Microsoft Security | Microsoft Purview | AI Security
Microsoft Security Copilot is becoming a more accessible part of enterprise security operations.
With Security Copilot now included in eligible Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 subscriptions, organizations can use AI-assisted security capabilities across Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Purview without separately purchasing baseline Security Copilot compute capacity.
For organizations already investing in Microsoft 365 E5, this represents an opportunity to accelerate security operations and data protection workflows.
But what exactly is included? How much AI compute capacity do customers receive? And what does this mean for Microsoft Purview administrators and security architects?
In this article, we’ll explore the licensing model, Security Compute Units (SCUs), available Microsoft Purview agents, permissions, deployment requirements, and practical implementation considerations.
1. What Has Changed?
Microsoft announced Security Copilot inclusion for Microsoft 365 E5 customers, with the rollout beginning on November 18, 2025. Microsoft’s documentation also confirms eligibility for Microsoft 365 E7 customers.
Previously, organizations generally needed to provision Security Copilot capacity separately through Azure.
Under the inclusion model, eligible tenants receive a monthly allocation of Security Compute Units automatically.
The key changes are:
- Security Copilot is included with eligible Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 subscriptions.
- Eligible tenants receive automatically provisioned Security Copilot capacity.
- The included capacity is shared across supported Security Copilot experiences.
- No separate Azure capacity provisioning is required for the included allocation.
- Microsoft Security Copilot agents must still be configured and deployed.
- Existing product permissions and licensing requirements continue to apply.
Microsoft is rolling out the inclusion progressively. Having an eligible subscription does not necessarily mean every tenant has already been activated.
Official reference: Microsoft Security Copilot inclusion in Microsoft 365 E5 and E7
2. Understanding Security Compute Units (SCUs)
A Security Compute Unit is a measure of the computing resources used to run Microsoft Security Copilot workloads.
These resources power activities such as:
- Security Copilot prompts and responses
- AI-assisted security investigations
- Embedded Security Copilot experiences
- Microsoft-developed security agents
- Supported partner-built agents
Microsoft provides 400 SCUs per month for every 1,000 paid Microsoft 365 E5/E7 user licenses, with a maximum included allocation of 10,000 SCUs per month.
Included capacity examples
| Qualifying licenses | Monthly SCUs |
|---|---|
| 100 | 40 |
| 250 | 100 |
| 500 | 200 |
| 1,000 | 400 |
| 2,500 | 1,000 |
| 5,000 | 2,000 |
| 10,000 | 4,000 |
| 25,000 | 10,000 |
The calculation is:
Monthly SCUs = qualifying paid user licenses × 0.4, subject to the 10,000-SCU maximum.
For example, a customer with 500 qualifying licenses receives 200 SCUs per month.
Important capacity considerations
The included allocation:
- Is shared across the tenant.
- Resets monthly.
- Does not roll over.
- Is not billed using the hourly provisioned-capacity model.
- Can be consumed by supported standalone, embedded, and agentic Security Copilot experiences.
Microsoft documents a future throttling mechanism when the included allocation is exhausted, alongside an optional pay-as-you-go expansion at US$6 per additional SCU when that capability becomes available.
Administrators should verify the current billing and overage options in their tenant rather than assuming additional capacity is automatically purchased.
Official reference: Security Compute Units and capacity
3. Security Copilot Across Microsoft Security Products
Security Copilot brings AI-assisted capabilities into existing Microsoft security tools.
| Microsoft solution | Example capabilities |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender | Security alert triage, incident analysis, phishing investigations |
| Microsoft Entra | Identity security analysis, access reviews and supported identity agents |
| Microsoft Intune | Endpoint management and supported administrative agents |
| Microsoft Purview | DLP alert triage, Insider Risk alert triage and supported data-security experiences |
| Microsoft Sentinel | Supported Security Copilot scenarios using included capacity for eligible customers who also use Sentinel |
One important architectural point is that Security Copilot does not replace these products.
It uses supported integrations to help security teams analyze information and perform selected workflows more efficiently.
The underlying products remain responsible for security controls, policy enforcement, data collection, and authorization.
4. Microsoft Security Copilot Integration with Microsoft Purview
For Microsoft Purview specialists, this is one of the most interesting aspects of the announcement.
Microsoft Purview already provides capabilities for:
- Information Protection and sensitivity labels
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
- Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)
- Insider Risk Management
- Audit and eDiscovery
- Data Security Investigations
Security Copilot complements these capabilities through supported AI-assisted experiences.
Microsoft currently documents two particularly relevant Security Copilot agents in Purview, both described as preview capabilities.
4.1 Alert Triage Agent in Data Loss Prevention
The Alert Triage Agent in Microsoft Purview DLP helps security teams evaluate DLP alerts.
It considers factors including:
- Sensitivity risk
- Exfiltration risk
- Policy risk
The agent categorizes triaged alerts to help analysts prioritize their investigation workload.
Practical example
Imagine an employee attempts to upload a confidential financial document to an unauthorized cloud service.
A Microsoft Purview DLP policy detects the activity and generates an alert.
The DLP Alert Triage Agent can evaluate the alert using relevant risk signals and help the analyst determine which alerts deserve attention first.
