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By Fraser Dear, Head of AI and Data Innovation. Posted 11th December 2024
AI is changing the way businesses operate, from internal processes to customer interactions. Forward-thinking organisations are no longer asking if they should embrace AI, but how they can strategically leverage its transformative potential.
One of the most effective, user-friendly, and secure ways to integrate AI into your business is through the Microsoft AI technology stack. As the Head of AI and Data Innovation at BCN, I am excited to share some key technical aspects of implementing AI with Microsoft.
These insights will hopefully help frame the À la carte ‘AI Menu’ into bite-sized portions, to help business leaders enhance operational efficiency through automation to start or enhance their digital transformation journey.
The Microsoft AI Technology Stack forms the backbone of modern automation solutions. It encompasses a complete suite of tools and services designed to facilitate the development, deployment, and lifecycle management of intelligent applications. Key Microsoft AI components include Azure Machine Learning, Insight Services and Agent Services, each contributing uniquely to the AI landscape.
Azure Machine Learning enables the creation of sophisticated machine learning models with minimal coding. It supports a variety of frameworks and languages, making it a versatile choice for data scientists and developers.
Insight Services offer pre-built APIs for vision, speech, language, and decision-making, allowing rapid integration of AI capabilities into applications. Agent Services streamline the development of conversational agents, enhancing customer interaction and support. With so many choices, finding where to begin can be a daunting task.
The Power Platform is a pivotal AI and Microsoft element, empowering the creation of custom Microsoft Power Apps applications, automation and orchestration workflows, and analysis of data without extensive coding knowledge. Among its standout features in the AI context is Copilot Studio, which changes the way users interact with AI as we move into the Agentic AI Framework.
Through advanced natural language processing, Copilot Studio creates intelligent, targeted experiences that:
The true magic of Copilot Studio is its ability to translate complex technological potential into intuitive, accessible experiences. It goes beyond processing requests – it understands them, anticipates them, and transforms them into actions and insights (which in turn can be automated).
The Power Platform’s strategic brilliance emerges through its seamless integration with the broader Microsoft ecosystem and other third-party solutions. By connecting the dynamics CRM, Business Central, Office 365, and other enterprise services, it creates a unified intelligence network that transcends traditional departmental boundaries.
This integration enables:
Microsoft Fabric is an advanced platform that integrates AI capabilities into the literal ‘fabric’ of your organisation. It provides a unified environment for developing, deploying, and managing AI solutions, ensuring consistency and scalability. Data and its evolution are the key aspect to consider in a Fabric implementation and so volume, complexity, linage, and governance is front and centre in this element of the stack.
Microsoft Fabric’s AI capabilities include:
Organisations can use Fabric to consolidate data from disparate sources, creating a comprehensive dataset for AI-driven insights. The platform’s scalability ensures that it can manage large-scale AI projects, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. With the announcement of the Public Preview of SQL database in Microsoft Fabric, transactional and reporting data becomes the same thing, meaning your business data layer just became a whole lot simpler.
Like the Power Platform, one of Fabric’s key advantages is its seamless integration with other Microsoft tools as well as data sources and platforms across multiple vendors. This enables organisations to leverage their existing infrastructure while incorporating advanced AI capabilities, maximising the return on investment.
Microsoft Azure’s extensive suite of AI capabilities positions it as a leader in AI and automation. Microsoft Azure AI Service with the new authoring experience; Azure AI Foundry, encompasses a wide range of tools and frameworks designed to facilitate the development of intelligent applications.
Azure AI Foundry offers pre-built models for vision, speech, language, and decision-making, enabling developers to quickly integrate AI functionalities into their applications securely.
Azure Machine Learning provides a comprehensive environment for building, training, and deploying machine learning models, supporting a variety of frameworks and languages. As well as pre-built functions, Azure AI enables the creation of fully bespoke solutions targeting your specific business needs.
Azure’s AI capabilities extend beyond standalone services. Its integration with other Azure services, such as Azure IoT and Azure Data Lake, allows for the creation of end-to-end AI solutions. This interconnectedness ensures that organisations can use AI across their entire operational spectrum, from data collection to decision-making.
APIs are essential for integrating AI capabilities into existing systems. Acting as bridges, they enable seamless secure communication and data sharing between different software components, making it easier to incorporate AI functionalities.
Microsoft provides a powerful suite of APIs, including plug-and-play options within the Power Platform, Cognitive Services, and Azure Machine Learning. These pre-built solutions manage common AI tasks, saving developers time and effort by offering ready-to-use components that integrate smoothly into applications. For more complex needs, Microsoft also supports the creation of custom APIs, allowing businesses to connect with bespoke databases or legacy systems.
APIs play a critical role in ensuring consistency and reliability in AI solutions, minimising errors, and discrepancies. Organisations can use APIs to accelerate the deployment of AI-powered solutions, helping them stay agile and competitive in addressing market demands and operational challenges.
As organisations increasingly rely on AI to drive operational improvements, data security and governance remain paramount. Microsoft provides a robust framework for ensuring the security and compliance of AI solutions. Azure’s security features, including advanced threat protection and encryption, safeguard sensitive data from unauthorised access and breaches.
Azure’s compliance certifications, such as GDPR and HIPAA, ensure that AI implementations adhere to regulatory standards, mitigating legal and reputational risks.
Governance is equally critical. Microsoft’s governance tools enable organisations to monitor and manage their AI solutions, ensuring that they operate within defined parameters and ethical guidelines. These tools provide visibility into AI processes, allowing organisations to identify and address potential issues proactively.
To highlight the impact of AI and Microsoft within business, let’s consider a use case involving a large retail company looking to improve its customer support services.
The retailer needed a way to efficiently manage frequent customer queries such as checking order status, product availability, and return policies, while also managing specific requests like refunds and sample orders.
By implementing an AI-driven customer support system, powered by Microsoft Agentic Services and Copilot Studio, the company created a conversational interface capable of addressing customer inquiries in natural language.
By leveraging AI and Microsoft, the company created a smarter, more responsive, and cost-effective operation which led to happier customers.
Throughout my years leading digital innovation, I’ve observed a critical truth: AI is not about technology or human replacement, but about human potential amplification. When organisations approach AI as a strategic capability rather than a technical solution, they unlock unprecedented levels of operational intelligence, business potential and value.
BCN’s expertise in implementing AI and Microsoft positions us as a trusted partner for organisations seeking to leverage AI for operational improvements.
Interested in finding out more? Contact us for a review of how AI can transform your operations and unlock new opportunities for growth and efficiency.
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