Category: SharePointRead time: 5 MinsPublished on: 10 Sep 2025

Guide to use Microsoft's Copilot in SharePoint

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1. What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is a generative AI assistant built into Microsoft 365 apps. It is designed to help users complete tasks faster by understanding prompts and working with organizational data.

Copilot uses a Large Language Model (LLM) to process natural language commands. It combines this intelligence with your company’s data to create summaries, draft content, answer questions, and automate repetitive tasks. In SharePoint, this means making it easier to work with documents, pages, and enterprise content.

Key Components of Copilot in SharePoint

  • Large Language Models (LLMs): The AI brain that processes text, understands prompts, and generates meaningful output.
  • Microsoft Graph: A secure data layer that connects Copilot to your company’s emails, chats, files, and documents. It ensures that Copilot only uses data you have permission to access.
  • Microsoft 365 Apps: Copilot is embedded in Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, delivering AI-powered assistance directly inside the tools you use every day.

Copilot in SharePoint helps employees search, summarize, and generate content more effectively, turning raw information into usable knowledge. If you want to enable Copilot in SharePoint, write to us. We are a seasoned SharePoint consulting company and can help you set it up.

2. Why Use Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint?

Infographic titled Why Use Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint showing SharePoint and Copilot logos with a central hub connected to seven benefits: break down manual processes, enhance knowledge discovery, improve content quality, boost collaboration, support site and page creation, strengthen governance and consistency, and reduce training needs.

Using Copilot in SharePoint can completely change how your teams manage, discover, and create content. Instead of spending hours on routine tasks, Copilot helps you work smarter with AI-powered support.

  1. Break down manual processes
    Copilot automates repetitive tasks like drafting pages, tagging documents, or generating summaries. This reduces manual effort and saves employees valuable time.
  2. Enhance knowledge discovery
    With traditional search, finding the right document in SharePoint can be slow. Copilot makes this easier by understanding your intent and surfacing the most relevant files, conversations, or pages.
  3. Improve content quality
    Whether it’s a report, announcement, or knowledge base article, Copilot helps refine drafts, summarize long documents, and improve overall readability. The result is content that looks more professional.
  4. Boost collaboration
    Teams can use Copilot to generate project updates, create meeting agendas, or summarize discussions directly from shared files. This keeps everyone aligned and reduces back-and-forth communication.
  5. Support site and SharePoint page creation
    Not everyone is a SharePoint expert. Copilot allows users to create clean, professional sites and pages by simply describing what they need in natural language.
  6. Strengthen governance and consistency
    Copilot can suggest metadata, templates, or policies while creating or managing content. This helps maintain structure and compliance across SharePoint.
  7. Reduce training needs
    Because Copilot works with natural language, employees don’t need deep technical knowledge to use SharePoint effectively. This makes adoption easier across the organization.

3. What Are the Prerequisites of Using Copilot in SharePoint?

Before you can start using Copilot in SharePoint, there are a few important prerequisites to meet. These ensure that Copilot works smoothly and delivers accurate results.

  1. Licensing Requirements
    • You need a Microsoft 365 copilot license.
    • This is an add-on to an existing Microsoft 365 plan such as E3, E5, or Business Premium.
    • Without the correct license, Copilot will not be available in SharePoint.
  2. Technical Requirements

    To use Copilot effectively, your SharePoint setup and user accounts must meet these conditions:

    • Modern SharePoint experience: Copilot does not work with classic sites.
    • Azure Active Directory (Entra ID): Every user must have an active account.
    • Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise: These must be installed on user desktops.
    • OneDrive for Business: Each user must have their OneDrive provisioned for file access and storage.
  3. Data Readiness in SharePoint

    Copilot in SharePoint is only as good as the data it works with. If your content is cluttered or permissions are poorly managed, Copilot’s results will reflect that. Simply put: “garbage in, garbage out.”

