Microsoft Foundry in Action: A practical guide to building, monitoring, and governing AI applications using Microsoft's unified AI development platform

Build, deploy, and monitor AI applications using Microsoft Foundry's unified portal, combining models, workflows, agents, and responsible AI practices into a single development experience.

Key Features

• Build, evaluate, and deploy AI solutions using Microsoft Foundry’s unified portal
• Implement guardrails, evaluations, and monitoring for production-ready AI systems
• Includes real-world use cases integrating Azure OpenAI and Databricks
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

Unlock the full potential of AI with Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft’s unified platform for building, orchestrating, and operating AI solutions at scale. This hands-on guide walks you through the full AI application lifecycle, from data preparation and model selection to deployment, monitoring, and continuous evaluation.

Written by Eduardo Sojo, a former Microsoft consultant and current solutions architect at Databricks with over two decades of experience, the book focuses on practical implementation using the latest Microsoft Foundry portal. You’ll learn to design intelligent workflows, build agents, and apply guardrails to ensure safe, reliable AI behavior in real-world scenarios.

Rather than focusing only on models, the book shows how to connect workflows, agents, evaluations, and observability so solutions are not just functional, but production-ready. You’ll explore real-world use cases such as building copilots, integrating external systems like Databricks, and creating multi-agent architectures that work with enterprise data. By the end, you’ll be able to design, build, and operate secure, scalable, intelligent AI solutions using Microsoft Foundry.

What you will learn

• Select and deploy models for vision, language, and custom AI scenarios
• Use Prompt Flow to design and refine complex AI interactions
• Evaluate models using standard performance metrics
• Build assistants, copilots, and image-processing solutions with Azure OpenAI
• Design, deploy, and orchestrate multi-agent systems using Microsoft Foundry Agent Service
• Utilize Microsoft Foundry Observability for real-time monitoring and evaluation
• Apply Microsoft's Responsible AI principles to real applications

Who this book is for

This book is for developers, data professionals, and AI practitioners who want to build and deploy intelligent applications using Microsoft Foundry. Whether you're transitioning from Azure AI Studio or starting fresh, this guide will help you understand how to design real-world AI systems using modern tools and best practices. Basic knowledge of programming and data concepts will help you get the most out of this book.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Microsoft Foundry
2. Delving Deeper into Microsoft Foundry's Features
3. Working with Data
4. Choosing the Right Model
5. Working with Workflows
6. Deploying AI Solutions
7. Evaluating and Monitoring AI Applications
8. Implementing Responsible AI Principles
9. Ensuring Content Safety and Compliance
10. Building Assistants and Copilots
11. Creating Custom Copilots with Microsoft Fabric
12. Building an Agent that Uses Databricks Genie via MCP