AI on Azure

This AI guidance provides a structured approach for integrating AI into your organization using Azure. The guidance is relevant for organizations of any size and industry. It covers both generative and nongenerative AI adoption guidance. It is your roadmap for AI adoption and a central hub to find the resources you need.

Figure 1. How to use the AI adoption guidance for Azure.

Why adopt AI?

AI adoption is foundational to optimizing operations for individuals and organizations. Effective AI adoption uses governance, security, and management best practices to build trustworthy AI workloads. It enhances individual efficiency by automating routine tasks and providing creative insights. AI automates business processes, ranging from adaptive user experiences to business forecasting. These use cases allow businesses and employees to focus on customers and work that matters most. You have options to adopt AI the way that best helps your organization. Microsoft has AI services for different skill set, budgets, and data needs. You can decide what works best based on your goals. This guidance helps you navigate these decisions.

How to adopt AI

AI adoption is a sequential process. This guidance divides AI adoption into six steps. If you're new to AI adoption, complete all six steps. As you define new AI use cases for your organization, revisit the AI Strategy, AI Plan, and AI Ready. Govern AI, Manage AI, and Secure AI are continuous processes. You need to iterate through these processes to ensure your AI workloads remain secure, cost-effective, and trustworthy.

• AI Strategy: Guidance on how to choose the right AI technology for your business and ground AI adoption in responsible AI principles.
• AI Plan: Guidance to assess and find the AI skills needed and how to prioritize use cases to bring to production.
• AI Ready: Guidance to establish a governed and secure Azure environment for your AI workloads and data.
• Govern AI: The process to control your AI workloads and models by establishing guardrails to ensure compliance and responsible AI use.
• Manage AI: The process to manage your AI deployments, operations, models, and data over time to ensure they remain aligned with your business goals.
• Secure AI: The process to assess AI security risks and apply security controls to protect your AI workloads.

AI adoption checklists

Use the AI adoption checklists as your roadmap for being successful with AI. There are two checklists available: one for startups and one for enterprises. The enterprise checklist provides the most comprehensive guidance. It helps you prepare your organization to adopt AI at scale. For a quicker path to AI adoption, use the startup checklist. As your organization grows, consult the enterprise checklist to support your expanding AI needs.

AI adoption phase	Startup checklist	Enterprise checklist
AI Strategy	☐ Define an AI technology strategy	☐ Identify AI use cases ☐ Define an AI technology strategy ☐ Define an AI data strategy ☐ Define a responsible AI strategy
AI Plan	☐ Access AI resources ☐ Implement responsible AI	☐ Assess AI skills ☐ Acquire AI skills ☐ Access AI resources ☐ Prioritize AI use cases ☐ Create an AI proof of concept ☐ Implement responsible AI ☐ Estimate delivery timelines
AI Ready	☐ Build an AI environment ☐ Choose an architecture ☐ Use AI design areas	☐ Establish AI reliability ☐ Establish AI governance ☐ Establish AI networking ☐ Establish an AI foundation ☐ Choose an architecture ☐ Use AI design areas
Govern AI	☐ Enforce AI governance policies	☐ Assess AI organizational risks ☐ Document AI governance policies ☐ Enforce AI policies ☐ Monitor AI organizational risks
Manage AI	☐ Manage AI models ☐ Manage AI costs	☐ Manage AI operations ☐ Manage AI deployment ☐ Manage AI endpoint sharing ☐ Manage AI models ☐ Manage AI costs ☐ Manage AI data ☐ Manage AI business continuity
Secure AI	☐ Implement AI security controls	☐ Assess AI security risks ☐ Implement AI security controls ☐ Maintain AI security controls

Next step

AI Strategy