    • Clean up and organize content: Remove outdated, duplicate, or irrelevant files.
    • Manage permissions correctly: Copilot fully respects SharePoint’s existing permissions. If they’re wrong, users may either lose access to important content or see documents they shouldn’t.
    • Use metadata and consistent naming: A well-structured library helps Copilot surface the most relevant and accurate information.
  4. Network and Security Readiness
    • Ensure your organization follows Microsoft 365 security standards.
    • A reliable internet connection and compliance setup help Copilot run without interruptions.
  5. User Awareness and Training
    • Employees should know how to use natural language prompts to interact with Copilot in SharePoint.

    Basic training ensures better adoption and more accurate results.

4. How to Integrate Copilot in SharePoint?

Setting up Microsoft SharePoint Copilot is not complicated, but it does require the right configuration. Below are the steps and key points to make the integration smooth.

  1. SharePoint Admin Center Configuration

    Administrators need to prepare Microsoft 365 before SharePoint users can start using Copilot.

    • Sign in to Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
    • Assign Copilot licenses to the users who need access.
    • Enable services like SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams for those users, since Copilot depends on them to provide insights.
    • Check security and compliance policies to ensure data is managed correctly while Copilot accesses and processes SharePoint content.
  2. SharePoint-Specific Integration

    Once licensing and services are in place, Copilot becomes part of the SharePoint experience.

    • Ready-made Copilot agent on each site: Every SharePoint site gets a built-in Copilot that is automatically scoped to that site’s content. This ensures Copilot answers and suggestions are always context-aware.
    • Custom Copilot experiences with Copilot Studio: For specialized needs, admins and power users can use Copilot Studio to create custom Copilot experiences. These can be tailored for specific departments, projects, or processes, such as compliance, HR, or project management. This allows Copilot to interact with selected content and generate outputs that match the team’s requirements.
    • "Ask Copilot" button: On SharePoint site and pages, users will see an “Ask Copilot” option. With this, they can type a natural language query to summarize SharePoint pages, draft content, or find specific files instantly.
    • Integration across apps: Copilot in SharePoint also connects with Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook, so users get a consistent AI-powered experience across Microsoft 365.

5. Benefits of Copilot in SharePoint

Using Copilot in SharePoint brings many practical benefits. It helps users save time, improve content quality, and make information easier to access.

  1. Content Generation

    The Copilot feature assists in content creation by helping users:

    • Create new pages and sites from a single prompt.
    • Draft and refine documents, blogs, or announcements.
    • Summarize news articles, reports, or posts on a site.
    • Reuse existing content to create presentations, FAQs, or guides.
  2. Information Retrieval

    With Copilot chat, users can quickly find information using natural language queries:

    • Search for documents and files instead of using complex search methods.
    • Get answers directly from site content or document libraries.
    • Pull data from lists, libraries, or reports instantly.
    • Reduce time spent navigating multiple sites and folders.
  3. Workflow Automation and SharePoint Advanced Management

    Copilot supports SharePoint advanced management by automating routine tasks:

    • Generate project summaries based on team updates.
    • Create meeting notes or action points using Microsoft Teams transcripts and SharePoint documents.
    • Produce status updates or reports from activity logs.
    • Reduce repetitive manual work, allowing admins and users to focus on strategic tasks.
  4. Accessibility, User Adoption, and Copilot Agents
    • Make it simple for all users, regardless of technical skill, to contribute.
    • Accelerate onboarding with Copilot chat as a conversational guide for company knowledge.
    • Encourage broader adoption of SharePoint by making it more interactive and user-friendly.
    • Use Copilot agents (custom experiences via Copilot Studio) for department-specific or project-specific tasks.
    • Provide language support with AI-powered translations and simpler explanations.
  5. Productivity and Collaboration
    • Improve collaboration by making information available to everyone in context.
    • Reduce time switching between apps by using the Copilot feature directly in SharePoint.
    • Support faster decision-making with summarized insights.
    • Enable teams to focus on high-value work instead of searching or manual updates.

