Pillar 2: Strengthening the Pipes – Why Technical Readiness is the Secret to AI Success
In our last post, we established that AI strategy isn’t just an IT project;
it’s a business evolution. But once you have the “Why” sorted, you have to face the “How.”
If Pillar 1 is the blueprint for your new AI-driven house, Pillar 2: Technical & Infrastructure Readiness is the plumbing and electrical work. You can have the most beautiful architectural design in the world, but if the pipes are clogged or the wiring is outdated, the house simply won’t function.
For Microsoft Copilot and the coming wave of Agentic AI, “good enough” infrastructure is no longer enough. To move from basic prompts to autonomous digital workers, your technical foundation must be rock solid.
The Cost of “Clogged Pipes”
When we perform an AI Readiness Assessment, we often find organizations eager to jump to Step 4: Agentic Workflows. They want autonomous agents handling their onboarding or procurement. However, if their technical environment is lagging, those agents won’t just be slow—they will be unreliable.
Technical unreadiness leads to the three “Productivity Killers”:
Latency: The AI feels slow, leading to users abandoning the tool.
Inconsistency: The AI works in Word but not in Outlook because of versioning issues.
Blindness: The AI can’t see the data it needs because it’s trapped behind a legacy firewall or an old on-premise server.
The Core Technical Checks
During the Pillar 2 assessment, we deep-dive into the “plumbing” of your M365 environment. Here are the critical areas that determine your score.
1. Identity & Licensing: The “Who” and the “How”
AI acts on behalf of the user. This means your Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) must be pristine. We look for “Identity Hygiene”—ensuring there are no stale accounts, unmanaged guests, or messy group structures. If your identity management is weak, your AI security is weak.
We also ensure your licensing is optimized. You don’t want to overpay for features you don’t use, but you also can’t afford to miss the specific Business or Enterprise SKUs that unlock the full power of the Microsoft Graph.
2. Update Channels: Living on the Edge (of Innovation)
AI technology is moving at a breakneck pace. Microsoft releases updates to Copilot and its underlying models almost weekly. If your organization is on a “Semi-Annual” update channel for Office apps, your users are effectively living in the past.
The Standard: To be AI-ready, users should be on the Monthly Enterprise Channel or the Current Channel. This ensures that when a new feature drops, your team has it immediately.
3. Known Folder Move (KFM): Bridging the Local Gap
One of the simplest yet most ignored technical requirements is OneDrive Known Folder Move. Many employees still save files directly to their “Desktop” or “Documents” folders. If those folders aren’t synced to OneDrive, Copilot can’t see them.
The Impact: Turning on KFM is the fastest way to increase the “intelligence” of your AI, as it suddenly gains access to the user’s most relevant, active work.
4. Meeting ROI: The Transcription Hurdle
Roughly 50% of the immediate value users get from Copilot comes from Teams Meeting Summaries. However, for Copilot to summarize a meeting, Transcription must be enabled. Many organizations have legacy policies that block transcription due to old privacy concerns. Part of our assessment is helping you modernize these policies so you don’t accidentally cut the ROI of your AI investment in half on day one.
Preparing for the 7-Step Journey
As we move up the maturity scale, the technical requirements become even more stringent:
Step 2 (AI Apps): Requires a clean environment for hosting custom “Utility” bots.
Step 3 (Action Agents): Requires secure API connections between M365 and your other business tools (like Salesforce or your ERP).
Step 6 (Digital Workforce): Requires robust Device Management (Intune) to ensure that your “Digital Employees” are only running on secure, compliant hardware.
[Image suggestion: A technical roadmap showing how M365 configuration leads to Agentic AI]
The Assessment Process: From Red to Green
Our assessment provides a clear Technical Score (1-5).
Score 1: High risk. Your network is restricted, your apps are outdated, and your identity management is messy.
Score 5: Optimized. You are ready for Phase 2: Agentic AI.
Our Remediation Plan doesn’t just tell you what’s wrong; it gives your IT team a prioritized checklist. We help you configure the “New Outlook,” set up your network for WebSockets (essential for AI chat performance), and ensure your “Blast Radius” is contained through proper identity governance.
Conclusion: Don’t Build on Sand
You wouldn’t try to run a modern electric vehicle on a lead-acid battery from the 1970s. Similarly, you cannot run a 2024 AI strategy on 2018 infrastructure.
Technical readiness is about more than just “switching it on.” It’s about ensuring that as you move toward a Digital Workforce, your infrastructure is an accelerator, not a handbrake.
Is your plumbing ready for the future? Stop guessing and start measuring. Book your AI Readiness Assessment today, and let’s ensure your technical foundation is ready for the 7-step journey.