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Control 1.4: Semantic Index Governance — Portal Walkthrough

Step-by-step portal configuration for governing the Microsoft 365 Semantic Index that powers Copilot content discovery and grounding.

Prerequisites

  • Global Administrator or SharePoint Administrator role
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses provisioned in the tenant
  • Understanding of current content landscape across SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange
  • Governance committee approval on semantic index scope decisions

Steps

Step 1: Review Semantic Index Status

Portal: Microsoft 365 Admin Center Path: Admin Center > Copilot > Overview

Review the current status of the Semantic Index for your tenant. The Semantic Index processes content across Microsoft 365 to create embeddings that Copilot uses for content discovery and response grounding.

Note the indexing status, coverage percentage, and any reported errors or excluded content types.

Step 2: Configure Content Source Scope

Portal: Microsoft 365 Admin Center Path: SharePoint Admin > Settings > Search > Restricted SharePoint Search and related content-source governance

Review which content sources are included in the Semantic Index. By default, the index covers SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Exchange Online, and Teams messages.

For FSI environments, evaluate whether all content sources should be indexed. Consider excluding content sources that contain highly sensitive data until proper controls are in place.

Step 3: Review Item-Level Processing

Portal: Microsoft Purview Path: Purview > Data Security Posture Management > Content Processing

Monitor how the Semantic Index processes individual items. Items protected by sensitivity labels with encryption are processed differently — the index respects encryption boundaries and access controls.

Verify that items with "Highly Confidential" labels are handled according to your organization's policy (indexed with access enforcement vs. excluded entirely).

Step 4: Set Tenant-Level Index Controls

Portal: Microsoft 365 Admin Center Path: Admin Center > Copilot > Settings

Configure tenant-level controls that affect semantic index behavior: - Content types included in indexing - Minimum sensitivity label thresholds for indexing exclusion - User-level Copilot enablement that controls who can query the index

Step 5: Document Index Governance Decisions

Record all governance decisions about semantic index scope, including: - Which content sources are indexed and which are excluded - How sensitivity labels affect indexing behavior - User populations enabled for Copilot querying - Review cadence for index governance decisions

FSI Recommendations

Tier Recommendation
Baseline Review default semantic index scope and document governance decisions
Recommended Configure content source restrictions and sensitivity label thresholds for index exclusion
Regulated Implement formal index governance policy with change control and quarterly governance committee review

Next Steps

  • Proceed to PowerShell Setup for index management automation
  • See Verification & Testing to validate index governance
  • Review Control 1.3 for Restricted SharePoint Search as a complementary scoping control