Create your own QA RAG Chatbot with LangChain.js + Azure OpenAI Service
Demo: Mpesa for Business Setup QA RAG Application In this tutorial we are going to build a Question-Answering RAG Chat Web App. We utilize Node.js and HTML, CSS, JS. We also incorporate Langchain.js + Azure OpenAI + MongoDB Vector Store (MongoDB Search Index). Get a quick look below. Note: Documents and illustrations shared here are for demo purposes only and Microsoft or its products are not part of Mpesa. The content demonstrated here should be used for educational purposes only. Additionally, all views shared here are solely mine. What you will need: An active Azure subscription, get Azure for Student for free or get started with Azure for 12 months free. VS Code Basic knowledge in JavaScript (not a must) Access to Azure OpenAI, click here if you don't have access. Create a MongoDB account (You can also use Azure Cosmos DB vector store) Setting Up the Project In order to build this project, you will have to fork this repository and clone it. GitHub Repository link: https://github.com/tiprock-network/azure-qa-rag-mpesa . Follow the steps highlighted in the README.md to setup the project under Setting Up the Node.js Application. Create Resources that you Need In order to do this, you will need to have Azure CLI or Azure Developer CLI installed in your computer. Go ahead and follow the steps indicated in the README.md to create Azure resources under Azure Resources Set Up with Azure CLI. You might want to use Azure CLI to login in differently use a code. Here's how you can do this. Instead of using az login. You can do az login --use-code-device OR you would prefer using Azure Developer CLI and execute this command instead azd auth login --use-device-code Remember to update the .env file with the values you have used to name Azure OpenAI instance, Azure models and even the API Keys you have obtained while creating your resources. Setting Up MongoDB After accessing you MongoDB account get the URI link to your database and add it to the .env file along with your database name and vector store collection name you specified while creating your indexes for a vector search. Running the Project In order to run this Node.js project you will need to start the project using the following command. npm run dev The Vector Store The vector store used in this project is MongoDB store where the word embeddings were stored in MongoDB. From the embeddings model instance we created on Azure AI Foundry we are able to create embeddings that can be stored in a vector store. The following code below shows our embeddings model instance. //create new embedding model instance const azOpenEmbedding = new AzureOpenAIEmbeddings({ azureADTokenProvider, azureOpenAIApiInstanceName: process.env.AZURE_OPENAI_API_INSTANCE_NAME, azureOpenAIApiEmbeddingsDeploymentName: process.env.AZURE_OPENAI_API_DEPLOYMENT_EMBEDDING_NAME, azureOpenAIApiVersion: process.env.AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION, azureOpenAIBasePath: "https://eastus2.api.cognitive.microsoft.com/openai/deployments" }); The code in uploadDoc.js offers a simple way to do embeddings and store them to MongoDB. In this approach the text from the documents is loaded using the PDFLoader from Langchain community. The following code demonstrates how the embeddings are stored in the vector store. // Call the function and handle the result with await const storeToCosmosVectorStore = async () => { try { const documents = await returnSplittedContent() //create store instance const store = await MongoDBAtlasVectorSearch.fromDocuments( documents, azOpenEmbedding, { collection: vectorCollection, indexName: "myrag_index", textKey: "text", embeddingKey: "embedding", } ) if(!store){ console.log('Something wrong happened while creating store or getting store!') return false } console.log('Done creating/getting and uploading to store.') return true } catch (e) { console.log(`This error occurred: ${e}`) return false } } In this setup, Question Answering (QA) is achieved by integrating Azure OpenAI’s GPT-4o with MongoDB Vector Search through LangChain.js. The system processes user queries via an LLM (Large Language Model), which retrieves relevant information from a vectorized database, ensuring contextual and accurate responses. Azure OpenAI Embeddings convert text into dense vector representations, enabling semantic search within MongoDB. The LangChain RunnableSequence structures the retrieval and response generation workflow, while the StringOutputParser ensures proper text formatting. The most relevant code snippets to include are: AzureChatOpenAI instantiation, MongoDB connection setup, and the API endpoint handling QA queries using vector search and embeddings. There are some code snippets