SharePoint Premium: Future of AI-Powered Content Management

Microsoft has unveiled SharePoint Premium, which brings AI-powered advancements to content management and provides a suite of tools to improve the engagement with critical content while ensuring its safety and organization. The release also prepares content for integration with Copilot for Microsoft 365, a next-generation AI assistant designed to enhance productivity.

• Collaborate: Empower teams with dynamic sites in Microsoft Teams. Sync and share files, data, and resources securely.
• Inform: Publish info & resources on your intranet. Tell your story with beautiful custom sites and personalized, targeted news.
• Deliver: Access, manage and store collaborative and transactional content in our flexible high scale cloud platform integrated across Microsoft 365

Three key features of SharePoint Premium are emphasized: Content experiences and solutions that elevate employee productivity and refine business processes, content processing that uses AI to classify and systematically organize data, and content governance that proactively addresses the issue of oversharing and controls content sprawl with efficient tools.

SharePoint's traditional strengths are highlighted, as it facilitates collaboration, information dissemination, and secure file sharing with dynamic site creation, personalized news, and its broad cloud platform. SharePoint is at the core of content management within Microsoft Teams, which allows the development of rich applications extending beyond Microsoft 365, leveraging developer tools such as Power Platform and Microsoft Graph APIs.

• SharePoint pages are now more straightforward to author with the introduction of Copilot, alongside the new aesthetic improvements for more visually appealing sites and pages.
• New integrations into email, Teams, and Microsoft Viva are set to deepen engagement and ensure readers are reached effectively.
• Developer extensibility is a focus area, ensuring that custom solutions will continue to function smoothly through subsequent updates.

Last year saw the introduction of Microsoft Syntex, aiming to refine content with AI-empowered workflows. Meanwhile, the previous month introduced enhancements to content experiences in OneDrive, including simplified file sharing and new AI-powered management options for media and meetings.

SharePoint Premium doesn't just store files but provides solutions that operate on files across their lifecycle. New features include enhanced collaboration with support for over 400 file types, an integrated file viewer for annotations, and business document management directly from Teams. Users can easily create, review, and manage high-value documents such as contracts and invoices, with the support of powerful AI-driven tools.

Moreover, SharePoint Premium integrates Microsoft Syntex to facilitate AI-driven document classification and tagging. The platform's eSignature capability is also highlighted, adding security to the document approval process. Notably, Adobe and DocuSign partnerships expand the eSignature service offerings.

The upcoming pay-as-you-go services for SharePoint Premium will include translation for files and Stream video, auto-filling document library columns with AI-discovered values, PII detection, a multilabel classifier, and content redaction to conceal sensitive data.

Microsoft Graph APIs will also become available for SharePoint Premium, enabling integration of its services into custom applications. This suite of capabilities will be accessible without additional licensing on a pay-as-you-go basis, with alignment under the SharePoint Premium brand expected soon.

Significantly, the content governance aspect is detailed, focusing on the importance of correct information sharing and preventing sensitive data exposure. Microsoft introduces Data Access Governance insights and Site Access Reviews to manage overshared content effectively. Additionally, AI's role is expanded to recommending access policies and pinpointing significant events in the content lifecycle.

Microsoft 365 Archive is introduced to manage storage costs and safeguard information, preserving the integrity of content within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary. Alongside, Microsoft 365 Backup, with partner solutions, aims to protect essential data from disasters like ransomware attacks.

Lastly, SharePoint Premium services available under the Syntex brand are transitioning to SharePoint Premium, with licensing models including pay-as-you-go and seat licenses. An array of services, including Microsoft 365 Archive, is accessible currently, and SharePoint Premium is on track for broad availability in the first half of 2024. Enterprises like KPMG UK have already started using SharePoint Premium to optimize their operations.

Additionally, SharePoint Premium will offer new capacities for SharePoint Premium that will be generally accessible by the end of December 2023. These include functionalities allowing for automatic translation of files and Stream video among several languages, dynamically adding a new column to a document library, flagging files containing personally identifiable information and more.

More About SharePoint Online and Related Topics

SharePoint Online is revolutionizing the way enterprises manage and engage with content, leveraging the power of AI for efficient content management. The introduction of SharePoint Premium promises a new horizon of productivity, allowing users to create, manage, and protect content through innovative AI-driven tools. From content processing, governance, and experiences, to new integrations with the wider Microsoft ecosystem, SharePoint Online is gearing up to significantly enhance business workflows and employee collaboration, acknowledging the changing dynamics of the digital workspace.