Last week Microsoft launched a redesigned Copilot app. It bundles chat, a coding agent, and a new agent called Autopilot. This new tool is a persistent agent that keeps working even when you’re not at the keyboard.
An agent like that works with the access you already have. Microsoft’s documentation for its Copilot agents says they respect existing Microsoft 365 permissions. If you can’t open a SharePoint site, the agent can’t pull from it. I haven’t seen Microsoft spell this out for Autopilot specifically, so confirm that before you rely on it.
That cuts both ways. If you can open a folder, the agent can probably read it. An agent that searches everything you can reach will find what’s in those folders, including ones nobody has opened in years.
What to check
Start with the folders that hold client files. For each one:
Who has access? Look at the actual list of people, not just the folder name.
How is it shared? Links set to “anyone in the organization” or “anyone with the link” reach more people than you may have intended.
Who is still on the list? Former staff, interns, and outside contractors tend to stay on after they leave.
What else is in there? A folder meant for one matter can end up holding files from several.
You can do this in SharePoint or OneDrive without any special tools. Both show who has access to a folder. If you have an IT person or a Microsoft partner, ask them to run a report across the whole account.
The same lesson from episode 333
On a recent episode of my podcast, my lawyer guest talked about AI note takers. Greg Siskind described the Zoom flap a few years ago. A journalist noticed that Zoom had changed its terms of service without announcing it, and the new terms appeared to let its AI note taker train on customer data. Lawyers reacted strongly, since so much of what they say on calls is confidential.
His point was that note takers get less scrutiny than other AI tools, even though they are generative AI too. The fix is the same one that applies here: read the terms and check the settings before you switch the thing on.
What I’d do
Pick one folder with client files and look at who can open it.
Fix what you find, then move to the next folder.
Turn on the agent after that, not before.
Bottom line
An agent that works on your behalf is only as careful as your sharing settings. A short audit now is cheaper than finding out later what it could see.
;-)
Ernie
P.S. In the Inner Circle, we compare notes on exactly this kind of setup question, so you don’t have to work through it alone →
https://ernietheattorney.net/