Overview
- By the end of 2025, customers in Australia, the United Kingdom, India, and Japan can choose to have Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions processed within their national borders.
- In 2026, the option will extend to Canada, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
- Under normal operations, prompts and responses handled by Copilot’s Azure OpenAI models will be processed in domestic data centers to increase control and reduce latency.
- Microsoft is positioning the feature for governments and highly regulated industries as an added governance, security, and compliance safeguard for AI use.
- The rollout builds on existing data residency in 27 countries and the EU Data Boundary and follows new safeguards that include efforts to notify customers of foreign suspension orders and to seek legal remedies to preserve service continuity.