Building for Data Privacy and Governance in the Era of SitecoreAI

SitecoreAI is changing how digital teams plan, build, and optimize experiences. It unifies XM Cloud, CDP, Personalize, Search, and DAM into a single platform, and layers powerful AI agents on top that can generate content, translate pages, enrich metadata, build briefs, automate workflows, and orchestrate campaigns.

But here’s the reality: you can’t just switch on SitecoreAI and agentic marketing capabilities and hope for the best. Organizations need a governance foundation before these features go live. If your governance isn’t ready, you’ll feel the impact—from rogue content to data exposure to inconsistent outputs.

Here is a practical roadmap for making your organization AI-ready before enabling SitecoreAI (or, if you’ve already enabled it, how to catch up).

1. Understand the Platform You’re Turning On

Before you can govern any platform, you need to understand what it’s capable of and how it behaves.

SitecoreAI brings together:

• Sitecore’s CMS, CDP, Personalize, Search, and DAM into a single platform.
• Private AI calls that keep your tenant’s data private and out of external model training.
• Agentic Studio, which enables creating and using AI agents that take action—not just generate text.
• Built-in guardrails such as Brand Kits, validation checks, and role-based permissions.

Practically speaking:

You’re introducing automation that can create content, analyze data, and trigger workflows across your ecosystem. Your governance needs to anticipate that level of autonomy and ensure it only does what your organization intends.

2. Start with Data Governance

SitecoreAI is only as safe as the data you feed it. Create a clear, usable data classification model before anyone starts prompting. Red / Yellow / Green data rules help provide a simple reference for marketers as they work with AI tools.

Example Red / Yellow / Green rules:

• Red – never used in AI
  • PII, regulated information, sensitive internal strategy.
• Yellow – allowed with restrictions
  • Localized content, product details, non-PII customer insights.
• Green – safe inputs
  • Public content, brand voice guidelines, campaign messaging.

For this to work, your marketing team needs to understand the model and actually use it. Keep it simple and visible.

3. Define Human Oversight: AI Should Never Publish Alone

SitecoreAI can create website copy, translate full sites, generate briefs, and build multi-channel assets in minutes. That speed is powerful, but also risky. AI makes mistakes, and without proper review those mistakes can quickly scale.

SitecoreAI supports a human-in-the-loop model, but you need to define the checkpoints so humans aren’t reduced to rubber stamps.

Define review checkpoints upfront:

• Copy drafts? Allowed.
• Brand messaging? Review required.
• Legal or compliance-sensitive content? Mandatory approval.
• Translations? Human QA before publishing.
• Automated workflows? Review logic before enabling.

Assume the AI will make mistakes. If a mistake would have real impact, require human review. If the risk is minimal, automation may be acceptable.

4. Lock Down Roles and Permissions Before Agents Go Live

Agentic Studio lets teams run (or even build) their own AI agents. SitecoreAI includes five Builder seats per environment.

Set up role-based controls:

• Builders – create or modify agents
• Operators – run agents
• Reviewers – approve outputs
• Admins – manage permissions and monitor usage

One rule many organizations overlook: no one should build an agent without documenting what it does, what data it touches, and who approved it. Agents are power tools, and they can fail powerfully. Ensure users are properly trained so they understand both the capabilities and the risks.

5. Audit Your Integrations: Because “Open” Also Means “Exposed”

One of SitecoreAI’s strengths is how open it is, but openness requires guardrails.

• Ensure that agents and capabilities built through App Studio are thoroughly tested and limited to their intended functionality.
• Review the policies of any third-party connections you integrate, especially external LLMs. Use your red/yellow/green model to ensure sensitive or proprietary data isn’t being sent where it shouldn’t.
• Build processes to vet Marketplace apps before using them in production. Sitecore reviews Marketplace tools, but misuse can still cause major issues. Understand what a tool does before enabling it for your team.

SitecoreAI is a powerful evolution of the platform, but its impact depends entirely on how prepared your organization is to use it. With the right governance, data practices, and review processes in place, AI becomes a trusted partner instead of a risk. If you’re ready to take the next step, Velir can help you build the framework that ensures SitecoreAI drives value from day one.