Demystifying Azure AI Foundry: A Beginner's Guide
Are you ready to dive into the transformative world of Artificial Intelligence but unsure where to start? You landed at the right page. Welcome! Whether you’re just getting started or have a bit of experience under your belt, this read will provide you with the foundational knowledge needed to unlock the potential of Azure AI Foundry. Azure AI Foundry offers a powerful suite of tools and Machine Learning Models. Let’s start harnessing its capabilities as an initial step to create innovative AI solutions that can revolutionize your projects or business. As a Microsoft Technical Trainer, delivering classes on AI and Data for the past several years, I have witnessed the significant impact AI has had across various industries. My objective here is to equip you with the foundational knowledge and confidence necessary to embark on your AI journey. Azure AI Foundry (formerly Azure AI Studio) is a suite of tools that makes artificial intelligence accessible to everyone. It allows users to build, deploy, and manage AI solutions easily. Azure AI Foundry can be leveraged to address real-world business challenges and foster innovation. For instance, Azure AI Foundry can enhance predictive maintenance in manufacturing by analyzing sensor data to foresee equipment failures to minimize downtime and costs. In retail, it can perform customer sentiment analysis across social media, reviews, and surveys, offering insights into customer satisfaction and areas for improvement. For more ways that Azure AI Foundry can help your organization, see customer stories here: Azure AI Foundry - Generative AI Development Hub and here: Need inspirations? Real AI Apps stories by Azure customers to help you get started With Azure AI Foundry, you can explore and develop various AI models and services tailored to your goals. The platform supports scalability, enabling proof of concepts to become full production applications effortlessly. It also has support for continuous monitoring and refinement ensuring long-term success. Here's a brief overview of AI Foundry's main architectural components and their integration. Azure AI Foundry architecture - Azure AI Foundry At the top level, AI Foundry provides access to the following resources: Management Center: Used to manage AI Foundry resources like hubs, projects, connected resources, and deployments. It is a part of the Azure AI Foundry portal that streamlines governance and management activities. In the management center, you can view and manage: Projects and resources Quotas and usage metrics Govern access and permissions For more information see: Management center overview - Azure AI Foundry AI Foundry Hub: The main top-level resource in the AI Foundry portal, offering a centralized method for managing security, connectivity, and computing resources across playgrounds and projects. Once a hub is established, developers can create projects from it and access shared resources like storage accounts, key vaults, databases and others without requiring continuous assistance from an IT administrator. The hub uses the Azure Machine Learning service and this Azure Provider, Microsoft.MachineLearningServices/workspaces and the type is hub. It offers: Security features, including a managed network for projects and model endpoints. Computer resources for development, fine-tuning, open-source, and serverless model deployments. Connections to other Azure services, such as Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search. An Azure storage account for data and artifacts. AI Foundry Project: A project is part of the hub. Projects help organize work, save state across tools like prompt flow and enable collaboration. You can share files and data source connections within a project. Hubs support multiple projects and users. Projects manage billing, access, and provide data isolation, using dedicated storage containers to securely share files among project members. Once you have a project, you can connect to it from your code. You can explore models and capabilities before creating a project, but once you're ready to build, customize, test, and operationalize, a project is where you'll want to be. The Azure provider for a project is Microsoft.MachineLearningServices/workspaces, and the type is Project. The project offers: Reusable assets like datasets, models, and indexes. A container for uploading data within the hub's storage. Private data access for project members. Model deployments from the catalog and adjusted model endpoints. Connections: AI Foundry hubs and projects use connections to access resources from other services, such as an Azure Storage Account, Azure OpenAI, or other Azure AI services. Once you have setup the Azure Foundry Hub, Project and Connection, its time to start exploring and deploying the models. Model Catalog: Available in Azure AI Foundry portal to discover and use a wide range of models for building generative AI applications. The model catalog features hundreds of models across model providers such as Azure OpenAI Service, Meta, NVIDIA, Hugging Face, DeepSeek, and of course the models trained by Microsoft like