M365 Copilot finding files shared with "Anyone in the organization" link

[Chris_Ferraro]

Based on the information below from this article presuming Copilot will not find a document unless the user accessed a file with this type of sharing.  Is that the behavior current Copilot users are seeing? 

[#2]

Hi @Chris_Ferraro,

Microsoft 365 Copilot can work with your external data. It uses connectors and plugins to bring external data into your Microsoft 365 Copilot experience. This includes information indexed within SharePoint inside your organization’s tenant, and users have separate indexes for email and their individual important documents.
How Microsoft 365 Copilot can work with your external data

The M365 Copilot will not find a document unless the user has accessed a file with the “Anyone in the organization” sharing type (unless a user has the specific link to a file or folder, they will not be able to find it using M365 Copilot).

Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

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Leon Pavesic
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[#3]

Thank you for the insight. Have you tested this to confirm that is the behavior with M365 Copilot?

[#4]

@Chris_Ferraro and @LeonPavesic  

I was triggered by Jeremy Chapman at https://youtu.be/F5wfOhnj0IU?si=4efWHUZdN0Qfe3o8&t=1420. He indicated that "Share with everyone..." type of links will show up in search and hence in Copilot. Not sure if he was referring to "Share with anyone" or "Share with [everyone] people in your organization"..

So would be good to get this tested and validated that it indeed works as documented:

Creating a People in your organization link does not cause the file or folder to show up in search or give everyone direct access to the file or folder. Users must have the link in order to access the file or folder. Plan and deploy a file collaboration environment - SharePoint - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Micros...

[#5]

"The M365 Copilot will not find a document unless the user has accessed a file with the “Anyone in the organization” sharing type"

This one massively limits the capabilities of copilot. Are you saying copilot doesn't know about anything that the entire organization can't know about (other than meetings, e-mails, and chats I've been in).

I want my copilot to be informed by every Team that I am on. Is that possible to configure?

[#6]

I tested this behavior today and found it to be true. There was a file on a private channel that I'm an owner of. Copilot couldn't find it, even when I fed it a direct link to the file. I had to share it to all users on my tenant first and then it instantly knew about the file. Now to find away around this limitation! It has to read from everything I have access to on our tenant to be even 20% as useful as it could be.

[#7]

Thanks all for the insight. What our concern is users who may have had anyone in the org link either because it had been the default setting or used it to save typing a long list of specific users (yes they should work in a team or SharePoint site to make easier) and created the anyone in the link but do not want anyone in the org accessing it.

[#8]

My understanding is that until the user actually accessed it does not become a part of their search which is why Copilot will not find. But wanted to test the behavior.

This is useful to help understand this that our consultant shared: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/shareable-links-anyone-specific-people-organization