Empowering AI with Data Grounding and Custom Model Training: Microsoft Foundry’s Approach

AI can transform businesses, but simply deploying powerful models isn’t enough. To create real value, organizations need to connect AI with their own data, customize it for their unique challenges, and orchestrate intelligent workflows that drive tangible results.

Why Foundation Models Need More

While foundation models offer general intelligence and flexibility, they lack direct understanding of your business context. Relying on them alone risks generic, inaccurate, or even misleading responses. The real breakthrough comes when you integrate proprietary enterprise data and machine learning, which unlocks greater accuracy, efficiency, and business value.

Microsoft Foundry bridges this gap by combining a vast library of foundational and industry-tuned models with enterprise knowledge, custom model training, and advanced orchestration. This comprehensive approach has helped organizations achieve faster results and impressive productivity gains, often saving hundreds of hours and reducing operational costs by up to 30%.

Level 1: Grounding AI with Enterprise Data

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is the essential first step for trustworthy AI. By grounding models with internal policies, documents, and datasets, organizations ensure responses are accurate and relevant. Foundry IQ, powered by Azure AI Search, enables secure indexing and grounding of business knowledge, making outputs more reliable and actionable.

• Accenture improved global knowledge sharing with a secure RAG framework, maintaining data governance across teams.
  
  
• Assembly Software streamlined legal case management, saving hours per case with instant data retrieval.
  
  
• Other applications include policy conflict resolution in manufacturing and multimodal knowledge retrieval in engineering.

Level 2: Custom Training for Specialized Intelligence

Generic AI models don’t always meet specific business needs. Custom training and fine-tuning with tools like Azure Machine Learning allow organizations to create models tailored for their domains, maximizing both performance and cost-effectiveness with minimal coding.

• Cognizant automated software delivery, reducing project cycle times and improving quality.
  
  
• ServiceTitan enhanced workforce planning by forecasting government service demand.
  
  
• YoungWilliams accelerated public assistance workflows, improving case outcomes for families.
  
  
• Other examples include unifying distributor data and streamlining healthcare claims processing.

Industry analysts like Gartner predict that by 2027, half of all data analysts will become AI engineers,and organizations will increasingly deploy task-specific models that often outperform general-purpose AI.

Level 3: Agentic Orchestration for Real Business Impact

AI delivers the most value when integrated into complex, multi-step business workflows. Agentic orchestration weaves together model reasoning, data access, and business logic, powering seamless automation and insights across enterprise systems. Foundry Agent Service enables this orchestration at scale.

• KPMG International built custom agents for rapid regulatory and tax analysis, empowering professionals worldwide.
  
  
• NTT DATA used Microsoft Fabric and Agent Service to cut time-to-market by over 50% with orchestrated, cross-domain agents.
  
  
• Applications include automating invoicing, unified data search, and mapping product nomenclature over decades.

Level 4: Elevating Customer and Employee Experience

AI agents are transforming both customer and employee interactions. By integrating with business systems and communication platforms, organizations deliver timely, context-aware support and recommendations.

• Fujitsu enabled instant multilingual customer support with AI copilots across regions.
  
  
• Audi deployed an intelligent assistant grounded in company data, enhancing both internal and external interactions.
  
  
• Other organizations automate customer email responses and enhance case handling for support teams.

Guidance for AI Development Teams

• Leverage open, flexible frameworks like Foundry Agent Service for orchestration.
  
  
• Choose and benchmark the right model for your use case from thousands, including OpenAI and Anthropic models.
  
  
• Ground AI agents securely with your business data, wherever it resides.
  
  
• Automate workflows across over 1,400 business systems using pre-built connectors.
  
  
• Customize, upgrade, and govern models easily with Azure Machine Learning and Foundry Control Plane.

Takeaway

The real power of AI emerges when models are grounded in enterprise knowledge, tailored for business needs, and orchestrated across workflows. Microsoft Foundry’s layered approach empowers organizations to unlock secure, scalable, and rapid AI-driven business outcomes.

Source: Microsoft Foundry Blog; Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms