AI Assistant Microsoft 365 Integration

Microsoft 365 integration with ThoughtFarmer's AI Assistant allows the AI Assistant to answer user questions based on the content of SharePoint or OneDrive files on the intranet. SharePoint or OneDrive files that are attached to AI Assistant source pages are indexed and used by the AI Assistant to answer questions.

Set up AI Assistant Microsoft 365 Integration

Follow the instructions below to first configure and register an app with Microsoft Azure, and then set up the integration with your ThoughtFarmer intranet. 

Configuring ThoughtFarmer with Microsoft Azure requires granting some permissions to Microsoft Graph. Microsoft Graph is a developer platform that allows ThoughtFarmer to integrate with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365. 

Create app registration

Creating a new application registration in the Azure Portal allows ThoughtFarmer's AI Assistant application to communicate with Microsoft 365 to retrieve documents and their data. The application communication is server-to-server. Create a new app registration for the AI Assistant integration even if you have already created an app registration for Microsoft 365 cloud drive or calendar integration.

1. Log in to the Azure Portal.
2. Under App registrations, create a new registration, and give the application a unique name, eg. TFAIAssistantContent.
3. Click into the newly created application to find the information you will need to set up the integration with ThoughtFarmer:
   • Application (client) ID
   • Directory (tenant) ID
   • Client credentials: secret
     • Click into Manage > Certificates & secrets > Client secrets tab to copy the Secret ID.
     • Note: The Secret ID is only available to you once, so copy it and store it somewhere safe.
4. Under Manage > API permissions, add the following permissions for Microsoft Graph, choosing Application type permissions:
   • Files.Read.All
   • Sites.Read.All
   • User.Read.All
5. Keep Azure Portal open as you need to copy information from it to set up the integration in ThoughtFarmer.

Enable Microsoft 365 integration with AI Assistant

Once a new app registration has been completed in the Azure portal, enable the integration between Microsoft 365 and ThoughtFarmer's AI Assistant.

1. Go to the ThoughtFarmer Admin panel: Integrations section > AI Assistant page > Microsoft 365 tab.
2. Enable the Microsoft 365 integration by turning the toggle to ON.
3. Under Microsoft 365 Region, select from the dropdown the region where your Microsoft 365 data is stored: CAN (Canada), GBR (United Kingdom), NAM (North America), or EUR (Europe). (If your data is located in another region, please contact ThoughtFarmer support for assistance.)
4. Copy the values from the Azure app registration to the appropriate fields in ThoughtFarmer:
   • Microsoft 365 Application Id: Application (client) ID
   • Microsoft 365 Directory Id: Directory (tenant) ID
   • Microsoft 365 Client Secret: Secret ID.
5. Click Login and follow the prompts to log in to Microsoft 365 and test the integration.
6. Click Save.

Important security permissions information

Because of the mechanism that allows the AI Assistant to access file content, access to Microsoft 365 file content through the AI Assistant is controlled by ThoughtFarmer page security permissions, not Microsoft permissions. If an intranet page will be used as a source page for the AI Assistant and it has Microsoft 365 files attached to it, admins should ensure that the ThoughtFarmer page security is set to be the same as the access permissions they want for the Microsoft 365 files.

You must apply the security permissions that you want to apply to Microsoft 365 documents to the ThoughtFarmer pages they are attached to. If you leave the ThoughtFarmer page security open, a user could access Microsoft 365 file content in AI Assistant answers without having the correct permissions in Microsoft 365. Users do not need to be logged into Microsoft 365 to get answers from the AI Assistant based on Microsoft 365 files.

In other words, be deliberate about the pages that you add as AI Assistant source pages, and set ThoughtFarmer page security on those pages to reflect how the attached Microsoft 365 content should be treated.

Note that how permissions are controlled is different for AI Assistant Microsoft 365 integration and Cloud drive Microsoft 365/SharePoint Online integration. With cloud drive integration, access to the Microsoft 365 files is controlled through Microsoft login and authorization, so a user will only be able to access files that they have permission to with their Microsoft account.

Add Microsoft 365 documents as sources for AI Assistant

Once the AI Assistant Microsoft 365 integration is set up, make document content available to the AI Assistant by making the parent page of the documents an AI Assistant source.

1. Create an intranet page and add Microsoft 365 documents to the page, or find an existing intranet page with Microsoft 365 documents attached.
2. Ensure that the security permissions on the intranet page are the security permissions that you want to apply to the Microsoft 365 documents. (Make sure to review Important security permissions information above.)
3. Go to the ThoughtFarmer Admin panel: Integrations section > AI Assistant page > Topics tab.
4. Add or edit a topic and add the intranet page with attached Microsoft 365 documents as a source. Make sure to select the Include subpages checkbox so that attached documents will be included in the source information.
   • To learn how to add or edit a topic for the AI Assistant, see Configure AI Assistant topics and source content.

Once the updated topic is saved, the Microsoft 365 documents are available as source content for AI Assistant answers.

Microsoft 365 document indexing

SharePoint and OneDrive documents are indexed once a day. If changes are made to SharePoint or OneDrive files, the changes will not be reflected in the AI Assistant's answers until the indexing happens.

If a brand new document is created in SharePoint or OneDrive and then immediately linked to ThoughtFarmer the indexing can fail. After 10 minutes or so the document should be available for linking to ThoughtFarmer.