Governance & AI Council
Control over Copilot and agents
More agents, more decisions: who approves, who monitors and who pays? We advise on and set up governance that gives you control.
AI Council
One body for every AI decision
An AI Council is no talking shop. It approves use cases, weighs risks and answers for them — built in four layers, sized to you.
1 · Core team
Compact multidisciplinary team that reviews use cases and writes guidelines — at business pace.
2 · Expert network
Specialists on call: from security architect to employment lawyer. Not at the table, but reachable.
3 · Steering group
Executive sponsors set budget and direction. Without a sponsor, every council slides into the optional.
4 · Sounding board
Employees from every layer. Listen only to the top and you miss the signals.
Four design principles guard the quality — diversity, independence, transparency and accountability — at the pace of the business.
What the council does
The governance cycle
From setting direction to course-correcting — the council moves with your AI journey.
- 1
Direction
Set the AI vision and ground rules: what do we approve?
- 2
Assessment
Test use cases against data, risk and the EU AI Act.
- 3
Monitoring
Track usage, quality, incidents and sentiment.
- 4
Course-correction
Report to the board, adjust policy, advise on investment.
Agent governance
Manage agents like colleagues
Give every agent identity, an owner, access rights and oversight — with the tooling you already have.
Agent register
One tenant-wide view of every agent — including those from AWS Bedrock and Google Vertex.
Ownership & lifecycle
Every agent an owner. Ownerless agents are flagged and reassigned to the manager.
Security templates
Reusable security bundles that travel with publishing automatically. Design once, enforce everywhere.
Tool access per agent
Decide which services an agent may touch. No access needed? Do not grant it.
Shadow AI detection
Visibility into unmanaged agents and AI tools in your tenant — with a block option.
Review & publishing flow
New agents to a pilot group first, then go broad. Innovation with a gatekeeper.
Our conviction
Governance that accelerates, not slows.
IT controls
The five dials IT holds
From knowledge agent to a full Copilot Studio solution: the same five control axes, set deliberately before the first agent goes live. Rules only work when people carry them — that is what our adoption approach secures.
- 01
Creation
Who may build agents? Restrict authoring to security groups where needed.
- 02
Use
Per agent type, decide who may use it — access by group.
- 03
Sharing
Sharing limits via Managed Environments: a team agent should not sit organisation-wide.
- 04
Cost
Chargeback per department, prepaid capacity and usage meters. No surprises.
- 05
Measurement
Usage reports per agent and user — the basis for scaling up or clearing out.
FAQ
Veelgestelde vragen
On AI governance, the AI Council and agent management.
Does a mid-sized organisation need an AI Council?
Yes, but right-sized. A compact multidisciplinary team of four to six people meeting fortnightly usually suffices. The pitfall is not starting too small — it is a council so heavily built that it slows innovation.
Who belongs on the AI steering group?
Four roles: an executive sponsor with mandate and budget, IT/security for the technical frame, legal/compliance for the legal side and a representative of the business. Diversity of perspective is a design requirement, not a luxury.
How does Copilot governance relate to the EU AI Act?
Microsoft commits to the EU AI Act and is ISO 42001 certified. But the law also obliges you: know which AI systems you run, with which risk profile and which human oversight. An AI Council with a live register makes that demonstrable.
What is shadow AI and how do you get a grip on it?
Shadow AI is AI use beyond IT’s sight. Microsoft research (2024) shows 67% of AI users at work use tools not provided to them. The approach: detect and offer an approved alternative — banning without an alternative just relocates the problem.
How do agent costs stay manageable?
Through cost management from day one: pay-as-you-go per department so usage is chargeable, prepaid capacity where volumes are predictable, and monthly usage reports. Cost is a governance topic, not a surprise after the fact.
Can we manage agents from other platforms centrally?
Yes. Through registry synchronisation, agents from external platforms such as AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI appear in the same register as your Microsoft agents. One governance regime for your entire agent landscape.
Want to know where the gaps are first?
Our quickscan tests your situation against the five control axes and AI Council maturity — with a concrete advisory report.