What changed
GitHub began a staged rollout of its generally available global model policy for Copilot Business and Enterprise. Unconfigured and future generally available models inherit the organization or enterprise default, explicit per-model choices are preserved, and open-weight or data-retaining models remain disabled by default.
Why it matters
New model availability now follows a durable enterprise default instead of requiring every administrator to react model by model, reducing silent policy drift while making the default itself consequential.
What to do
Review the global default and every explicit exception before enforcement completes. Test one new-model rollout, verify data-retention terms, export the effective state, name an owner, and schedule reassessment.
Caveat
Enforcement rolls out gradually through 1 September, so organizations may see different timing. A default policy does not validate provider data handling, model quality, user eligibility, audit coverage, or downstream tool permissions.