AI Governance: The Shift‑Left Playbook

Dec 15, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Aisha Hasan, a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft focused on governance and employee experience, dives into the evolving landscape of AI governance. She emphasizes the increasing need for proactive governance in enterprises and how Copilot Studio is reshaping workflows. Aisha shares insights on managing agent sprawl with Agent 365 and building a robust governance strategy centered on product, administration, and user education. Her thoughts on human-AI collaboration highlight the future of work in this tech-driven era.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Principles Evolve Not Replace

AI governance principles are the same but need different emphasis with AI-driven decisions.
Proactive governance is far more necessary now because AI reduces human oversight and increases automation risk.

INSIGHT

Agents Require A Unified View

Agent consumption must be seamless across UIs regardless of where agents are built.
The abstraction of agent tooling increases the need for unified governance and lifecycle control.

INSIGHT

Data Protection Still Central

Governance fundamentals like data protection and labeling remain central despite new AI risks.
Enterprises must balance empowering self-service builders with protecting sacred data assets.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM

Explore how Microsoft, through the expertise of Aisha Hasan, is evolving governance and agent management in the age of AI. Learn practical strategies for balancing innovation, risk, and compliance as Copilot Studio and Agent 365 reshape enterprise workflows. Discover actionable insights for building, governing, and upskilling in applied AI.

🎙️ Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/775

👉 What you’ll learn

Define and apply core governance principles for AI and agents
Shift from reactive to proactive governance in enterprise environments
Empower users and IT admins to manage agent sprawl and compliance
Leverage Agent 365 for holistic agent oversight and lifecycle management
Build a three-pillar governance strategy: product, admin, and user education

✅ Highlights

“Our principles have not changed, let's say that they have evolved to put more focus on certain things as compared to others.”
“With AI, the need for proactive governance, I think, is far greater than ever before.”
“Agent 365 is a starting point and it's a very good starting point in terms of the effort of consolidating that view for an IT admin.”
“Governance itself is rooted into basic principles. So those principles do not change regardless of the portfolio.”
“It takes a healthy balance of three pillars. One is what is available out-of-the-box and product.”
“How are you empowering your admins to be able to fill in those gaps that are there in the product, but you need them now to secure and govern your enterprise?”
“User education is quite important. Because if the product isn't self-governing, which means that you have gaps that the IT organization needs to fill, but there are some gaps maybe even the IT organization can't fill.”
“Continue to educate your users through a centre of excellence or sort of a hub, and also use that hub to upskill on how to not just only build agents, but build meaningful, impactful agents and adopt good hygiene practices.”

🧰 Mentioned

Microsoft Copilot Studio - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio/
Agent 365 - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-agent-365
Microsoft Digital - https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/digitally-transforming-microsoft-our-it-journey/

✅ Keywords
ai governance, agent 365, copilot studio, power platform, compliance, enterprise workflows, proactive governance, user education, admin empowerment, agent sprawl, microsoft digital, centre of excellence

Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption

Support the show

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith