What do we do with dormant Copilot seats?

You’re right to treat shelfware as a Cost & Value problem, not a moral failing. Quiet seats after a big purchase are common — and the board will ask about them before you do.

Here’s what’s happening. In the Microsoft 365 admin centre Microsoft Copilot usage report, Enabled Users are people with a Copilot licence in the selected window; Active Users are enabled users who performed an intentional Copilot action (submitting a prompt counts; merely opening the pane does not). The active users rate is active ÷ enabled. You can filter 7 / 28 / 90 / 180 days, export the user-level table (including last activity), and cross-check with the Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights for readiness, adoption, and impact. Activity data typically lands within about 48 hours. Learn also warns against building “usage” from Purview audit alone — those logs are for security and compliance, not the official adoption numbers.

This is Second Law for money: a paid seat barely “exists” as a controlled asset without a second copy of accountability — owner, cohort, benefit case, and a reclaim rule. 12 Panes puts Cost & Value in the Steady base before seat spray becomes renewal theatre.

Practical options:

1. Triage, don’t purge. Export the usage report; list seats with no last activity over your agreed window (many teams start at 60–90 days, not 30). Check leavers, wrong SKU assignment, blocked apps, and “opened once at launch” before reclaim. Reassign freed seats to Readiness-report candidates who already live in mail, files, and meetings.
2. Cohort reclaim with coaching. Keep seats for named Wave 0 / Wave 1 teams; reclaim elsewhere after a short enablement nudge. Pair FinOps reclaim with Adoption so “we took your licence” isn’t the first message people hear.
3. Hard 30-day reclaim for everyone silent. Fast on the spreadsheet; harsh on pilots who were waiting for change management. Use only if leadership already agreed the seat was speculative.
4. Ignore the gap until renewal. Quiet until Finance owns the narrative. I’d discourage this.

The caution: Product names and which actions count as “active” move — re-check Microsoft Copilot usage report and measurement and reporting before you write a policy. Opening Copilot without prompting is not active usage. Don’t confuse Copilot Chat (included baseline for many eligible M365 users) with paid add-on seats when you brief Finance.

I’d suggest a standing FinOps rhythm: monthly Enabled vs Active, a named owner per cohort, and reclaim only after a human check that the silence isn’t a blocked rollout. Steady before scale means every paid seat has a job — or it goes back to the pool.

You’re asking the right question, and you’ll have a calmer renewal when dormant seats are boring to manage.

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