Phi. Azure AI Model Catalog – Foundation Models You can search and discover models that meet your needs. The model catalog also offers the model performance benchmark metrics which can be accessed by using Compare Models feature or from the model card Benchmark tab. Models need to be deployed to make them available for receiving inference requests. Azure AI Foundry offers a comprehensive suite of deployment options for those models depending on your needs and model requirements. Prompt Flow: This feature can be used to generate, customize, or run a flow. A flow is an executable instruction set that can implement the AI logic. Flows can be created or run via multiple tools, like a prebuilt canvas, LangChain, etc. Iterations of a flow can be saved as assets; once deployed a flow becomes an API. Prompt flow in Azure AI Foundry portal - Azure AI Foundry A prompt is sent to a model, consisting of the user input, system message, and any examples. User input is text submitted in the chat window. System message is a set of instructions to the model scoping its behaviors and functionality. Evaluators: Helpful tools to assess the frequency and severity of content risks or undesirable behavior in AI responses. Performing iterative, systematic evaluations with the right evaluators can help teams measure and address potential response quality, safety, or security concerns throughout the AI development lifecycle. You can explore Azure AI Foundry benchmarks to evaluate and compare models on publicly available datasets. Deploy: Remember to deploy your model setup. Deployments are hosted within an endpoint and can receive data from clients and send responses back in real-time. You can invoke the endpoint for real-time inference for chat, copilot or another generative AI application. AI Foundry has all the needed capabilities including content filters, Responsible AI factors and Security. More about these aspects in my next article. Playgrounds: Be sure to test your model using the Playgrounds on Azure AI Foundry. The portal offers a chat playground for deploying and interacting with AI chat models, allowing you to refine them before production deployment. Hear and speak with chat models in the Azure AI Foundry portal chat playground - Azure AI Foundry Now that you have the foundational knowledge, I encourage you to begin using Azure AI Foundry by following the resources and guidelines provided. Ready to get started with Azure AI Foundry? Here are some tutorials to guide you: Use the chat playground in Azure AI Foundry portal Tutorial: Deploy an enterprise chat web app in the Azure AI Foundry portal playground Explore, learn, and transform your ideas into reality with Azure AI Foundry. Stay tuned for more! Happy Learning!
Flexible billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Pricing updates for annual subscriptions & Teams Phone
Flexible billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Pricing updates for annual subscriptions & Teams Phone Today, we are announcing several commercial licensing and pricing updates. These updates include introducing a new monthly billing plan for Microsoft 365 Copilot annual term subscriptions, standardizing the billing structure for all monthly billed products on annual term subscriptions, and updating the pricing for Microsoft Teams Phone. Introducing monthly billing for Microsoft 365 Copilot annual term subscriptions In response to customer and partner feedback for more flexible payment options for Microsoft 365 Copilot, we are pleased to introduce a monthly billing option for annual term subscriptions of Copilot. Starting on December 1, 2024, customers who purchase annual term subscriptions of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service will have the option to pay on a monthly basis instead of making an upfront annual payment. The monthly billing option for annual term subscriptions of Copilot will be priced 5%* higher than the annual billing option and will be available across Buy Online, CSP, and MCA-E. Please note that the annual billing price for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot for Sales, and Copilot for Service annual subscriptions remains unchanged. Standardizing the monthly billing price for all annual term subscriptions To continue providing customers with cash flow flexibility while maintaining the value and benefits of our services, we will standardize the monthly billing price for all new and renewing annual term subscriptions starting on April 1, 2025. Examples of in-scope products are captured in the FAQ section below. This standardization will introduce a 5%* price update to the monthly billing plans for annual subscriptions across Buy Online, CSP, and MCA-E. By standardizing the billing structure, we ensure consistency and transparency across all platforms. Customers who want to keep their existing pricing may choose to switch from monthly billing to annual billing with upfront payment for their annual term subscription at their renewal date. Updating the annual billing price for Microsoft Teams Phone Teams Phone has been redefining communication for organizations of all sizes since its launch in 2017. To reflect