Data optimization is a critical step that both protects your data and maximizes the impact of Microsoft Copilot. Completing this pre-work is essential for safeguarding your business against unintended consequences and ensuring the AI provides accurate, high-quality results.
Data Protection
The core principle for data protection with Copilot is that it operates within the security and permissions boundaries you have already established in your Microsoft 365 tenant.
Access Control: The most critical security risk is over-permissioning, where Copilot can expose any data that a user has access to, even if that access is forgotten or unnecessary.
To mitigate this:
- Implement Least Privilege (Zero Trust): Ensure users and groups are granted only the minimum permissions necessary for their job functions.
- Audit and Remediate Oversharing: Conduct a full review to find and fix overshared content.
Data Classification: Leverage Microsoft Purview to classify and protect your data, which Copilot will automatically respect.
- Sensitivity Labels and Encryption: Use sensitivity labels to apply encryption and restrict access rights to the content itself.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies: Configure DLP policies within Microsoft Purview to prevent sensitive information from being used in Copilot.
- Retention Policies: Set and enforce data retention and deletion policies for your content.
- Monitor and Audit: Utilize Microsoft Purview's Content Search and audit logs to view and manage data related to Copilot chat interactions.
Data Optimization
To get accurate, relevant, and high-quality results from Copilot, the underlying data needs to be clean and well-structured.
Data Hygiene: Copilot's performance and accuracy are directly tied to the quality of your data. "Garbage in, garbage out" is the rule.
- Clean up redundant or duplicative content.
- Address duplicates, fill in gaps, and fix inconsistencies in your data. Inconsistent or erroneous data leads to confusing outputs and "AI hallucinations."
- Use proper folder structures to make it easier for Copilot to interpret.
Data Governance: A mature data governance framework is essential for scaling Copilot beyond a small pilot.
Net Friends Pro-Tip: Download our AI Policy guide.
Taking these steps will help to make sure that the implementation of Microsoft Copilot is impactful, and your data is protected. A Net Friends IT Expert can help you create a data and policy structure to get the best results.
Ready to implement Copilot? You can learn more from our article about the licensing process.
