AI Comes to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

• Document Intelligence, a new feature for summarizing files in SharePoint Server SE, uses Azure OpenAI.
• It requires installing Azure OpenAI in the organization’s Azure subscription, and summarizations will generate new consumption charges.
• The hybrid AI approach for SharePoint Server SE likely indicates that Microsoft is gauging customers’ interest in M365 Copilot and other AI services on-premises.

Document Intelligence, a new feature in SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SPSE), enables AI-generated document summaries, like summaries by Copilot Chat. It requires that organizations host Azure OpenAI in their Azure subscription. Customers are responsible for Azure OpenAI’s consumption costs, which can be controlled at the SharePoint-site level by site admins, but require user education to manage costs. Although summarizing documents may not be a business driver, this early feature may be the initial step linking on-premises SharePoint with AI, opening the door for other Azure AI Services or M365 Copilot.