6. How to Maintain Security and Compliance While Using Copilot in SharePoint?

Using Copilot in SharePoint can boost productivity, but security and compliance must always come first. Since Copilot works with the content already stored in SharePoint, organizations need to make sure their data, permissions, and governance policies are correct.

  1. Data Security
    • Permissions matter: Copilot respects existing SharePoint permissions. If a user does not have access to a file, Copilot cannot use it to generate a response. This means permission accuracy is critical.
    • Protect sensitive data: Use Microsoft Purview and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to classify and safeguard confidential information like financial records or customer data.
    • “Garbage in, garbage out”: If permissions and data governance are not set up correctly, Copilot may surface the wrong content to the wrong audience.
  2. Governance and Oversight
    • Review sharing settings: Avoid broad permissions like “Everyone Except External Users.” Instead, share with specific groups or individuals who need access.
    • Site lifecycle policies: Archive or delete inactive sites so old, irrelevant data is not used in Copilot responses.
    • Content classification: Tag documents with sensitivity labels to make sure Copilot treats them correctly.
  3. Auditing and Monitoring
    • Copilot activity is traceable: All Copilot interactions can be audited and are discoverable through eDiscovery tools.
    • Monitor usage: Regularly track how Copilot is being used to prevent misuse or accidental data exposure.
    • Alerts and reporting: Set up monitoring policies to get notified if sensitive data is accessed or shared in unexpected ways.

By combining the power of Copilot in SharePoint with strong security, governance, and compliance practices, organizations can maximize productivity without putting their data at risk.

7. The AI-Driven Future of SharePoint

Infographic showing SharePoint evolution from traditional file cabinet and folder storage to an AI-driven knowledge hub with a glowing brain and modern SharePoint logo.

The future of SharePoint is AI-driven, and Copilot in SharePoint is leading this transformation. SharePoint is no longer just a place to store documents; it is evolving into a smart, connected platform that helps people work faster and make better decisions.

SharePoint is shifting from a static file repository to a dynamic, AI-powered hub. Copilot turns content into knowledge by summarizing, generating, and suggesting insights, making collaboration easier and more efficient. Teams can find and use information quickly, which improves productivity across the organization.

Admins and content creators are also seeing their roles evolve. Instead of focusing solely on manual tasks like managing permissions or organizing files, they now guide how AI uses data. Content creators focus on quality and governance, ensuring that information is accurate and well-tagged so Copilot delivers meaningful results. This shift turns file management into knowledge management, shaping the organization’s collective intelligence.

Copilot in SharePoint is becoming more deeply integrated with other Microsoft 365 tools like Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, and Viva. Users benefit from a smooth, unified experience, asking Copilot questions and getting answers from across all connected services. Routine tasks, such as drafting pages, summarizing documents, or generating project updates, can now be automated, allowing employees to spend more time on decision-making and innovation.

With AI at the core, SharePoint is set to become a central hub of knowledge that adapts to each user’s role and needs. It will continue learning from usage patterns, delivering personalized support, and positioning itself as a strategic partner in workplace productivity.

8. Need Help Integrating Copilot with SharePoint?

Integrating Copilot with SharePoint can transform the way your organization manages content, collaborates, and discovers knowledge. While Copilot is powerful, setting it up correctly, ensuring data quality, and configuring permissions can be complex.

Partnering with a reliable SharePoint consulting service provider can make the process smooth and efficient. Expert consultants can help you:

  • Configure Microsoft 365 and SharePoint for Copilot access.
  • Organize content and apply proper governance to maximize AI effectiveness.
  • Train your team on best practices and effective prompting.
  • Ensure security, compliance, and smooth adoption across the organization.

With the right guidance, your organization can fully leverage Copilot in SharePoint to create a smarter, AI-driven workplace, boost productivity, and improve knowledge management.