The analyst remains responsible for validating the findings and deciding whether remediation or escalation is appropriate.
For supported device-related scenarios, Microsoft documents additional prerequisites involving evidence collection.
Official reference: Microsoft Security Copilot agents in Purview
4.2 Triage Agent in Insider Risk Management
The Triage Agent in Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management assists with evaluating Insider Risk alerts.
It considers:
- User risk
- File risk
- Activity risk
The agent categorizes alerts to support investigation prioritization.
Practical example
Consider an employee whose activity includes unusual downloads of sensitive documents and transfers to external destinations.
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management can evaluate relevant indicators based on the organization’s configured policies.
The Triage Agent can assist investigators by evaluating and categorizing resulting alerts.
This can help reduce repetitive manual triage work.
However, AI-generated findings should be reviewed by authorized investigators, particularly because Insider Risk Management may involve sensitive employee information.
Official reference: Microsoft Security Copilot agents in Purview
5. Microsoft Purview, DSPM, and Security Copilot: Understanding the Difference
It is important not to confuse existing Microsoft Purview capabilities with Security Copilot capabilities.
| Capability | Primary responsibility |
|---|---|
| Information Protection | Classify, label, and protect sensitive information |
| DLP | Detect and control sensitive-data movement |
| DSPM | Identify and prioritize data-security posture risks |
| Insider Risk Management | Identify and investigate potentially risky insider activity |
| Security Copilot | Provide AI assistance for supported security workflows |
| Security Copilot agents | Execute specific supported AI-assisted tasks |
For example, Microsoft Purview DSPM can help identify sensitive-data exposure and oversharing risks.
That capability does not depend on Security Copilot being enabled.
Security Copilot provides additional assistance only where Microsoft has implemented and made the corresponding experience available.
This distinction matters when preparing architecture diagrams, implementation plans, licensing assessments, and customer demonstrations.
6. Security Copilot Permissions and Access Requirements
Security Copilot introduces its own access model.
Two important Security Copilot workspace roles are:
Security Copilot Owner
Provides administrative capabilities for the Security Copilot workspace, including supported configuration and access-management operations.
Security Copilot Contributor
Allows authorized users to access Security Copilot sessions and supported experiences, subject to the permissions they already have in the connected Microsoft products.
These roles are different from Microsoft Entra and Microsoft Purview roles.
How permissions work
An analyst may have Security Copilot Contributor access but still be unable to retrieve information from Microsoft Purview.
Why?
Because Security Copilot does not automatically grant access to the underlying security data.
The user must also have the appropriate permissions in the relevant Microsoft product.
For example:
| Activity | Access consideration |
|---|---|
| Administer Security Copilot | Security Copilot Owner |
| Use Security Copilot | Security Copilot Contributor or inherited access |
| Investigate DLP alerts | Appropriate Purview DLP permissions |
| Investigate Insider Risk alerts | Appropriate Insider Risk investigation permissions |
| Configure Purview agents | Required agent-specific Purview roles and permissions |
| Access Sentinel information | Appropriate Sentinel/Azure RBAC permissions |
Microsoft documents that certain Entra and Purview administrative roles automatically inherit Security Copilot access in the inclusion model.
For example, Microsoft Entra Compliance Administrator is among the roles that can inherit Security Copilot Owner access.
However, administrators should still review workspace role assignments and the specific permissions required by each agent.
For Purview agents, Microsoft documents additional agent-management and investigation role requirements. Do not assume Compliance Administrator alone grants every sensitive investigation capability.
Official references:
7. How Security Copilot Is Automatically Provisioned
For eligible Microsoft 365 E5/E7 tenants, Microsoft provisions a default Security Copilot workspace and included capacity.
The automatic provisioning process configures several initial settings.
These include:
- Default workspace and capacity
- Customer data storage geography
- Data-sharing preferences
- Processing-location settings
- Access to Microsoft 365 service data
- Default workspace role assignments
Microsoft explains that the default customer-data storage geography is generally derived from the organization’s Microsoft Entra geography, subject to supported Microsoft 365 geographic overrides.
Organizations should review these settings, especially where data residency and privacy requirements apply.
Important security consideration
Automatic provisioning does not mean every Security Copilot agent is automatically activated.
The organization must still configure and deploy the agents it intends to use.
Official reference: Security Copilot automatic provisioning
8. Practical Deployment Guide for Microsoft 365 E5 Customers
The following approach is recommended for a controlled customer implementation.
Step 1 — Validate Microsoft 365 licensing
Open the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Verify the customer’s qualifying Microsoft 365 E5/E7 subscriptions and paid license count.
Calculate the expected monthly SCU allocation.
Step 2 — Confirm tenant activation
Check the Microsoft 365 admin center notifications and the Security Copilot experience.
Open:
https://securitycopilot.microsoft.com
Confirm that the tenant has been enabled and the included capacity is available.
Step 3 — Review Security Copilot settings
Verify:
- Workspace configuration
- Data storage geography
- Data processing and sharing settings
- Workspace access
- Included capacity
Do not modify privacy or data-sharing settings without confirming the customer’s requirements.