the continuous innovations we’ve delivered, we will update its annual billing price for annual term subscriptions starting April 1, 2025. This will be the first price update for Teams Phone standalone plans since their inception. The updated pricing reflects the increased value we have delivered to enable flexible, smart, and reliable calling natively in Teams. For new and renewing commercial customers, the price of Teams Phone Standard will be $10 per user, per month ($120 per user/year)**. Pricing for Teams Phone for Frontline Workers and Teams Phone with Teams Calling Plan bundles will also be updated, see FAQ section for additional details. Currently, there are no pricing changes for customers who purchase Teams Phone through Microsoft 365 E5 or Office 365 E5 annual term subscriptions with annual billing. --- Frequently asked questions What does monthly billing for an annual term subscription entail? It means customers commit to an annual term subscription for a product, but instead of paying the entire amount upfront, billing will occur each month on the day after the coverage start date. What products are in scope for the price standardization of monthly billing for annual term subscriptions starting on April 1, 2025? Starting on April 1, 2025, the monthly billing plans for annual term subscriptions across Buy Online, CSP, and MCA-E will be standardized with a price update of 5%*. Products in scope include all annual subscriptions with monthly billing plans. To manage your billing, follow these steps or talk to your Microsoft Partner. Examples of product categories within the scope include: Microsoft 365 Office 365 Enterprise Mobility + Security Windows 365 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Services Microsoft Power Platform Other Online Services Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and not all annual term subscriptions in these categories offer a monthly billing option. Which Teams Phone products will have updated pricing? Starting on April 1, 2025, the annual billing pricing for Teams Phone annual term subscriptions will be updated to reflect the continuous innovations delivered since the launch of Teams Phone. Products in scope include: Teams Phone Standard: $10 per user, per month ($120 per user/year)** Teams Phone Standard for Frontline Workers: $5 per user, per month ($60 per user/year)** Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling (for users in UK/CAN): $12 per user, per month ($144 per user/year)** Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling (for users in US & all other service markets): $13 per user, per month ($156 per user/year)** Teams Phone with Calling Plan (for customers in US/UK/CAN): $17 per user, per month ($204 per user/year)** Teams Phone with Calling Plan (for customers outside US/UK/CAN): $22 per user, per month ($264 per user/year)** Teams Phone with domestic and international calling: $34 per user, per month ($408 per user/year)** The monthly billing plans for these annual term subscriptions will include a 5%* price update on top of the new annual pricing. This change ensures consistency and transparency across all platforms. What will happen with existing or new customers of Teams Phone standalones after April 1, 2025? Commercial customers with existing licenses will continue to have their current pricing until their next renewal. New commercial customers purchasing Teams Phone licenses after April 1, 2025, will get the updated pricing. Will the price standardization across monthly billing plans for annual term subscriptions also impact Teams Phone customers? Yes, the price standardization will also apply to Teams Phone's monthly billing price for annual term subscriptions. Starting on April 1, 2025, the monthly billing plans for the annual term of Teams Phone will include a 5%* price update on top of the new annual pricing. This change ensures consistency and transparency across all platforms. Where can Microsoft Partners get more information? For partner guidance, please refer to the Partner FAQ. ---- * There may be slight variations in price due to exchange rate fluctuations, local pricing policies, and rounding rules. ** This pricing reflects the pricing for annual billing plan for annual subscriptions. The monthly billing plan for annual subscription will be priced 5% higher. There may be slight variations in price due to exchange rate fluctuations, local pricing policies and rounding rules.
New Unified Contacts in Microsoft Teams and Outlook, now generally available
We are excited to announce the general availability of the new unified contacts experience in Teams and Outlook. Now you can seamlessly access and manage the same set of contacts across Microsoft Teams and Outlook for an integrated and efficient collaboration experience.NOW ON DEMAND | Microsoft Loop Learning Series [Six webinars]
Are you ready to learn more about Microsoft Loop? We have five upcoming Loop events for you – numerous opportunities to see Microsoft Loop in action, to learn about upcoming roadmap items and Copilot/AI innovations, ask questions, get time-saving tips and tricks, and provide direct feedback to the Loop product team.
