Mastering M365 AI Governance in 2025

It seems like Microsoft are reaching new heights with Microsoft Copilot capabilities each month and it is hard to keep up. From Copilot chat to Copilot for M365, Copilot Studio and beyond, both generative and agentic AI are leading business leaders into unknown but unavoidable territories. Not digitally transforming will leave you behind when trying to stay competitive, so adoption is necessary.

We can look back as far as 2020, when adopting cloud collaboration technologies was paramount to keeping your business going, regardless of your misgivings before. History is repeating itself and you would be wise to look at the retrospective work that was needed to be done by many – to maintain a secure, productive and cost-effective collaboration environment – you need a comprehensive cloud governance strategy.

Therefore, I want to get into the crux of the matter, showing you how both native Microsoft tools can help start getting your house in order “out of the box”, and how Rencore Governance as the most complete Microsoft cloud collaboration, low-code, no-code and AI governance solution will keep you secure, productive, efficient and accurate. Always.

The Copilot Revolution and Initial Readiness

Microsoft have released some native tools that allow you to better manage data in SharePoint online and come with some governance capabilities. When looking up at the big AI mountain you would like to climb, this is the perfect place to start your readiness journey, especially as some come ready with your licensing package. In the first instance, we want to make sure all our content has the correct labelling to prevent information oversharing, and we also want the information shared to be up to date. Simply tidying up your SharePoint and OneDrive Storage will go some way to making sure there is a foundation to keep internal information secure and accurate.

Some Microsoft native tools have essential features for content management, which provide a starting point:

• Restricted content discovery
• Access controls
• Default sensitivity labels for libraries

These features help lay the groundwork for initial Copilot deployment, offering an initial discovery of SharePoint content with a handful of policies that can help data oversharing. However, many of the native offerings lifecycle management capabilities are still very manual, the service coverage is narrow, and policy selection scarce.

The scope of AI governance extends far beyond SharePoint and OneDrive content management and the subsequent limited policies and reporting capabilities native tooling provides. If you are building a robust governance strategy, the equipment you choose to execute on it must be comprehensive enough to cover all AI instances, content hubs, and the rest of the collaboration and low-code, no-code technologies that will come in contact with this data.

The following AI technologies could already be adopted in your environment – the question is: are you aware of it?

• Microsoft 365 chat
• Copilot Studio Agents
• SharePoint Agents
• Team Agents
• And more...

The astounding thing is this list will continue to grow, and you will need a complete governance solution that keeps you in control of all AI instances.

What does complete M365 AI governance look like?

It would be wise to include native tooling in your governance strategy, but the limitations are clear to see. Rencore Governance is the essential solution for comprehensive, continuous long-term AI governance in Microsoft 365.

Rencore Governance: Comprehensive M365 AI Governance

This is where Rencore Governance becomes essential.

Key Advantages of Rencore Governance:

1. Holistic M365 Coverage: Unlike native tooling, Rencore Governance supports all Microsoft 365 services, including Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Power Platform, Copilot for M365, Copilot Studio, Viva Engage, Exchange, and Entra ID.

2. Advanced Automated Lifecycle management: Offers sophisticated automated capabilities to collect, analyze, report, and rectify violations across all Microsoft cloud technologies, reducing manual oversight and ensuring consistent policy enforcement.

3. Full Customizability and Deep Service Inventory: Implement unlimited custom and pre-defined policies to meet specific business rules and compliance requirements for your collaboration, low code-no code and AI use cases.

4. Dynamic Reporting and Analytics: Provides extensive, customizable, dynamic reporting and dashboard capabilities without having to manually import and export data. Schedule reports and make sure your stakeholders are getting information relevant to them whether that's a comprehensive overview of all collaboration, or specifically for separate teams such as collaboration, automation, or data analytic teams.

5. Copilot and Agent Governance Will be uniquely positioned to adapt to and help you govern all AI instances across all M365 services and applications, ensuring that you maintain continued control, compliance, productivity and accuracy of information.

The Power of Rencore Governance in Action

Rencore Governance empowers you to:

• Ensure Data Security: Prevent data oversharing across all M365 services, not just SharePoint and OneDrive.
• Mitigate AI Risks: Maintain complete visibility, accuracy and control over AI agents and the data they collect and process.
• Enable User Empowerment: Provide clear guidelines, asset provisioning, and access reviews to make sure all assets and workspaces are not only copilot-Ready but foster responsible AI use.

The Path to Sustained AI Governance

As we look ahead from 2025 and beyond, Rencore Governance will be key to mastering the challenges and opportunities of AI in Microsoft 365 for sustained security, efficiency, productivity and accuracy.

With Rencore Governance, organizations can confidently navigate the complexities of M365 and Copilot ensuring a secure, compliant, and efficient digital workplace for now and in the future.
If you have specific questions about AI governance, please get in touch and we will be happy to answer any questions.