Step 4 — Review permissions
Identify the users responsible for administration, DLP investigations, Insider Risk investigations, and operational monitoring.
Assign the minimum required permissions.
Where supported, use Privileged Identity Management and time-limited administrative access.
Step 5 — Validate Microsoft Purview prerequisites
Before deploying Purview agents, verify that the underlying capabilities are operational.
For DLP, this includes appropriate policies, supported activity collection, alerts, and any evidence-collection prerequisites.
For Insider Risk Management, this includes the relevant policies, indicators, alert-generation configuration, and authorized investigation roles.
Step 6 — Deploy selected Security Copilot agents
Review the supported agents in Microsoft Purview.
Validate each agent’s licensing, permissions, authentication requirements, and deployment configuration.
Start with a controlled pilot.
Step 7 — Perform functional testing
Use approved test accounts and synthetic sensitive information.
For example:
- Create a test document containing synthetic financial information.
- Configure a Purview DLP policy that detects the relevant content.
- Perform a controlled test activity.
- Verify that the DLP event or alert appears.
- Run the supported DLP triage agent.
- Review the agent’s findings and compare them with the original alert.
- Document the results.
The objective is to verify both the underlying Purview policy and the additional value of AI-assisted triage.
Step 8 — Monitor SCU consumption
Review the Security Copilot usage dashboard.
Track capacity consumption across supported security experiences.
A customer using Security Copilot in Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview should understand that these experiences share the included capacity allocation.
Step 9 — Prepare operational handover
Document:
- Enabled agents
- Required permissions
- Supported scenarios
- Capacity monitoring procedures
- Known limitations
- Operational ownership
- Investigation and escalation processes
The customer should understand how to operate and govern the solution after implementation.
9. Licensing Considerations: What Is Not Included?
Security Copilot inclusion does not make every connected Microsoft security service free.
Microsoft identifies examples of services or capabilities that can require additional charges.
| Service or capability | Cost consideration |
|---|---|
| Included Security Copilot capacity | Included for eligible E5/E7 tenants |
| Additional SCUs | Subject to Microsoft’s applicable overage model |
| Microsoft Sentinel data lake | Compute and storage may incur separate charges |
| Purview Data Security Investigations | Non-agentic experiences may incur separate charges |
| Azure Logic Apps | Consumption charges may apply |
| Partner-built agents | Separate partner licensing may apply |
| Other prerequisite products | Existing licensing requirements remain applicable |
This is an important distinction for customer proposals.
Included Security Copilot capacity is not equivalent to unlimited AI usage or unlimited licensing across Microsoft security products.
Official reference: Microsoft Security Copilot inclusion
10. Recommended Architecture and Deployment Strategy
For organizations adopting Microsoft Security Copilot alongside Microsoft Purview, I recommend the following sequence.
| Phase | Activity | Expected outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Assess | Licensing, activation, security architecture, prerequisites | Readiness assessment |
| 2. Secure | RBAC, privacy settings, data access, workspace governance | Secure access model |
| 3. Prepare | Validate DLP, Insider Risk and relevant Purview configurations | Operational prerequisites |
| 4. Pilot | Deploy supported agents and controlled test scenarios | Validated pilot |
| 5. Optimize | Review results, permissions, SCU usage and operational value | Optimization plan |
| 6. Handover | Documentation, training and operational ownership | Production readiness |
For data-security projects, the broader architecture should remain centered on:
Data Discovery → Classification → Sensitivity Labels → DLP → DSPM → Investigation and Response
Security Copilot adds AI assistance to supported parts of this architecture.
It should not be treated as a replacement for the underlying security controls.
11. Key Considerations for Security Architects
From an architectural perspective, there are several important recommendations.
Start with the existing security architecture. Security Copilot delivers more value when the underlying Microsoft security products are correctly configured and generating useful signals.
Implement least privilege. Security Copilot access should not become a reason to grant excessive Microsoft Entra or Purview permissions.
Validate AI-generated findings. Agents can accelerate triage, but investigation decisions and high-impact remediation should remain governed by appropriate human review and organizational controls.
Monitor consumption. The monthly SCU allocation is finite and shared across multiple experiences.
Review data residency and privacy. Automatically provisioned settings should be evaluated against the organization’s legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements.
Separate technical deployment from operational ownership. Security architects may configure and validate agents, while authorized SOC, Compliance, and Insider Risk teams take responsibility for ongoing investigations.
Conclusion
Microsoft Security Copilot inclusion in Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 is an important development for enterprise security teams.
With included monthly Security Compute Units and integrated experiences across Microsoft Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview, organizations can begin exploring AI-assisted security operations without separately provisioning baseline Security Copilot compute capacity.
For Microsoft Purview customers, the opportunity extends beyond general-purpose AI assistance.
Supported agents such as the DLP Alert Triage Agent and Insider Risk Management Triage Agent can help security teams evaluate and prioritize alerts.
However, successful implementation still depends on licensing validation, correct permissions, properly configured security controls, privacy governance, and capacity monitoring.
The greatest value comes from combining strong Microsoft security architecture with carefully governed AI-assisted operations.
