Building Resilience, Efficiency and Security: 4 Key Business Strategies for 2025

As businesses continue to explore AI integration, it’s crucial to prioritize key business areas that will enhance overall business resilience, improve efficiency and ensure robust data protection. In this post, we’ll explore four critical business strategies that businesses should focus on to navigate these changes effectively.

This year, it will be even more critical to review your business data and understand its relevance and security. As AI is integrated into your organization, having quality data will be essential for achieving quality results. If AI is not part of your immediate strategy, it is likely that your competitors are exploring it, and you will also have to if you don’t want to fall behind.

Once you implement AI, stale data, also known as dark data, must be addressed to ensure accurate outcomes. Governance gaps that were previously hidden, will easily be exposed by AI technology, necessitating a thorough understanding of your data estate to prevent any issues (e.g. non-HR user easily accessing sensitive paycheck information). This gap existed prior to the introduction of Microsoft Copilot but accessing that data would have required a user to perform a keyword-based SharePoint Online (SPO) search with good search syntax, or having the user dig through several layers of folders in SPO to get the information, which very few users did.

Fortunately, in recent years, the Microsoft compliance center, Purview, has seen significant improvements by consolidating all compliance capabilities (coming from Entra, Defender for Cloud Apps and the legacy compliance center) under a single pane of glass and organizing them into solutions such as Data Lifecycle Management or Records Management. The built-in visual reports can now also quickly deliver valuable insights to Compliance Officers.

Deploying data security restrictions too hastily can lead to negative user impact and confusion, which is why a gradual implementation is recommended.

Your data security strategy should include:

Conduct regular health checks on both your Microsoft 365 tenant and all its workloads and on Entra ID. The backend of these platforms undergoes frequent changes, and the default settings may not align with your company’s policies (e.g. external sharing, data access from Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) devices, etc.). Performing these Microsoft 365 health checks quarterly or biannually is recommended due to the rapid pace of backend updates. This practice ensures your settings remain compliant and optimized for your organization’s needs.

It is crucial to begin automating all manual processes that are currently burdensome and costly to your organization. While the ROI for automating processes can sometimes be difficult to evaluate, collaboration with IT and business owners can help in understanding the broader impact. Automating processes not only enhances efficiency but also positions your organization to leverage AI for improving end-user productivity and solving complex business problems without exposing data that you did not want exposed. Piloting automation projects is a strategic approach to ensure long-term success and staying competitive.

Historically, Shadow IT referred to applications installed and used by end-users that could potentially leak data, intentionally or unintentionally. Today, organizations must also consider Shadow AI, where users may utilize corporate data with public AI engines like ChatGPT and Gemini. This poses a risk as sensitive data may be used to train models and stored by third-party engines. It is imperative to have a comprehensive plan to address this new form of data leakage.

In conclusion, by focusing on data security, performing regular health checks, automating processes, and addressing Shadow IT and AI, organizations can ensure their resilience and efficiency in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.