If you're thinking about rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot in your organisation, hold your horses. Before you unleash AI-powered magic, you need to get your data house in order - especially your SharePoint environment. Copilot's insights and suggestions are only as good as the data it can access. And if your SharePoint sites are cluttered, unmanaged, or overshared, you'll be inviting chaos, not clarity.

So, what's the playbook? How do you clean up SharePoint, enforce good data governance, and prepare for Copilot to do its thing? Here's a practical, no-fluff guide with nine key steps that'll get you from zero to data hero.

1. Ownerless Sites - Find Them or Lock Them

First up: sites without owners. You want a minimum of two site owners on every SharePoint site. Why? Because if no one's responsible, sites become data graveyards - forgotten and unmanaged.

Microsoft 365 lets you set a policy that identifies ownerless sites and automatically locks them to read-only access. The idea is simple: if you don’t have owners stepping up, the site is frozen, protecting data from being accidentally changed or deleted.

You can run this policy in 'simulation mode' first - so it doesn’t immediately lock sites but lets you see what it would do. Once you’re comfortable, activate the policy and let it run.

2. Inactive Sites - Archive or Freeze Them

Next, let’s talk about sites that have been dormant for months or even years. These inactive sites add noise to your data and waste valuable resources. Copilot will start 'munching' through all sites, so it’s best to keep the irrelevant ones out of the way.

With your advanced SharePoint management licence, you can create an inactive site policy. It sends monthly email notifications to site owners, then either sets sites to read-only or archives them after a certain period - typically three months by default.

Archiving doesn’t delete data - it just moves it out of active circulation, making it invisible to users and, importantly, to Copilot.

3. SharePoint Sharing Reports - Know Who’s Oversharing What

Oversharing is a data security nightmare waiting to happen. Manually checking each site’s permissions is tedious and impractical. Thankfully, Microsoft 365 has built-in reports that help you identify oversharing at scale.

From the SharePoint admin centre, go to Reports > Data Access Governance, where you’ll find insights on sharing links, sensitivity labels, and content shared with everyone but external users.

If you want deeper insights, there’s a powerful Oversharing Baseline Report you can run via PowerShell. It’s a beast - takes up to five days for the first run and only runs once a month - but it delivers a detailed CSV report showing site IDs, URLs, permission counts, and more. This report is invaluable for tight data governance.

4. Site Access Reviews - Make Owners Accountable

Policies and reports are great, but they only go so far without human oversight. Site access reviews prompt site owners to review permissions regularly. They get emails asking, “Hey, do you want to check if your site is overshared?”

Owners can then manage who has access, remove unnecessary permissions, and tidy up their sites. This regular review cycle keeps your data secure and your environment tidy.

5. Restricted Access Control Policy - Lock Down Sensitive Sites

Sometimes you want to go nuclear on a site - finance, HR, legal - places where data sensitivity is critical. That’s where restricted access control policies come in.

This lets admins restrict access so only specific groups (like site owners and designated members) can see content. Anyone else who had previous access is locked out.

Restricted access means that Copilot won’t crawl or surface data from those sites - protecting sensitive information from AI insights that shouldn’t see the light of day.

6. Restricted Content Discovery - Keep Copilot Out

If you’re still tightening up your data governance or have some ultra-sensitive sites, there’s a handy toggle: restricted content discovery.

Flip this on for any SharePoint site, and Copilot simply won’t touch it - think of it like a digital 'Do Not Disturb' sign for AI. This feature gives you granular control over what Copilot can and cannot analyse, which is essential for compliance-heavy environments.

7. Use Simulation Mode First - Then Activate

All these policies let you run in 'simulation mode' before flipping the switch. This means they’ll simulate actions like locking or archiving without actually enforcing them - a perfect way to test and ensure no surprises before going live.

8. Keep an Eye on Reports and Run PowerShell Scripts

Some reports - especially the deeper oversharing ones - require PowerShell. If you’re not comfortable with scripting, consider having your IT pros help out or use third-party tools to automate this process.

Running these reports regularly keeps your data governance proactive rather than reactive.

9. Use Tools Like Orchestra to Simplify

Finally, managing all these policies, reports, PowerShell commands and settings across multiple portals can feel like juggling flaming swords. Enter tools like Orchestra that automate the heavy lifting for you - bringing everything into one dashboard and making data governance a breeze.

Wrapping Up

Preparing your Microsoft 365 SharePoint environment for Copilot isn’t just a technical task - it’s a strategic move. You’re not only improving security and compliance - you’re setting the foundation for a smarter, more efficient workplace where AI can actually add value.

Take the time now to enforce ownership, retire inactive sites, clamp down on oversharing, and restrict access where needed. Then, when Copilot arrives, it will be working with clean, well-managed data - which means better insights, fewer surprises, and a smoother rollout.

Thanks for reading! If you want to learn more about tools like Orchestra that simplify this process, check the link below. Until next time - keep your data tight and your Copilot ready.