Copilot in SharePoint is about to go from an opt-in preview that most admins quietly ignored to an opt-out preview that lands on every page, list and library in your tenant. According to Microsoft, this should be rolling out in mid-June 2026. If your users have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, the floating Copilot button will appear automatically on SharePoint Online sites, and the existing ‘site agent’ experience will be upgraded to Copilot in SharePoint at the same time. This update is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 501451.
This post walks through what is changing, who is affected, how to opt in or opt out, and the governance work I would do before the rollout hits.
What Is Copilot in SharePoint?
Copilot in SharePoint is the AI experience embedded inside SharePoint Online that lets users prompt in natural language to build, edit and maintain content directly on a site. The floating Copilot button sits in the lower-right corner of SharePoint pages, document libraries and lists. Selecting it opens a chat panel where users can ask Copilot to organise a library, draft a new page, build an HTML-based report, or update an existing document.
The most important thing to understand about Copilot in SharePoint is the permission model. It works strictly within the signed-in user’s existing SharePoint permissions. If a user cannot see a file, neither can Copilot when acting on their behalf. The AI does not bypass site, library, or item-level security, and existing governance controls continue to apply.
Users with Owner or Edit permissions can use Copilot in SharePoint to:
- Turn ideas into execution by building and maintaining sites without technical or design expertise.
- Move from asking questions to getting work done by letting Copilot execute content tasks directly.
- Teach the AI how a team works by encoding shared skills and context that Copilot follows across the team.
- Improve content organisation, which in turn improves the quality of AI outputs across Microsoft 365.
What Changes with the Opt-Out Preview
Until now, Copilot in SharePoint was available only as an opt-in preview, which meant admins had to actively enable it for the tenant or specific sites before users saw anything. From mid-June 2026, the model flips. The preview becomes opt-out, and the Copilot button appears by default for every Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed user, unless the tenant or the specific site has been opted out.
Existing tenant-level or site-level opt-out settings that were configured during the opt-in phase will continue to be honoured. You do not have to redo the work. If you opted out a site last quarter, that site stays out.
One technical detail worth flagging. At opt-out preview rollout time, Copilot in SharePoint will run on OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 Reasoning model. Customer-controlled model selection is not available at this stage, but the team has said model agility is a core design goal and they will continue to evaluate new models over time.
The SharePoint Agents feature pay-as-you-go billing now applies only to custom SharePoint agents, not to the built-in Copilot in SharePoint experience.
Rollout Timeline
According to Microsoft, this should be rolling out in mid-June 2026.
| Phase | Audience | Start | Expected Completion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opt-In Preview | Admins who proactively enable | Already available | Continues until opt-out flip |
| Opt-Out Preview | All Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users | Mid-June 2026 | TBD |
| General Availability | Not announced | TBD | TBD |
If you want early access ahead of mid-June, you can still proactively opt your tenant or specific sites into the current preview today.
How to Opt In or Opt Out of Copilot in SharePoint
Microsoft has given admins three different layers of control over Copilot in SharePoint. Use the one that matches the scope you actually want to govern.
Tenant-level controls for Copilot in SharePoint
The broadest control is tenant-level. Using SharePoint Online Management Shell, an admin can opt the entire tenant in or out of the Copilot in SharePoint preview. This is the right call if your organisation has not yet completed a Copilot rollout, or if your data governance and labelling work is still in flight.
The official PowerShell guidance is documented on Microsoft Learn under the Get started with AI in SharePoint article, and the PowerShell troubleshooting guide is worth keeping open in a second tab if you hit cmdlet errors.
Site-level controls
Tenant-level is blunt. Site-level is where most of the real work happens. A SharePoint admin can opt specific sites in or out of Copilot in SharePoint using the same PowerShell module. Site owners also have their own controls inside the Site Information panel, including the ability to hide the Copilot button for site visitors and to choose which agent opens from the agent icon.
