Scott Nichols: Azure AI Foundry - Episode 338

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Feb 24, 2025

Scott Nichols, a Principal Cloud Solutions Architect at Microsoft, discusses the transformative impact of generative AI on project workloads, both externally and internally. He emphasizes the importance of bridging the coding gap with AI tools and describes how companies are leveraging AI to analyze telemetry data for new products. Scott shares insights about the Azure AI Foundry, a developer-friendly portal with access to over 1800 models. He also highlights the value of on-prem tools for AI experimentation, alongside the rapid pace of innovation in the tech landscape.

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INSIGHT

Microsoft's Generative AI Strategy

Microsoft is aiming to dominate the generative AI space across all divisions, integrating AI into Office 365 and Azure.
Generative AI is used to reduce costs, gain efficiency, and create strategic IP for competitive advantage.

INSIGHT

Generative AI in Development

About 80% of new development projects involve generative AI, addressing both customer-facing and internal processes.
AI is used for analyzing telemetry and creating new products in fields like networking and security.

ADVICE

Using Azure AI Foundry

Use Azure AI Foundry to visually create generative AI workflows connecting multiple models and APIs.
Developers can build AI pipelines without being data scientists by playing with models and prompt programming.

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Scott Nichols is a Principal Cloud Solutions Architect at Microsoft. He works for the commercial enterprise division serving the high-tech division out of Silicon Valley. He is also the leader of the .NET and the Azure user groups in Boise, Idaho. He started his career in the IT profession in 1993 as a mainframe and web developer. Since then, he has served as a Lead Software Engineer/Solution Architect, a Software Development Engineering Manager, a Sr. Cloud Software Solution Architect, and a Sr. Enterprise Solution Architect. When not at the keyboard, he loves the outdoors hunting, camping, fishing, archery, and working in the yard.

Topics of Discussion:

[4:03] Generative AI’s turning point.

[5:52] Bridging the AI coding gap.

[6:39] Scott explains the shift in project workloads to generative AI-based projects, both customer-facing and internal.

[7:25] Networking companies using AI to analyze telemetry data and create new products.

[8:49] Azure AI Foundry is a web portal that allows developers to spin up Azure Compute and access over 1800 models.

[13:00] Although a “Cloud Guy,” Scott values his on-prem hardware as a playground for learning and experimenting with AI tools.

[15:04] The benefits of using open source or on-prem tools to start working with AI without incurring cloud costs right away.

[15:40] The rapid pace of innovation.

[20:41] An example of Khan Academy using AI to create an online tutor, requiring significant prompt engineering to ensure accurate responses.

[27:12] AI agents monitoring AI agents.

[27:59] AI’s limitations and opportunities.

[31:56] Testing strategies for AI-Integrated systems.

[35:37] The future of AI and how it’s a great time to be in AI.

[39:35] Great advice for the next generation of developers and software engineers.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Clear Measure Way

Architect Forum

Software Engineer Forum

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net.

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo

The Five Pillars: Leadership For Effective Custom Software, by Jeffrey Palermo

Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Ep 116 with Scott Nichols

Scott Nichols LinkedIn

Scott Nichols Twitter

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