Skip to content
Don't Turn on Copilot Yet: Prep Your Data First episode artwork

Apr 15, 2026 20 min

Don't Turn on Copilot Yet: Prep Your Data First

from The Intelligence Age

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM Pieter Kops shares practical lessons from the front lines of Copilot adoption. He explains why organisations must fix security and data quality before switching AI on, how oversharing and duplication damage AI outcomes, and where Copilot delivers real value beyond basic automation. The conversation focuses on SharePoint, metadata, governance, and helping people move from search and automation towards research and higher value AI use. 🎙 Full Show Notes https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/819 👉 What you’ll learn How to prepare your data estate before enabling Copilot Why oversharing creates real security and quality risks for AI Practical approaches to cleaning up SharePoint and file sprawl How metadata improves findability and Copilot results Where Copilot adoption stalls and how to push past basic automation ✅ Highlights “Don’t switch it on yet. Do stuff first.” “If your security is not in place, then God knows what information you’re surfacing.” “Rubbish in, rubbish out.” “Human error is littered through the landscape of corporate data.” “Stop sharing.” “Deduplication is a tough process to do.” “People tend to have the folder structure on top of mind.” “That’s why we need Copilot.” “Most people just use Copilot as the new search agent.” “More than 90% of the ideas were just automation.” 🧰 Mentioned SharePoint: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration Microsoft Copilot: https://www.copilot.com/ Microsoft Graph API: https://learn.microsoft.com/graph/ Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 ✅ Keywords copilot adoption, sharepoint governance, data quality, oversharing, metadata, ai readiness, security, automation, microsoft copilot, document management, information architecture, enterprise ai If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin. Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM Pieter Kops shares practical lessons from the front lines of Copilot adoption. He explains why organisations must fix security and data quality before switching AI on, how oversharing and duplication damage AI outcomes, and where Copilot delivers real value beyond basic automation. The conversation focuses on SharePoint, metadata, governance, and helping people move from search and automation towards research and hig...

Ready to play

Don't Turn on Copilot Yet: Prep Your Data First

0:00 20:21

Chapters

  1. 2:30 Copilot Doesn’t Fail Your Data Does
  2. 3:59 “Don’t Switch It On Yet” The Two Pillars That Decide Success
  3. 5:10 Oversharing Is the Silent AI Risk No One Sees Coming
  4. 7:00 Garbage In, Garbage Out: How Human Error Trains AI to Be Wrong
  5. 8:46 Why Cleaning Up Data Is So Hard and Still Essential
  6. 12:55 Metadata Beats Folder Structures And Copilot Makes It Possible
  7. 15:25 Most People Use Copilot as Search A Few Use It as Leverage

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of The Intelligence Age?

This episode is 20 minutes long.

When was this The Intelligence Age episode published?

This episode was published on April 15, 2026.

Is there a transcript available for this episode?

Yes, a full transcript is available for this episode. You can read the complete transcript on the episode page.

Can I download this The Intelligence Age episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.