Every chapter, every chart, and the full methodology in one file. One email address.
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Key findings
Two independent surveys, 1,700+ IT pros, nine countries. This is what mattered most in each chapter.
Two surveys, reported separately: an IT operations survey of 943 IT pros covering migration, governance, compliance and cost, and an AI governance survey of 851 IT leaders covering AI deployment, exposure and governance maturity.
Two scores, your percentile against 1,700+ peers, and what actually happened to the teams who answered the way you did.
Get your score →| Confident their M365 governance framework is ready for AI (B-Q8) | 93% |
| AI has already surfaced data it shouldn't have had access to (B-Q17) | 29% |
| Expect measurable ROI from M365 AI within 18 months (B-Q28) | 86% |
| Have no visibility into what their AI currently costs (B-Q27) | 51% |
| Using built-in Microsoft tools only (Q27) | 57% |
| Manual processes or internal policies (Q27) | 39% |
| Had at least one governance incident in past 12 months | 77% |
| Using a purpose-built governance tool (Q27) | 1% |
| Fully migrated to the cloud (Q4) | 28% |
| Small amount of data still on-premises (Q4) | 36% |
| Roughly equal cloud and on-premises (Q4) | 25% |
| Deliberately chose to remain on-premises — majority or all (Q4) | 11% |
| Migrated to SharePoint Server on-premises (Q7) | 31% |
| 2025: compliance significantly delays or prevents migrations | 20% |
| 2026: compliance significantly delays or prevents migrations | 34% |
| Migrated something in the last two years (Q6) | 94% |
| Would do their migration the same way again (Q21) | 7% |
01 · AI Confidence
The teams most confident in their governance, permissions, and remediation capabilities reported a higher incident rate than the study average. Confidence isn't evidence.
See what AI has actually surfaced, and in whose environments.
Read chapter 01: AI confidence →02 · AI Reckoning
Governance isn't competing with the AI budget — 78% say governance activity shapes their investment in AI further. But you can't prove a return you can't price.
See where the AI money goes, and what teams still can't account for.
Read chapter 02: The AI reckoning →03 · Governance
63% describe their governance as operationalized or better. 57% are running it on built-in tools alone. Everyone has the problem. Almost nobody has the tool.
See which incidents actually happened, and how teams found out.
Read chapter 03: Governance →04 · The Estate
The SharePoint 2016/2019 end-of-support deadline moved almost everyone. It just didn't move them all to the cloud.
See what the estate is really made of, including the layer most inventories miss.
Read chapter 04: The estate →05 · Compliance
37% say they need better auditing and reporting tools — an evidence problem, not a restriction problem. Compliance doesn't have to be a blocker. It can be a deliverable.
See where sovereignty is now shaping infrastructure and AI decisions.
Read chapter 05: Compliance →06 · Migration
The average organization isn't between migrations, it's running two or three at once. Migration isn't a project you finish. It's a capability you build.
See what teams would do differently and what actually eats the timeline.
Read chapter 06: Migration → Get the full report →What to do about it
Closing these gaps isn't a project with an end date. It's a loop.
What exists, who owns it, what can AI reach, what does it cost?
What matters most, and which requirements shape the call?
What gets remediated, migrated, retained, retired, replaced?
How does the control survive the project that created it?
Did it work, did the investment pay, what changes next?
Operating model built by Microsoft MVP Richard Harbridge
Read chapter 07: The operating model →Get a score you can put in front of your director without editorializing, and the ranked gaps and next moves to go with it.