SharePoint Showcase: How SharePoint uses AI to strengthen Work IQ’s data layer

Microsoft

Mar 31, 2026

A recently published whitepaper from Omdia, “Expanding Your Knowledge with Microsoft’s AI in SharePoint” highlights a consistent conclusion. AI performance depends on content readiness which underscores the importance of content quality, structure, freshness, and governance to shape the reliability of AI outputs.

As a load-bearing structural component of Work IQ’s data layer, SharePoint serves as a primary knowledge platform across many organizations. With over a billion users each year, SharePoint is also the number 1 grounding source for Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents.

Consequently, the AI capabilities currently available inside SharePoint –which support how content is created, structured, governed, and discovered –significantly influence the quality of the Data layer within Work IQ as the “brain” behind Copilot.

This month’s Showcase offers four AI capabilities in SharePoint that help strengthen how Copilot and agents reason over enterprise knowledge. Please note, there are some prerequisites that need to met which are summarized on MS Learn, HERE.

Now let’s dive into the four capabilities, including instructions on how to access and steps to optimize usage.

Content management practices that improve AI outcomes

AI performance reflects the quality of the information it uses; accurate, structured, and current content leads to reliable results.

Omdia’s whitepaper points to common patterns across enterprises which include:

Diffusion of content spreads across sites and libraries.
Multiple versions of documents exist.
Link degradation and diminished relevance of pages over time.

These conditions affect how AI surfaces answers because AI reasons over content as stored.

AI in SharePoint evaluates content quality across sites and libraries. It surfaces improvement recommendations for site owners and content managers with an emphasis on actions that raise content clarity and usability.

Examples may include identifying pages with low engagement, highlighting broken links, and surfacing gaps where users search for information. AI also prompts content refresh actions when guidance no longer reflects current needs.

This capability operates directly within SharePoint experiences that teams already use, and supports ongoing readiness without introducing separate review cycles or tooling.

Action to take

Select high impact sites such as HR, Legal, or IT guidance.
Within a site, choose the floating button and select Improve this site.
Review AI-driven recommendations for stale content, content gaps, and broken links.
Update, consolidate, and refresh content based on those signals.

Learn more: SharePoint Advanced Management overview - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

Metadata extraction that improves AI responses

Metadata provides essential signals for AI reasoning. In this scenario we define metadata as structured information that enables AI systems to understand meaning, relationships, and context.

While many SharePoint libraries contain valuable documents, in the past, tagging documents with metadata was a manual task resulting in inconsistent tagging across libraries. Furthermore, inconsistent structure across high-value content (e.g., contracts, policies, and technical documentation) can adversely affect precision for search, filtering, and AI responses.

AI in SharePoint helps address metadata gaps. It can suggest metadata columns based on document patterns, extract and populate values directly from file content, as well as infer additional details using context across the library. Once applied, metadata supports accurate filtering, grouping, and discovery – improving how Copilot and agents interpret relevance and scope.

As a result, manual effort for content owners is greatly reduced while simultaneously increasing consistency at scale. Over time, structured metadata strengthens confidence in AI-generated summaries and answers.

Action to take

Identify one library with high business value.
Within the library, choose the floating button and select Add autofill columns.
Ask SharePoint to create columns for the metadata you want AI to extract.
Review results and refine as needed.

Learn more about metadata and response quality in the October, SharePoint Showcase.

Admin agent support for content cleanup and governance

Governance plays an important role in AI outcomes; content lifecycle, storage usage, and permissions all influence what AI surfaces.

The SharePoint Admin Agent applies generative AI to SharePoint Advanced Management insights. It enables administrators to ask natural language questions about site lifecycle, storage patterns, and permissions exposure.

The agent analyzes reports regarding inactivity, storage usage, and permissions distribution and then summarizes findings along with sharing recommended actions. This approach helps administrators focus attention on sites that affect risk and efficiency.

Examples include identifying inactive sites with large storage footprints, surfacing ownerless sites, and highlighting broad access patterns. These insights support informed cleanup and governance planning.

As such, cleaner and well- governed environments improve AI grounding. Permissions accuracy ensures responses align with access boundaries and reduced duplication improves signal quality for AI reasoning.

The Admin Agent supports a human review model. It’s recommended that administrators evaluate insights and determine next steps which is in keeping with common responsible AI practices.

Action to take

Use the SharePoint Admin Agent to review inactive and storage heavy sites.
Prioritize cleanup and ownership alignment.
Strengthen permissions governance for high visibility content.

Learn more: SharePoint Admin Agent overview - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

Practical improvements in document libraries and content organization

AI capabilities in SharePoint support everyday work inside document libraries with an emphasis on structure, clarity, and usability.

Within libraries, AI is ready to help organize files using metadata-driven views and groupings. In addition, new content is classified on a consistent basis as it arrives. And, it can enable automation tied to content changes.

Examples include triggering review workflows when documents update and surfacing grouped views based on inferred attributes. These features help reduce friction for users navigating large collections.

At the site level, AI surfaces improvement suggestions based on usage patterns and can identify areas where users search for information. These insights are then leveraged to recommend content updates or new pages that align with observed needs.

Continuous improvement of the knowledge platform in response to real usage signals helps evolve the content and improve the structure over time. As a result, not only are AI outcomes strengthened within familiar SharePoint experiences, but daily productivity is improved.

Action to take

Review frequently used document libraries.
Apply metadata-based views and groupings.
Use AI recommendations to refine site structure and content placement.

Learn more: Create document library with AI - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

In closing

Teams that invest in content readiness will see strategic advantage in the long run as they will have strengthened content trust, alongside improved AI accuracy, higher productivity, and decision quality across Microsoft 365.

Looking ahead, the Microsoft 365 Conference (April 21-23, Orlando, Florida) includes several sessions which dive into the latest innovations coming in SharePoint including latest AI capabilities and best practices around libraries and metadata management. You can find out more about the conference via this blog post or register for the conference HERE.

Recommended sessions: