SharePoint is not a file server.
But almost every business I speak to is using it like one.
Files in folders. Folders inside folders. A structure that made sense the day someone set it up and has quietly caused problems ever since.
It works well enough for finding things manually.
But the moment you introduce Copilot?
It falls apart.
I’ve been working with a client recently who couldn’t understand why Copilot wasn’t delivering what they expected.
They’d seen the demos. Heard the pitch. Paid for the licences.
But when they tried to use it to summarise documents they’d gathered for their own clients, it kept falling short. Their conclusion was that Copilot just wasn’t as capable as tools like Claude.
The real issue had nothing to do with Copilot.
It was the absence of metadata.
Here’s the thing most people are never told when they set up SharePoint.
Folders give a file a location. Metadata gives a file an identity.
When you tag a document with metadata like client name, document type, project status or date, you’re giving Copilot the context it needs to find the right file, understand what it is, and produce something genuinely useful.
Without it, Copilot is searching through a warehouse full of unlabelled boxes.
It can see the boxes. It just doesn’t know what’s inside them.
SharePoint is actually designed to work flatter than most people realise.
Less folders. More metadata columns.
Instead of: 📁 Clients → 📁 ABC Ltd → 📁 2025 → 📁 Proposals → proposal-final-v3.docx
You have one library, with columns for Client, Year, Document Type and Status. Every file becomes instantly filterable, searchable, and far more useful to Copilot.
It’s a shift in mindset more than anything else.
The businesses getting the most from Copilot right now aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or the most technical teams.
They’re the ones who laid the groundwork before expecting the AI to perform.
Copilot is only as good as the data behind it.
If your SharePoint is a folder maze with no metadata, you haven’t given it a chance.
Drop a comment below if this is something you’re working through. 👇