Copilot is here, and many organizations have jumped on board fast with assigning licenses to their users. But there is a problem. The rollout often stops at “turning it on.” Behind the scenes, Microsoft 365 offers a rich set of Copilot-specific settings, most of which are buried in the admin center, rarely visited, and often misunderstood of forgotten.
As a Microsoft 365 admin, you are not just a gatekeeper, you are a guide, a translator, and sometimes the last line of defense between productivity, chaos and missunderstanding. With this post I will atempt to explain about the often missed Copilot settings you should be aware of, why they matter, and how to implement them.
The often forgotten world of app-specific settings
One of the most common missteps in Microsoft 365 administration is overlooking that most applications have their own dedicated settings within the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. No matter if it is Teams, SharePoint, Viva, or now Copilot, each of these services includes configuration panels that can shape user experience, security posture, and governance in your organization.
When a new Microsoft 365 product or service is rolled out, admins often focus on licensing and basic enablement. But those default settings might not reflect your organization’s needs for:
- Data protection and compliance
- User behaviour and productivity
- Feature avalability and experience
As an example, enabling Copilot in Teams might seem like a switch, but behind it are settings for custom dictionaries, meeting recap behavior, and data retention. SharePoint has sharing settings, sensitivity label support, and indexing configurations that can affect how Copilot accesses documents. Even Viva modules have toggles that shape whether Copilot can analyze employee feedback or goals.
TLDR: Always explore the admin settings per application before assuming a product is “ready for production”.
So, what are these settings about?
Turning on Microsoft 365 Copilot is just the first step. The real value, and the real risk, lies in how well it’s configured. That’s where the Copilot-specific admin settings come in.
These settings control how Copilot interacts with your users, your data, and your security posture. They define what Copilot is allowed to access, who can use it, how it behaves, and how it is governed. Yet, many organizations either overlook them entirely or leave them at default values. That can lead to confusion, security gaps, and missed opportunities.
When it comes to Copilot, the settings are grouped into four main categories:
- User access – This defines who can use Copilot and which features are available to which users or groups.
- Data access – This section controls what information Copilot is allowed to read and respond with.
- Copilot actions – These settings govern what Copilot is allowed to do
- Other Settings – This group includes features that influence how Copilot behaves
These settings are spread across several admin portals. Many are available directly in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under the Copilot section. Others link to different areas such as the Microsoft 365 Apps Admin Center, the Power Platform Admin Center, or the Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal.
Managing Copilot settings requires awareness across these interfaces, along with coordination between IT, security, and compliance roles.
Copilot Frontier (User access)
Copilot Frontier enables your organization to participate in early access programs for new Copilot capabilities, including experimental features, preview models, and partner innovations. It gives selected users the ability to test functionality that hasn’t yet reached general availability (GA), typically within Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams.
From an admin point of view, enabling Copilot Frontier opens your tenant up to the frontline of AI, which can be a great advantage if you have strong governance. But it can also lead to instability, unexpected behavior, or confusion for end users if not rolled out strategically. Think of it as Microsoft’s “Insider Program” for enterprise AI, and as such, it requires extra care.
Copilot custom dictionary (Other settings)
This setting allows Microsoft 365 admins to upload a custom dictionary that improves how Copilot understands organization-specific terms, especially in Microsoft Teams meetings where transcription and summarization rely on speech-to-text engines. Custom dictionaries can contain up to 500 terms per language, formatted in a CSV file with a single column. The dictionary is applied tenant-wide, improving accuracy for Copilot transcription, meeting notes, and summaries.
Organizations often have acronyms, product names, internal jargon, or even names of key people that Copilot might misinterpret. When Copilot mishears “tenant settings” as “tent settings” your meeting notes can go from helpful to hilarious and confusing.
More importantly, these errors impact:
- Accessibility efforts, since meeting summaries are often used by users with hearing impairments.
- Multilingual teams, where pronunciation varies.
- Business contexts, like compliance meetings, audits, or product briefings.
