Configure the Copilot tenant-settings catalog
The Introduction frames Copilot configuration as a catalog of individual, reversible decisions rather than one on/off switch. This unit puts that catalog directly in front of you. You walk it as exactly that: a list of distinct settings, each with its own purpose, its own location in the admin center, and its own role requirement—not a single page that toggles every capability at once.
Find the catalog and know who can change it
Every setting in this unit lives in the Microsoft 365 admin center, under Copilot > Settings. That page organizes the catalog into four tabs: User access, Data access, Copilot actions, and Other settings. Each tab groups settings that share a theme, but every individual setting inside a tab remains its own decision, reversible independently of its neighbors.
Role assignment matters as much as the setting value itself. The AI Administrator role can both view and change every setting in the catalog. Global Reader can view the same settings but can't change them. When you assign access for a colleague who only needs to audit Relecloud's Copilot configuration, AI Administrator with read intent isn't the right fit—Global Reader gives them visibility without write access, and AI Administrator gives your configuration team exactly the permission they need without the broader reach of Global Administrator. Least-privilege role assignment applies here the same way it applies everywhere else in the tenant.
Here's the catalog at a glance. Every setting below is changed by an AI Administrator; Global Reader can view them all but change none.
| Setting | Tab | Options / values | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-service purchases | User access | Allow · Allow trials only · Do not allow | Trials don't auto-convert to a paid license |
| Copilot in admin centers | User access | On (default) · Off | Covers the Microsoft 365, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams admin centers |
| Image generation | Copilot actions | On · Off | Off: PowerPoint falls back to stock/brand images; Chat returns none |
| Video generation | Copilot actions | On · Off | A separate control from image generation, not a sub-option |
| Copilot AI disclaimer | Other settings (View all) | Off · On (Standard/Bold font, optional policy URL) | On also creates a "Copilot AI Disclaimer" policy in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center; never appears in SharePoint, OneDrive, Whiteboard, or Forms |
| Release preferences | Other settings (View all) | Faster · more conservative cadence | Revisit anytime |
Web search lives on the fourth tab, Data access, and gets its own unit next. With the catalog located and the right role in hand, you're ready to work through what each tab actually controls.
Manage self-service purchases and admin-center access
The User access tab holds two settings that shape who can reach Copilot and from where. The first is Microsoft 365 Copilot self-service purchases. It gives you three options: Allow, which lets users try or buy Copilot on their own; Allow trials only, which lets users start a free trial but not buy a paid license—the trial doesn't convert to a paid subscription automatically; and Do not allow, which blocks purchase entirely. This setting exists to help you understand and manage organic demand for Copilot across Relecloud rather than leaving purchase decisions to individual departments.
For a regulated customer relationship like Woodgrove Bank, this setting carries weight beyond convenience. A team member who self-purchases Copilot outside a reviewed rollout plan can start using it against Woodgrove Bank data before governance controls catch up.
Guiding question: Think about Relecloud's regulated customers, including Woodgrove Bank. Which setting in this catalog would you expect a compliance team to insist on locking to its most conservative option, and why?
The second User access setting, Microsoft 365 Copilot in admin centers, controls whether users holding an admin role can use Copilot inside the Microsoft 365 admin center, Exchange admin center, SharePoint admin center, and Microsoft Teams admin center. The default allows Copilot for all admins across those four surfaces. If you tighten this setting, you remove Copilot assistance from admin workflows tenant-wide—a trade between admin productivity and a smaller Copilot footprint inside sensitive management surfaces.
Control image and video generation
The Copilot actions tab governs what Copilot can create, not just what it can read. Copilot image generation determines whether users can ask Copilot to design, create, or edit images for use in Microsoft 365 apps and in Designer. When you allow it, Copilot fulfills those requests directly. When you don't, Copilot doesn't generate images at all—in PowerPoint, it falls back to stock or brand images instead, and in Copilot Chat, it returns no image at all rather than a substitute.
Video generation sits next to image generation on the same tab, but it isn't a sub-option buried inside the image setting. It's its own dedicated control, added to the catalog as a separate entry because AI-generated video carries a different exposure profile than a static image. Treating image and video generation as two independent decisions—rather than one feature with a video mode—keeps you from assuming that disabling one automatically disables the other.
Configure the AI disclaimer and release timing
Other settings, reached through View all on the Copilot settings page, holds the Copilot AI disclaimer and release preferences. The disclaimer configuration is short: you pick a font style, Standard or Bold, and you can optionally add a URL pointing to Relecloud's internal AI usage policy. Leave that URL blank, and Copilot shows Microsoft's default disclaimer text instead. Either way, the disclaimer itself reads "AI-generated content may be inaccurate," and it appears in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. It doesn't appear in SharePoint, OneDrive, Whiteboard, or Forms, so don't rely on it as tenant-wide coverage.
Turning the disclaimer on has a side effect worth tracking: it automatically creates a tenant-level policy named Copilot AI Disclaimer in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center. That policy lives outside the Copilot settings page itself, so if you go looking for it later expecting to find it only in one place, check the Apps admin center too.
Release preferences round out the catalog. This setting determines whether Relecloud's users receive new Copilot features on a faster or a more conservative release cadence. Like every other entry in this catalog, it's a trade you can revisit—favor faster access to new capability, or favor stability and a longer validation window before a feature reaches Relecloud's users.
You now know what the catalog contains, where each setting lives, and which role can change it. The next unit puts two of these settings—release preferences and image and video generation—into your hands, so you configure them yourself rather than only read about them.
Learn more about the full Copilot settings catalog in the Microsoft 365 admin center.