Microsoft unveils Azure AI Foundry to help businesses consolidate AI across their tech stack

Microsoft is seeking to help enterprises scale their AI adoption and unlock the full value of AI with Azure AI Foundry, its new unified AI application platform.

Announced at Microsoft Ignite 2024 in Chicago, the platform aims to help businesses leverage AI and generative AI by connecting their current business applications with the latest AI technology.

In a blog post accompanying the announcement, Microsoft said as businesses undergo an AI-oriented transformation two things have become clear: the tangible results of implementing AI and the innovation potential for the technology.

The post cited recent research by Deloitte that found 70% of organizations have productionized 30% or fewer of their generative AI experiments, concluding there is “a lot of innovation and results ready to be unlocked.”

“Azure AI Foundry helps bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI technologies and practical business applications, empowering organizations to harness the full potential of AI efficiently and effectively,” wrote Jessica Hawk, corporate VP of data, AI, and digital applications product marketing at Microsoft.

Microsoft announced it has set about unifying the AI toolchain in a new Azure AI Foundry SDK, which brings together Azure AI capabilities from popular tools such as GitHub, Visual Studio, and Copilot Studio.

It said it would also be ‘evolving’ Azure AI Studio, its service for using AI to create applications, into an enterprise-grade management console and portal within Azure AI Foundry.

Microsoft also unveiled a new management center experience to provide enhanced observability and collaboration capabilities. This will collate subscription information into a single pane, allowing business leaders to manage resources, access privileges, and quota usage from a centralized location.

A single pane of glass to develop, scale, and manage AI applications

Microsoft is targeting a number of stakeholders with Azure AI Foundry including developers, AI engineers, and IT leaders.

For developers, Azure AI Foundry will be integrated into IDEs such as Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and the entire GitHub platform. This will provide a more streamlined workflow for developers to take advantage of the latest AI advancements.

Azure AI Foundry will give developers access to a wide range of models, services, and capabilities to help them build generative AI applications for their organizations and ground them in their own data.

Microsoft added the platform will also enable developers to scale their creations more effectively for the enterprise, transforming proof of concepts into mature production applications that will produce tangible value for the business.

Developers will benefit from a new Azure AI Agent Service, which will help them orchestrate, deploy, and scale AI applications to automate business processes.

The new platform will also help IT leaders measure how these new AI implementations are benefitting their business, Microsoft claimed, helping them drive adoption, align the technologies to organizational goals, and get board members onside for further investment.

Azure AI Foundry will also bring an update to Microsoft’s Azure Essentials documentation with comprehensive guidance for AI adoption and architecture to help scale AI adoption in your organization.

This will include access to Microsoft’s best practices, product experiences, reference architectures, skilling, and resources, from a single location.

“Azure AI Foundry is designed to empower your entire organization—developers, AI engineers, and IT professionals—to customize, host, run, and manage AI solutions with greater ease and confidence,” Microsoft explained.

“This unified approach simplifies the development and management process, helping all stakeholders focus on driving innovation and achieving strategic goals.”