If you have already enabled Restricted Content Discovery on a site, Copilot in SharePoint and AI actions will not appear there at all, regardless of the tenant setting. RCD acts as a hard suppression layer and is the cleanest way to keep sensitive sites out of AI scope. I wrote a full walkthrough of the new Restricted Content Discovery delegation model recently, and it is the first thing I would read if you manage a large tenant.
Admin Tips for Copilot in SharePoint
These are the items I would put on a one-page action list before mid-June 2026.
- Inventory your high-risk sites. HR, M&A, legal, board-level, finance, and any site under regulatory review. Decide for each whether Copilot in SharePoint should be on, off, or governed by RCD. Document the reason.
- Talk to your site owners. They get new controls inside the Site Information panel. If they do not know the controls exist, they cannot use them.
- Pre-opt out, do not retro-opt out. Removing the Copilot button from a site after users have already used it for a week creates support tickets and bad sentiment. Make the decision before the button appears.
- Confirm Microsoft 365 Copilot license assignments. Only licensed users see Copilot in SharePoint. If your assignment process is sloppy, your rollout will feel random.
- Review high-traffic or heavily customised sites. Custom layouts and modern page customisations can interact oddly with the floating button. Test before users notice.
- Pair this with Copilot Notebooks grounding. If you allow SharePoint sites and folders as references inside Copilot Notebooks features, the same sites that surface there will be in scope for Copilot in SharePoint too. Treat your SharePoint surface as one governance plane.
Licensing
Copilot in SharePoint requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Users without the license will not see the floating Copilot button and cannot invoke the experience at all. No additional SharePoint Agents pay-as-you-go cost applies to the built-in Copilot in SharePoint capabilities, that billing is reserved for custom SharePoint agents.
Who Is Affected
- SharePoint Online users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
- SharePoint admins managing tenant or site-level AI settings.
- Site owners using the Site Information panel to manage agent behaviour and visibility.
If your tenant has no Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses assigned, nothing changes on rollout day. The button only renders for licensed users.
The Paul-Take on Copilot in SharePoint
Opt-out previews tell you something about how Microsoft sees the maturity of a feature. They are confident enough to put it in front of every licensed user by default, and confident enough that the model behind it (GPT-5.4 Reasoning at rollout) will hold up under real-world prompts. That is a green flag.
But opt-out previews also expose every gap in your governance work. Copilot in SharePoint will not invent new data, it will surface what is already there, sometimes in places nobody expected. If your site permissions are loose, your AI answers will be loose. If your sensitivity labels are inconsistent, your AI summaries will mix labelled and unlabelled content into one tidy response, and users will treat that response as canonical.
The combination I would run is straightforward. Use Restricted Content Discovery for the sites that should never be in AI scope. Use site-level opt-out for the sites where Copilot in SharePoint adds noise rather than value. Leave the rest on, watch how users actually use it for the first month, and iterate. Do not try to gate everything by tenant-level opt-out, because that throws away the productivity gain for the 80% of sites where Copilot in SharePoint will genuinely help.
The teams that win with Copilot in SharePoint will be the ones who treat the rollout as a governance event first and a feature launch second.
MVP Reference List
- Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 501451: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?id=501451
- Get started with AI in SharePoint (Microsoft Learn): https://learn.microsoft.com/sharepoint/ai-in-sharepoint-get-started
- AI in SharePoint, create a document library (Microsoft Learn): https://learn.microsoft.com/sharepoint/ai-in-sharepoint-create-document-library
- SharePoint Online PowerShell troubleshooting: https://learn.microsoft.com/troubleshoot/sharepoint/administration/sharepoint-online-powershell-command-does-not-work-correctly
- KbWorks: Restricted Content Discovery delegation: https://kbworks.eu/restricted-content-discovery-delegation/
- KbWorks: Copilot Notebooks features 2026: https://kbworks.eu/copilot-notebooks-features-2026/