Richard Harbridge

I focus on sharing and finding better ways to work with technology: Microsoft MVP, strategist, speaker, author, and super-friendly advisor to hundreds of orgs.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

What should we value about #AI? How should we shape the #FutureOfAI together with our #PositiveIntent? | @TEDxOshawa video is now up https://t.co/p16ewlsdiV

#TEDx #TEDxTalks @TEDx #GenerativeAI #Innovation #ArtificialIntelligence #DigitalAssistants #TechTrends
#TechTalks #GenAI

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

If you remember nothing else about AI strategy, remember this:

Clarity first.
Confidence next.
Connection always.

Clarity about what you are doing.
Confidence from small real wins.
Connection to the people whose work is changing.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

AI can make feedback easier to draft, but it cannot have the difficult conversation for you.

Leadership still requires sitting with discomfort, listening fully, and taking responsibility.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

The more AI content you create, the more important content lifecycle becomes.

Reviews.
Expiry dates.
Owners.

If everything lives forever, people will not know what to trust.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

It feels like Microsoft 365 governance should be getting easier.

Better first-party tools.
Better ecosystem tooling.
Better admin skills.
Better patterns.

But the surface area keeps expanding:

Content.
Guests.
Apps.
Automations.
Agents.
Digital worker identities.
AI workflows.

The water level has risen.

So has the size of the ocean.

AI governance is not shrinking.

It needs to become more repeatable, automated, and shared.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Many organizations already have the data they need for valuable AI scenarios.

What they lack is alignment on which problems to solve first and who will own the change.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Some of the biggest barriers to AI are actually about identity.

“I was always the person people came to for this.”

When a tool can now help with that thing, it can feel like a loss.
Name that. Support that.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

A comforting AI governance story:

We clean up the debt.
Then the workload drops back to normal.

I do not think that is how this works.

Even after cleanup, governance stays heavier because it is not just reducing AI risk.

It is driving AI success.

Better content.
Better ownership.
Better lifecycle.
Better trust.
Better outcomes.

Governance is not just the cleanup crew.

It is part of the AI performance engine.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Not all AI risks are equal.

Some relate to individual privacy.
Some relate to customer trust.
Some relate to intellectual property.

Categorising them helps you respond appropriately.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

A lot of Microsoft 365 oversharing starts as a reasonable collaboration need.

“Can we share this with more internal people?”

Then someone uses “Everyone except external users” at the site level.

The intent was narrow.

Permission inheritance made it broad.

That is the governance mismatch.

In the AI era, buried oversharing becomes much easier to discover.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Microsoft 365 sprawl is not just too many Teams or SharePoint sites.

It can be permissions, sharing, configuration, apps, automations, agents, change, licensing, content, devices, and workspaces.

AI readiness touches all of it.

https://t.co/WoKhU4NDDt

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Sometimes the most strategic AI decision is about scope.

You may choose to focus on one business unit, one geography, or one set of processes first.

Depth beats thin coverage across everything.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Some of the best AI use cases start as “personal hacks” that people build for themselves.

The opportunity is to spot the good ones and scale them carefully across the team.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Governance is a team sport.

Without roles and playbooks, everyone chases the ball.

With the right structure, talented people can move faster together.

That is how I think about Microsoft 365 governance in the AI era.

https://t.co/WoKhU4NDDt

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

A useful AI audit question:

“Where are we using AI today that is not officially documented anywhere?”

The answers can surface shadow AI in teams and tools you did not expect.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

The credit card analogy for AI governance is useful:

Sprawl is the balance.

AI changes the interest rate.

Agents may add new charges.

At some point, the minimum payment approach to Microsoft 365 governance stops working.

https://t.co/WoKhU4NDDt

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Sometimes the bravest thing a leader can say in an AI meeting is “I do not know yet.”

Leaders often underestimate how powerful it is to say, “I am learning this too.”

That sentence can remove a lot of pressure from teams trying to figure out AI, Copilot, and agents in real time.

The key is when we share "I do not know yet." to follow it with “Here is how we will find out.”

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

AI and automation can create new blind spots.

If you automate a step, it can quietly disappear from people’s mental model of the process.

Make sure someone still understands what the agent is doing and why.

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Not everything should be migrated first.

Sometimes the smarter move is to connect first.

The real question is not just “how much data?”
It is “how entangled is the ecosystem around it?”

#Microsoft365 #M365Migration #Microsoft365Copilot #Copilot

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Governance used to be treated like the brakes.

In the AI era, I think it is becoming more like traction control.

Not there to stop the car.

There to help you move faster without losing control.

Discussed this on The Enterprise AI Show.
https://t.co/WoKhU4NDDt

[Richard Harbridge @RHarbridge]

Microsoft 365 already contains a huge amount of organizational memory.

AI just makes it easier to surface.

If that memory is outdated, duplicated, or wrong, Copilot will faithfully repeat it.
Cleaning up knowledge is not optional anymore.