I've been thinking a lot about SharePoint migrations lately, especially with all the focus on Copilot and AI.

A lot of organizations are still approaching migration as a content move. Get the files over, recreate the sites, call it done. The reality is that the decisions you make during a migration will either help or hurt you when you start rolling out AI. A few things I see come up over and over:

Structure really does matter.

AI is only as good as the content it can find and understand. Site architecture, metadata, naming conventions, and permissions all play a role. Folders are not dead...they are back. Most users still think in folders, they inform AI too. That's how they navigate. That's where a lot of institutional knowledge lives. The trick isn't eliminating folders. It's creating a structure that works for users while making content easier to find, search, and govern.

Security is easier to build than rebuild.

Migrations are one of the rare opportunities to clean up years of permission sprawl. If you're already moving content, it's worth taking a step back and thinking about the security model you want long term instead of carrying every bad decision forward. Sensitivity labels, conditional access, and clear sharing standards become much easier to manage when there's a plan behind them.

Adoption has very little to do with technology.

Most migration projects don't struggle because SharePoint is hard. They struggle because users don't understand why things changed. When people know what's coming, why it's happening, and what they need to do differently, adoption gets a lot easier. When they don't, even the best technical implementation can feel like a failure.

We've helped a lot of organizations through migrations, and these are the same themes that continue to surface.

A migration isn't just moving content anymore. It's setting the foundation for how people will work and how AI will work alongside them.

Best Wishes!

Diane