Technology media outlet NeoWin reported on April 15th that, according to the Microsoft 365 roadmap, Microsoft plans to enable IT administrators to configure the Edge browser to restrict employee usage of AI tools such as Qwen, Gemini, and Grok, while guiding staff towards the compliant Copilot service. Based on the publicly available Microsoft 365 roadmap, Microsoft intends to limit "shadow AI" within the Edge browser. Shadow AI refers to AI tools and services used by employees without organizational approval or authorization from the IT department. To streamline this process, Microsoft is developing a new management interface. On interception pages, this interface will allow IT administrators to display guidance options that redirect users to a newly opened Microsoft 365 Copilot tab.

According to the official announcement, IT administrators will be able to configure the Edge for Business browser to block access to the following AI tools. In practical scenarios, when an employee attempts to access an unauthorized AI tool like ChatGPT within Edge for work-related tasks, the policy will forcibly block the access request. Instead of displaying a simple blocking notification, the browser will provide a button that guides the user to the official Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot supports enterprise data protection through mechanisms such as compliance boundaries, tenant isolation, and preventing data from being used for model training, ensuring sensitive information does not leak.

Within Edge for Business, Microsoft currently supports blocking several AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot 365 Chat and Textcortex Zenochat. This new feature is scheduled for release next month. Companies can refer to Purview DLP licensing details for more configuration information.