Reviewing documents manually takes time. Checking whether:
- required information exists
- wording matches internal standards
- approvals are missing
- policies are up to date
- compliance requirements are met
- or risky statements appear inside documents
can quickly become repetitive and time-consuming work. And in many cases, the process itself is structured and repeatable – which makes it a very good fit for AI.
The challenge is that the information needed for those reviews is often spread across multiple locations:
- Policies stored in SharePoint.
- Procedures saved as PDFs.
- Internal standards written in Word documents.
- Regulatory guidance hosted on websites.
- Supplier agreements stored across folders and Teams sites.
This is where AI review agents can become genuinely useful.
How To Create an AI Document Review Agent for Compliance
For this project, I built a simple Compliance Review Agent using Microsoft Copilot Agents.
The idea is straightforward. Upload a document and allow the agent to:
- analyse the content
- identify missing controls
- detect risky wording
- highlight governance gaps
- compare information against trusted sources
- and generate structured findings and recommendations
For this example, I used GDPR and UK data protection guidance as the knowledge source, but the same concept could easily be adapted for many different scenarios.
Other possible use cases include:
- ISO 27001 reviews
- cybersecurity procedures
- supplier contracts
- HR onboarding documentation
- AI governance
- audit preparation
- legal reviews
- or internal company standards
One of the most interesting parts of the project is how flexible the overall setup becomes.
The behaviour of the agent is not hardcoded into a traditional application.
Instead, most of the logic comes from:
- the instructions given to the AI
- the connected knowledge base
- and the review rules defined for the process
This means the same concept can be adapted very quickly depending on the type of review being performed.
The knowledge base itself can combine information from multiple sources such as:
- official websites
- PDFs
- SharePoint files
- internal policies
- procedures
- standards
- regulatory guidance
- or company templates
The agent can compare uploaded documents not only against public regulations, but also against internal company standards and operational requirements.
In the video, I walk through the complete setup process – from creating the Copilot Agent and configuring the instructions, to building the knowledge base, enabling grounded responses, and finally testing the solution using both compliant and non-compliant PDF examples.
As a result, the agent is able to compare uploaded documents not only against public regulations, but also against internal company standards and operational requirements.
In the video, I walk through the complete setup process – from creating the Copilot Agent and configuring the instructions, to building the knowledge base, enabling grounded responses, and finally testing the solution using both compliant and non-compliant PDF examples.
Conclusion
The real value of AI agents comes from reducing repetitive manual work, identifying potential issues faster, and helping teams focus more on reviewing outcomes instead of manually checking documents line by line.
With Microsoft Copilot Agents, it becomes possible to build flexible review assistants that can adapt to different business processes simply by changing the instructions, connected knowledge sources, and review logic.
Whether the goal is compliance reviews, internal governance, cybersecurity checks, supplier validation, audit preparation, or policy analysis, the same core approach can be reused across many different scenarios.
And because the solution works directly with existing company content and trusted sources, it fits naturally into environments that already rely on Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and internal documentation workflows.
Check our other posts on AI Agents: AI Agents Archives – Macnamara ICT
