💡 Our Technical Review in summary
Summary
- Microsoft is introducing an AI-powered comparison report within the SharePoint Admin Center designed to assist with organizational governance.
- The tool allows administrators to select a specific site and compare its file content and policy configurations against all other sites in the tenant.
- The report generates a “similarity percentage” based on internal file content and provides a detailed breakdown of discrepancies in site settings and policies.
- The primary goal of this feature is to identify sites with similar purposes that may require alignment in security, sharing, or compliance configurations.
Impact
- Administrative Efficiency: Admins can proactively identify “shadow” sites or redundant content structures and ensure consistent policy application across similar business units.
- No User Disruption: This is a backend reporting tool; it does not change site settings automatically and has no impact on the end-user experience or existing data.
- Licensing Requirements: Access to this report is not included in standard Microsoft 365 plans. It requires either a SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) license or a Microsoft Copilot license.
- Data Processing: AI/ML is used to scan site content for similarity analysis. While it processes data for the report, no changes are made to the customer data itself.
Action Required
- Verify Licensing: Confirm that your organization has the necessary SharePoint Advanced Management or Microsoft Copilot licenses to utilize this feature.
- Review Rollout Timeline: Monitor the SharePoint Admin Center for the Public Preview starting in April 2025, with General Availability expected to complete by late December 2025.
- Access the Report: Once available, navigate to SharePoint admin center > Reports > Site Policy configuration to begin running comparisons.
- Governance Planning: Determine a strategy for how to handle sites identified with low policy alignment but high content similarity (e.g., standardizing sensitivity labels or external sharing permissions).
Microsoft Official Update
Service: N/A
Category: stayInformed
Severity: normal
Introduction
We’re introducing a new AI-powered report for SharePoint admins that enables comparison of site content and policies across your organization. You can select a site and compare its contents and settings with all other sites. The report provides a similarity percentage based on file content and highlights differences in site configurations and policies. This helps streamline governance by identifying opportunities to align settings across similar sites.
When this will happen
- Public Preview (Worldwide): Rollout begins early April 2025 and is expected to complete by late August 2025.
- General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout begins late August 2025 and is expected to complete by late December 2025.
How this affects your organization
This feature is optional and does not impact existing site configurations or user experiences. It provides admins with insights to support governance and policy alignment across similar sites. The report is accessible via the SharePoint admin center under Reports. It does not alter any site settings automatically.
Figure i. This feature can be found in SharePoint admin center > Reports > Site Policy configuration.
Figure ii. Sample report
What you can do to prepare
- No preparation is required.
- You can begin using the report once it becomes available.
- A SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) or Microsoft Copilot license is required to access this report.
Learn more: Site policy comparison
Compliance considerations
| Compliance Area | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Introduces or modifies AI/ML capabilities | AI is used to analyze file content similarity and compare site configurations. |
| Alters how existing customer data is processed | Site content is analyzed to determine similarity, but no changes are made to the data itself. |
| Includes an admin control | Admins can choose which site to compare and view the report in the SharePoint admin center. |
