University of Chicago accelerates secure generative AI adoption with Royal Cyber, powered by Microsoft Azure
The University of Chicago (UChicago) is one of the nation’s most prestigious research institutions, serving more than 35,000 students, faculty, and staff. As interest in generative AI surged across campus, the university faced a challenge familiar to many: third-party tools were being used without institutional oversight, creating security, privacy, and governance risks.
To address this, the university partnered with Royal Cyber—recognized for secure, enterprise-grade AI platforms for higher education. Working closely with Microsoft and UChicago’s IT Services team, Royal Cyber helped design and deploy PhoenixAI—a secure, scalable generative AI assistant powered entirely by Azure.
Advancing progress without slowing momentum
Faculty and students wanted access to generative AI. But without a centralized solution, the university risked both fragmented adoption and shadow IT usage. Unapproved tools lacked basic data protection and compliance controls, which put institutional data at risk.
Royal Cyber worked with the university to co-develop a framework that met security and governance standards while preserving flexibility for academic exploration. The goal: deliver an institutionally managed AI solution built on trusted Azure infrastructure, deployable before the semester’s start, customizable by department or course, and capable of serving tens of thousands of users without adding operational overhead.
PhoenixAI was built entirely on Azure using a modular, container-based architecture designed for performance, observability, and scalability. The system architecture was deployed fully within UChicago’s Azure tenant, ensuring that the university retained ownership of its data, infrastructure, and access policies.
PhoenixAI integrates a wide array of Azure technologies to deliver secure, scalable performance, including:
Azure OpenAI Service: Powers the generative assistant with GPT-4.1, GPT-5, and GPT-o3 models.Azure AI Foundry: Supports modular agent orchestration and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) using Azure Agents API.Azure Cosmos DB: Stores chat history, logs, and structured and unstructured user session data.Azure App Service and Azure Container Apps: Provide scalable, secure deployment of frontend and backend services.Azure Functions App: Automates event processing and tracks token usage in real time.Azure API Management: Creates secure access gateways for researchers, faculty, and custom agents.Azure Monitor and Log Analytics: Deliver real-time diagnostics, usage metrics, and system insights.Microsoft identity platform: Integrates with UChicago’s single sign-on (SSO) and role-based access controls to ensure secure authentication and fine-grained permissions.
Additional Azure tools, including Azure Key Vault and Azure Application Gateway, manage certificate security, traffic routing, and endpoint access.
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