More and more businesses are asking us the same question: should we be using Microsoft Copilot?

It is a fair question. Tools like Copilot can genuinely help people work faster and get more out of the day. But there is a step most of the excitement skips over, and it is the one that matters most.

Before you turn Copilot on, you need to know whether your Microsoft 365 setup is actually ready for it. Your licences, your data, your permissions, your security. Copilot reaches across all of it, so if any of that is untidy, Copilot will happily surface things you would rather it did not.

The problem

A lot of organisations are keen to adopt Copilot but have little visibility of what is going on underneath. How their Microsoft 365 security is set up, who can see what, how their data is structured, and whether any of it is ready for an AI tool to start reaching into it. Switch Copilot on without checking, and you risk security gaps, a poor experience for your team, and very little real value from the tool.

What we did

For a recent client, we carried out a Tenant AI Readiness Assessment. In plain terms, we looked under the bonnet before anyone touched Copilot. That covered:

  • Microsoft 365 licensing and Copilot eligibility
  • Security controls, MFA and identity management
  • SharePoint and OneDrive structure
  • Data governance and permissions
  • AI readiness and where the real opportunities are
  • Any risks and areas to tidy up

They got a detailed report showing their overall AI readiness score, where the gaps were, how their permissions and external sharing links were set up, their security posture, and clear recommendations for adopting Copilot.

The result

The client came away with a proper roadmap, not a guess. They could improve security and governance, see exactly where data and permission risks were hiding, prepare properly for a Copilot rollout, get more from the Microsoft 365 licences they were already paying for, and plan for whatever they do next with AI.

The honest bit

Most people start a Copilot readiness review expecting a chat about licences. They usually end up discovering a spring-clean. Years of old SharePoint sites, forgotten files, and permissions nobody remembers setting. That is not a bad thing. It is far better to find it now than after Copilot has.

If Copilot is on your radar, the foundations are worth getting right first. That is the part we are good at.

We do IT, so you don’t have to. If you fancy a chat about whether you are Copilot-ready, you know where we are.