Yes, tools like Copilot are clever. But they lack common sense. AI relies entirely on your internal information landscape – the data you’ve labelled, shared, archived, or forgotten – and the policies that surround it. Without rules or structure, itcan expose confidential information, create compliance risks, and cause chaos across your business.
If you’re thinking about deploying Copilot (or any other form of AI), you need to be absolutely sure your governance is in order. Optimism and enthusiasm can’t fix the chaos caused by an AI rollout you’re not ready for.
Is your data accurate? Are your end users prepared? Do your access policies and controls protect sensitive information?
Before deploying Copilot, you need to make sure your business is ready for AI – and you’re not just worried about being left behind. Because rushing to keep up could put your reputation at risk.
Three ways AI creates risk in an unprepared business
1. Data breaches
When AI tools like Copilot operate without strong governance, they can bring everything to the surface – even the things they shouldn’t. That includes outdated contracts, personal information, or confidential documents sitting in forgotten folders.
AI doesn’t know the difference between a public policy and a private HR file. What used to be “buried” becomes searchable, shareable, and potentially visible to the wrong people – internally and externally. Without access controls, an employee could unintentionally see anything from payroll data to client contracts.
A rushed rollout raises the likelihood of accidental data exposure, compliance breaches, and reputational damage. Gartner predicts that by 2027, over 40% of AI-related security incidents will stem from misuse of generative AI.
Before you deploy Copilot, make sure permissions and governance frameworks are watertight.
2. Bad decisions
AI depends entirely on the quality of the data it’s fed. If that data is messy, duplicated, or outdated, the recommendations AI makes will be unreliable.
When Copilot is built on poor data, people make decisions based on flawed insights. That undermines trust, halts adoption, and stops you seeing any real return on investment. Once confidence is lost, it’s difficult to rebuild.
Accurate, relevant, and reliable data is the foundation of intelligence you can trust.
3.Cultural backlash
The AI wave is creating uncertainty in workplaces everywhere. Some employees feel pressured to master tools they don’t yet use; others quietly worry about being replaced by them.
Rolling out AI without clear communication and support makes people feel like change is happening to them, not with them. If they don’t understand how AI helps their role – or worse, if it exposes problems they didn’t create –they’ll resist it.
The result? A stalled rollout, frustrated teams, and another “transformation” that fails to stick.
Adoption isn’t about technology. It’s about trust.
AI readiness isn’t about enthusiasm – it’s about control
Buying licences doesn’t make you AI-ready. Real readiness means:
- You know where your data lives.
- You know who has access to what.
- You have governance and policies that actually work.
Without lifecycle management and structure, AI deployment becomes a compliance risk waiting to happen.
Don’t walk before you can run
Admitting you’re not ready isn’t failure – it’s foresight. AI doesn’t fix data issues; it magnifies them. Poor data leads to poor results. And without proper governance,AI can surface information that should never be visible in the first place.
The organisations that pause to prepare get there faster, build trust, and achieve results that last. And the ones that rush before they’re ready uncover a whole new world of problems.
Three smart moves before you deploy AI
- Audit your data landscape – map it, clean it, classify it.
- Tighten governance – permissions, retention, accountability.
- Prepare your people – transparency builds confidence.
If you think you’re ready for AI, check your data first.
If you’re not, fix that – then you’ll go further (and faster) than everyone else.
Make your Copilot project a success
848 helps organisations turn AI risk into readiness with structured frameworks for data, governance, and adoption. Because the smartest move in AI isn’t jumping ahead – it’s preparing properly.
An AI Readiness Workshop can help you identify your biggest barriers and prioritise what to fix first – from data quality to permissions and change enablement.
