiness is mostly data work. Start the oversharing reports weeks before the pilot.
Hide or lock the few truly sensitive sites first, then let owners clean up the rest.
Decide the meeting transcript policy with Legal, before people start using Copilot in meetings.

Do it yourself

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