The AI Guardrails checklist, free and complete.
The whole list, free, with no email to give. It’s the 25 things I check in a Microsoft 365 firm before AI goes anywhere near it. Each item says what to check, where in Microsoft 365, why it matters for AI, and where Microsoft documents it. Work through it yourself, or hand it to your IT provider.
Before you switch Copilot on
Copilot doesn’t break into anything. It shows each person what they can already open. So the first job is finding out what that is.
Know that Copilot follows existing permissions
- What to check
- Read how Copilot decides what to show: it only uses content the signed-in person already has at least view access to.
- Where
- Nothing to change yet. This is the rule every item below depends on.
- Why it matters for AI
- A file shared too widely in 2019 is invisible today because nobody goes looking. Copilot goes looking for them.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Data, privacy and security for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Run the oversharing reports
- What to check
- Pull the data access governance reports: sites with the most sharing links, sites shared with “Everyone except external users”, and sites with sensitive labelled files shared widely.
- Where
- SharePoint admin centre › Reports › Data access governance.
- Why it matters for AI
- This is the list of places Copilot would surface things to people who shouldn’t see them. Start with the top of it.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Data access governance reports for SharePoint sites
Follow Microsoft’s oversharing plan in order
- What to check
- Work through the pilot, deploy and operate steps for oversharing before the wider rollout, not after.
- Where
- SharePoint admin centre and the Microsoft 365 admin centre.
- Why it matters for AI
- It’s much easier to fix sharing for twenty pilot users than to explain to forty staff why Copilot quoted the salary file.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment blueprint: oversharing
Decide who gets a seat first
- What to check
- List who would use Copilot every week, and start with them. Assign licences to people, not to the whole firm.
- Where
- Microsoft 365 admin centre › Billing › Licences.
- Why it matters for AI
- Most small firms need four seats, not twenty. Fewer seats also means fewer people for the oversharing to reach while you fix it.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Enable users for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Sharing links to “Everyone”
The commonest finding in a small firm: links and groups that quietly include everybody.
Make “Specific people” the default link
- What to check
- Change the default sharing link from “Anyone” or “People in your organization” to “Specific people”.
- Where
- SharePoint admin centre › Policies › Sharing › File and folder links.
- Why it matters for AI
- Every new link made with a wider default is one more file Copilot can hand to the whole firm.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Change the default link type for a site
Rein in “Anyone” links
- What to check
- Decide whether anonymous “Anyone” links are allowed at all. If they are, set them to expire and to view-only.
- Where
- SharePoint admin centre › Policies › Sharing › External sharing.
- Why it matters for AI
- An “Anyone” link works for whoever has it, forever unless it expires. Guests and forwarded links are how old files leave the firm.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Manage sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive
Find sites shared with “Everyone except external users”
- What to check
- Look for that group in site permissions, especially on finance, HR and partner sites, and replace it with the people who need access.
- Where
- Each site › Settings › Site permissions, guided by the data access governance report.
- Why it matters for AI
- That one group means every account in the firm, including the summer student and every future hire.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Sharing and permissions in the SharePoint modern experience
Clean up old organization-wide links on sensitive files
- What to check
- For salaries, HR, client contracts and board papers, remove “People in your organization” links and share with named people instead.
- Where
- The file’s Manage access panel in SharePoint or OneDrive.
- Why it matters for AI
- An organization-wide link makes a file reachable by Copilot for everyone who could have opened that link.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Shareable links: Anyone, specific people, or organization
Sites with broken inheritance
Folders and files that stopped following their site’s permissions years ago, so nobody remembers who can open them.
Find unique permissions on folders and files
- What to check
- List the folders and files with their own permissions on your most sensitive sites, and put them back on the site’s permissions where you can.
- Where
- The site’s library › Manage access, or Site settings › Site permissions.
- Why it matters for AI
- Unique permissions are where “everyone can see that folder” hides. They don’t show up when you look at the site as a whole.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- What is permissions inheritance?
Ask site owners to review access
- What to check
- Send each flagged site to its owner to confirm who should be on it.
- Where
- SharePoint admin centre › Reports › Data access governance › Initiate site access review.
- Why it matters for AI
- The person who runs the finance site knows who should see it. A yearly review keeps it that way.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Site access review for data access governance reports
Keep the most sensitive sites out of Copilot while you fix them
- What to check
- Use restricted content discovery on a site that can’t be cleaned up yet, or restrict the site to one group.
- Where
- SharePoint admin centre › Sites › Active sites › the site’s settings.