The dictionary can play a vital role in the adoption of Copilot in an organization. It is not a “Fire and forget” setting, it should be maintained over time. Assign dictionary ownership to your IT change board or communication team. Update it monthly or when new terms emerge. Create versions for other supported languages to ensure consistent recognition across your global workforce.
Collect feedback from early Copilot pilot users: Ask, “Did Copilot misunderstand any terms?”
Web search for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (Data access)
This setting allows administrators to enable or disable Copilot’s ability to fetch web-based content from public sources to supplement responses in both Microsoft 365 Copilot (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
When enabled, Copilot can access public web content via Bing, alongside the user’s internal organizational data. This makes responses more dynamic, especially in scenarios where internal content alone is not enough. The feature is enabled as a default.
Web search dramatically enhances Copilot’s usefulness. It can:
- Answer general knowledge questions.
- Fetch up-to-date statistics or industry insights.
- Help with discovery and ideation in marketing, communications, and R&D roles.
But this is also one of the most debated Copilot settings in many organizations.
Some leaders value the creative edge and context it provides. Others are concerned about data governance, content accuracy, and the reputational risk of relying on unverified sources. It’s not uncommon to see risk and compliance teams raise red flags, particularly in financial services, legal, or government sectors.
I have worked with several organizations where certain user groups had to be blocked from using any external references entirely. Either due to regulatory requirements or an internal security policy. These include legal departments, service desks, HR teams handling sensitive data, or anyone producing externally facing documentation.
In these cases, web search is disabled by policy, while remaining active for innovation teams or early adopters in less regulated areas.
The setting is configured in the Microsoft 365 Apps Admin Center and is controlled through Cloud Policies.
Be intentional. Align with security, legal, and HR, and craft a deployment strategy where appropriate. That way you empower the right users without compromising trust and compliance.
Microsoft 365 Copilot self-service purchases
This setting controls whether end users can independently purchase or start trials of Microsoft 365 Copilot (and other Microsoft services) using their corporate credentials.
When enabled, it allows users to go to Microsoft and either:
- Start a trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot (if available)
- Purchase a subscription using personal or department-level payment methods
The license then becomes part of your tenant, even if it wasn’t provisioned or approved by IT or procurement.
At first glance, self-service purchases might seem like a convenience giving users flexibility and enabling quicker access to productivity tools like Copilot. But in the context of enterprise IT governance, this setting introduces several risks, inconsistencies, and hidden costs that can disrupt both your rollout strategy and longterm Copilot management.
When users independently start trials or purchase licenses without approval, they will bypass the entire governance framework. It becomes nearly impossible to ensure those users are following guidelines or using Copilot, or any other application, in approved scenarios.
Many organizations require new technologies to go through procurement, legal, or finance approval workflows. Often for a good reason. Self-service bypasses those gates entirely making license usage harder to manage with existing agreements. It also complicates renewals, reporting, and forecasting.
Self-service purchasing introduces more risk than reward in most enterprise environments. While it can be useful in small-scale, agile environments, or for structured pilot programs, it should never be left on by default in medium to large organizations.
The bottom line
Microsoft 365 Copilot isn’t just another productivity tool. It is an intelligent assistant that works across your organizations most valuable asset: its data.
Turning it on without configuring the proper admin settings is like handing out car keys without teaching the rules of the road. Sure, the engine runs. But are your users driving safely, securely, and in alignment with your organizations goals?
As an admin, your role goes far beyond flipping a switch. You are the strategic link between technology and business policy. You are the person who ensures that Copilot operates in line with your compliance and security policies.
When you actively configure and maintain the available settings, you shape the Copilot experience.
Copilot can be a powerful enabler of innovation and productivity but that only happens when the foundation is strong. That foundation is built through governance, clear policies, well thought through configurations, and continuous change. The better you prepare, the more you empower your users. And when they are empowered the, Copilot becomes more than a feature. It becomes a real advantage in their workday.
What are your thoughts? Do you work activly with app-specific settings? Let me know in the comments!
Good reminder. I will always forget to change this at my company. I shall look today!
Konstantinos