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Resources/Comparisons/Aona vs Microsoft Purview
For Microsoft 365 Organisations · 2026

You have Purview. You still don't have AI governance.

Microsoft Purview is excellent at protecting data inside Microsoft 365. But it has no visibility into what your employees are doing in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any AI tool outside the Microsoft ecosystem. Here is what that gap looks like.

What Purview covers — and what it doesn't

What Purview does well

  • DLP for Microsoft 365 data (SharePoint, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive)
  • Sensitivity labels and data classification within M365
  • Compliance and eDiscovery for Microsoft workloads
  • Integration with Microsoft Security stack (Defender, Sentinel)
  • Information barriers and insider risk management (M365 scope)

What Purview cannot see

  • Anything happening in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, or any external AI tool
  • Employees pasting M365 data into AI tools outside the Microsoft ecosystem
  • Prompt-level content analysis (what is actually being typed into AI tools)
  • Real-time coaching when an employee is about to make a mistake
  • Shadow AI usage — which external AI tools your employees are actually using
  • AI policy acknowledgement and training

Purview stops data leaving Microsoft. It cannot stop data entering AI tools that live outside Microsoft.

The gap: your M365 data is leaving Microsoft every day

With Purview only
  1. 1Employee copies a client contract from SharePoint
  2. 2Opens ChatGPT and pastes the entire document in
  3. 3Purview sees nothing — the data left Microsoft before it could act
  4. 4IT has no alert, no record, no coaching moment
  5. 5This happens dozens of times per day across your organisation

Purview protects the Microsoft boundary. The AI boundary is invisible to it.

With Aona added
  1. 1Employee copies a client contract from SharePoint
  2. 2Opens ChatGPT and starts to paste it in
  3. 3Aona detects the sensitive content at the browser level — before it is sent
  4. 4Real-time pop-up: 'This contains client contract data. Here is your company policy and what to do instead.'
  5. 5Employee learns. Behaviour changes. Violations drop ~80% in 60 days.

Purview protects Microsoft. Aona protects the AI boundary your employees cross every day.

Honest comparison: Purview vs Aona

FeatureAonaMicrosoft Purview
Governs M365 data (SharePoint, Teams, Exchange)
Governs external AI tool usage (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini)
Real-time AI prompt interception
Employee coaching at moment of risk
Shadow AI discovery (external tools)
Sensitivity labels and data classification
eDiscovery and legal hold
Insider risk management
AI usage behaviour trends
Policy acknowledgement + AI training
Deployment time
< 1 hour
Days to weeks
Cost (relative)
Per-seat SaaS
Included in M365 E3/E5 (AI governance is add-on)

Microsoft Purview is excellent at what it does — protecting data within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. It was not designed for the AI governance problem. Neither was the Purview AI Hub add-on.

The one question to ask your Purview admin

“Can you tell me which employees have used ChatGPT in the last 30 days, what data they put into it, and whether any of it was sensitive?”

If the answer is no — or involves manual effort and estimates — you have the gap Aona fills.

90-day free trial. See exactly what Purview cannot.

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Who should add Aona alongside Purview?

1

Your organisation uses M365 but employees also use external AI tools

Nearly all M365 orgs today. Purview has no reach outside the Microsoft ecosystem.

2

You need to demonstrate AI governance to auditors, board, or regulators

Purview compliance reports cover M365. They do not cover your AI governance posture.

3

You want employees to use AI safely — not just block them from it

Purview's instinct is to classify and protect. Aona's instinct is to coach and enable. Different outcomes.

Common questions from Microsoft 365 organisations

We have Microsoft Purview. Do we need Aona?

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What about the Microsoft Purview AI Hub?

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Does Aona replace Purview?

+

How quickly can we see value alongside Purview?

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See what Purview is missing

90-day free trial. Deploys in under an hour alongside your existing Microsoft 365 setup.

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