- Why it matters for AI
- It buys time: people with access keep working, and the site stops appearing in Copilot and search for everyone else.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Restrict discovery of SharePoint sites and content
Accounts without MFA
Copilot answers whoever signs in. If an account can be signed into without a second step, so can Copilot.
Require multifactor sign-in for every account
- What to check
- Turn on security defaults, or a Conditional Access policy that requires MFA for all users. Check that no account is excluded by accident.
- Where
- Microsoft Entra admin centre › Overview › Properties › Security defaults, or › Protection › Conditional Access.
- Why it matters for AI
- A stolen password on an account with Copilot is a search engine over everything that person can open.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Security defaults in Microsoft Entra ID
Check the accounts that still skip MFA
- What to check
- List the accounts that have never registered a second method, and the shared mailboxes and service accounts people still sign into.
- Where
- Microsoft Entra admin centre › Protection › Authentication methods › User registration details.
- Why it matters for AI
- Policies cover people who registered. The gaps are usually the old shared accounts.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Manage authentication methods for users
Switch off former staff
- What to check
- Find accounts that haven’t signed in for months, and block sign-in and remove licences for people who have left.
- Where
- Microsoft Entra admin centre › Users (last sign-in), then Microsoft 365 admin centre › Users.
- Why it matters for AI
- An old account still holds its old access. Nobody notices it until something uses it.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- How to manage inactive user accounts
AI apps granted access
Note-takers, writing assistants and browser add-ons ask for access to mail and files. Someone clicked yes.
See which apps already have access
- What to check
- Review the enterprise apps with permissions to read mail, calendars or files, and remove the ones nobody can account for.
- Where
- Microsoft Entra admin centre › Enterprise applications › the app › Permissions.
- Why it matters for AI
- An AI note-taker with mailbox access reads every meeting invite and email, and its data leaves your tenant.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Review and manage permissions granted to applications
Stop staff granting new apps access on their own
- What to check
- Limit user consent to low-risk permissions from verified publishers, or turn it off.
- Where
- Microsoft Entra admin centre › Enterprise applications › Consent and permissions.
- Why it matters for AI
- It closes the door the next AI add-on would walk through, without anyone having to remember a rule.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Configure how users consent to applications
Give staff a way to ask
- What to check
- Turn on the admin consent workflow so a blocked request becomes a request to you, not a dead end.
- Where
- Microsoft Entra admin centre › Enterprise applications › Consent and permissions › Admin consent settings.
- Why it matters for AI
- If asking is easy, people ask. If it isn’t, they use a personal account instead.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Configure the admin consent workflow
The model decision
A few switches decide where your prompts go. Each one should be a decision someone made, written down.
Decide on web search in Copilot
- What to check
- Decide whether Copilot may search the web to answer questions, and set it to match.
- Where
- Microsoft 365 admin centre › Copilot › Settings, or the policy for web search.
- Why it matters for AI
- With web search on, Copilot sends search queries built from the prompt to Bing, outside your tenant’s boundary.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Data, privacy and security for web search in Microsoft Copilot
Decide on other model providers
- What to check
- Check whether models from other providers, such as Anthropic’s, are available in your tenant, and switch them on or off on purpose.
- Where
- Microsoft 365 admin centre › Copilot › Settings.
- Why it matters for AI
- Those models are run under different terms and processing locations. That’s a choice for the firm, not a default.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Claude models from Anthropic in Microsoft Online Services
Write down where your data is stored and processed
- What to check
- Look up where your tenant’s data is stored, and record in one plain sentence where Copilot processes it.
- Where
- Microsoft 365 admin centre › Settings › Org settings › Organization profile › Data location.
- Why it matters for AI
- Clients and insurers ask. The honest answer is a decision you’ve recorded, not a promise.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Microsoft 365 data residency overview
The one-page policy’s headings
One page, read by everyone, in plain English. These are the headings I write it under.
Write the one page
- What to check
- Cover: which AI tools are approved; what never goes into a personal AI account (client names, files, financials); who checks AI output before it reaches a client; how to ask for a new tool; what to do if something went in by mistake; and the date it’s next reviewed.
- Where
- A single page in your staff handbook or intranet, signed off by a partner.
- Why it matters for AI
- Business Copilot keeps your data under your Microsoft agreement. Personal accounts don’t. The policy is what tells staff the difference, and nobody’s in trouble for asking.
- Microsoft’s documentation
- Microsoft 365 Copilot: AI security
Microsoft moves these settings around. I re-check every link and menu path at least once a quarter, and whenever Microsoft changes something that matters.
Daniel
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