Microsoft is unveiling the Azure AI Foundry at Ignite 2024. That new application platform should be a bridge between technological innovation and practical business applications.
At its Ignite conference, Microsoft is launching the Azure AI Foundry. That’s a new platform that should be central to the development and deployment of AI solutions at enterprises. Microsoft wants to appeal to developers and IT professionals to deploy AI tools smoothly, and hopes the new AI Foundry can be the bridge between the latest technological advances and their deployments.
The Azure AI Foundry includes Copilot Studio, Visual Studio, GitHub and the Azure AI Foundry SDK. Those work together a catalog of different models, combined with Azure AI services such as the Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search. Microsoft is also integrating observability and tools for governance.
Changing models
The approach provides some concrete capabilities. For developers, Microsoft places AI applications above models. Anyone building an AI application today, according to Microsoft, can’t easily adjust afterwards which model drives that application. Given the pace of innovation, that’s a drag on the rollout of current solutions.
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That is changing with the AI Foundry. The approach is evolving from model first where an application is built starting from the model, to agent first where those roles are reversed.
To measure is to know
For CIOs, the objections to a successful AI rollout are different. They want to measure to know: do optimizations really work? And what is the ROI? Microsoft is putting tools in the Azure AI Foundry for them that allow them to measure the impact of tools. In this way, Redmond hopes to convince CIOs to open their wallets further for AI projects.
The Azure AI Foundry also includes the new Azure AI Agent Service. That helps IT specialists deploy and manage agents. The agents in question are smart automations, connected to solutions and data. The AI Agent Service should help ensure that the deployment of agents is done securely and in compliance with policies.
High spending
Azure and AI are immensely important to Microsoft. The company’s partnership with OpenAI has given it an edge when it comes to AI solutions, and it is paying off. Figures for the fourth quarter of 2024 showed that AI and Azure are driving growth. On the other hand , spending is also rising sharply to continue to meet the demand for AI.