below to explain major parts of the code. Azure AI Chat Completion Model This is the model used in this implementation of RAG, where we use it as the model for chat completion. Below is a code snippet for it. const llm = new AzureChatOpenAI({ azTokenProvider, azureOpenAIApiInstanceName: process.env.AZURE_OPENAI_API_INSTANCE_NAME, azureOpenAIApiDeploymentName: process.env.AZURE_OPENAI_API_DEPLOYMENT_NAME, azureOpenAIApiVersion: process.env.AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION }) Using a Runnable Sequence to give out Chat Output This shows how a runnable sequence can be used to give out a response given the particular output format/ output parser added on to the chain. //Stream response app.post(`${process.env.BASE_URL}/az-openai/runnable-sequence/stream/chat`, async (req,res) => { //check for human message const { chatMsg } = req.body if(!chatMsg) return res.status(201).json({ message:'Hey, you didn\'t send anything.' }) //put the code in an error-handler try{ //create a prompt template format template const prompt = ChatPromptTemplate.fromMessages( [ ["system", `You are a French-to-English translator that detects if a message isn't in French. If it's not, you respond, "This is not French." Otherwise, you translate it to English.`], ["human", `${chatMsg}`] ] ) //runnable chain const chain = RunnableSequence.from([prompt, llm, outPutParser]) //chain result let result_stream = await chain.stream() //set response headers res.setHeader('Content-Type','application/json') res.setHeader('Transfer-Encoding','chunked') //create readable stream const readable = Readable.from(result_stream) res.status(201).write(`{"message": "Successful translation.", "response": "`); readable.on('data', (chunk) => { // Convert chunk to string and write it res.write(`${chunk}`); }); readable.on('end', () => { // Close the JSON response properly res.write('" }'); res.end(); }); readable.on('error', (err) => { console.error("Stream error:", err); res.status(500).json({ message: "Translation failed.", error: err.message }); }); }catch(e){ //deliver a 500 error response return res.status(500).json( { message:'Failed to send request.', error:e } ) } }) To run the front end of the code, go to your BASE_URL with the port given. This enables you to run the chatbot above and achieve similar results. The chatbot is basically HTML+CSS+JS. Where JavaScript is mainly used with fetch API to get a response. Thanks for reading. I hope you play around with the code and learn some new things. Additional Reads Introduction to LangChain.js Create an FAQ Bot on Azure Build a basic chat app in Python using Azure AI Foundry SDKDeploy Open Web UI on Azure VM via Docker: A Step-by-Step Guide with Custom Domain Setup.
Introductions Open Web UI (often referred to as "Ollama Web UI" in the context of LLM frameworks like Ollama) is an open-source, self-hostable interface designed to simplify interactions with large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, Llama 3, Mistral, and others. It provides a user-friendly, browser-based environment for deploying, managing, and experimenting with AI models, making advanced language model capabilities accessible to developers, researchers, and enthusiasts without requiring deep technical expertise. This article will delve into the step-by-step configurations on hosting OpenWeb UI on Azure. Requirements: Azure Portal Account - For students you can claim $USD100 Azure Cloud credits from this URL. Azure Virtual Machine - with a Linux of any distributions installed. Domain Name and Domain Host Caddy Open WebUI Image Step One: Deploy a Linux – Ubuntu VM from Azure Portal Search and Click on “Virtual Machine” on the Azure portal search bar and create a new VM by clicking on the “+ Create” button > “Azure Virtual Machine”. Fill out the form and select any Linux Distribution image – In this demo, we will deploy Open WebUI on Ubuntu Pro 24.04. Click “Review + Create” > “Create” to create the Virtual Machine. Tips: If you plan to locally download and host open source AI models via Open on your VM, you could save time by increasing the size of the OS disk / attach a large disk to the VM. You may also need a higher performance VM specification since large resources are needed to run the Large Language Model (LLM) locally. Once the VM has been successfully created, click on the “Go to resource” button. You will be redirected to the VM’s overview page. Jot down the public IP Address and access the VM using the ssh credentials you have setup just now. Step Two: Deploy the Open WebUI on the VM via Docker Once you are logged into the VM via SSH, run the Docker Command below: docker run -d --name open-webui --network=host --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -e PORT=8080 -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:dev This Docker command will download the Open WebUI Image into the VM and will listen for Open Web UI traffic on port 8080. Wait for a few minutes and the Web UI should be up and running. If you had setup an inbound Network Security Group on Azure to allow port 8080 on your VM from the public Internet, you can access them by typing into the browser: [PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS]:8080 Step Three: Setup custom domain using Caddy Now, we can setup a reverse proxy to map a custom domain to [PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS]:8080 using Caddy. The reason why Caddy is useful here is because they provide automated HTTPS solutions – you don’t have to worry about expiring SSL certificate anymore, and it’s free! You must download all Caddy’s dependencies and set up the requirements to install it using this command: sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list sudo apt update && sudo apt install caddy Once Caddy is installed, edit Caddy’s configuration file at: /etc/caddy/Caddyfile , delete everything else in the file and add the following lines: yourdomainname.com { reverse_proxy localhost:8080 } Restart Caddy using this command: sudo systemctl restart caddy Next, create an A record on your DNS Host and point them to the public IP of the server. Step Four: Update the Network Security Group (NSG) To allow public access into the VM via HTTPS, you need to ensure the NSG/Firewall of the VM allow for port 80 and 443. Let’s add these rules into Azure by heading to the VM resources page you created for Open WebUI. Under the “Networking” Section > “Network Settings” > “+ Create port rule” > “Inbound port rule” On the “Destination port ranges” field, type in 443 and Click “Add”. Repeat these steps with port 80. Additionally, to enhance security, you should avoid external users from directly interacting with Open Web UI’s port - port 8080. You should add an inbound deny rule to that port. With that, you should be able to access the Open Web UI from the domain name you setup earlier. Conclusion And just like that, you’ve turned a blank Azure VM into a sleek, secure home for your Open Web UI, no magic required! By combining Docker’s simplicity with Caddy’s “set it and forget it” HTTPS magic, you’ve not only made your app accessible via a custom domain but also locked down security by closing off risky ports and keeping traffic encrypted. Azure’s cloud muscle handles the heavy lifting, while you get to enjoy the perks of a pro setup without the headache. If you are interested in using AI models deployed on Azure AI Foundry on OpenWeb UI via API, kindly read my other article: Step-by-step: Integrate Ollama Web UI to use Azure Open AI API with LiteLLM ProxyThe brand new Azure AI Agent Service at your fingertips
Intro Azure AI Agent Service is a game-changer for developers. This fully managed service empowers you to build, deploy, and scale high-quality, extensible AI agents securely, without the hassle of managing underlying infrastructure. What used to take hundreds of lines of code can now be achieved in just a few lines! So here it is, a web application that streamlines document uploads, summarizes content using AI, and provides seamless access to stored summaries. This article delves into the architecture and implementation of this solution, drawing inspiration from our previous explorations with Azure AI Foundry and secure AI integrations. Architecture Overview Our Azure AI Agent Service WebApp integrates several Azure services to create a cohesive and scalable system: Azure AI Projects & Azure AI Agent Service: Powers the AI-driven summarization and title generation of uploaded documents. Azure Blob Storage: Stores the original and processed documents securely. Azure Cosmos DB: Maintains metadata and summaries for quick retrieval and display. Azure API Management (APIM): Manages and secures API endpoints, ensuring controlled access to backend services. This architecture ensures a seamless flow from document upload to AI processing and storage, providing users with immediate access to summarized content. Azure AI Agent Service – Frontend Implementation The frontend of the Azure AI Agent Service WebApp is built using Vite and React, offering a responsive and user-friendly interface. Key features include: Real-time AI Chat Interface: Users can interact with an AI agent for various queries. Document Upload Functionality: Supports uploading documents in various formats, which are then processed by the backend AI services. Document Repository: Displays a list of uploaded documents with their summaries and download links. This is the main UI , ChatApp.jsx. We can interact with Chat Agent for regular chat, while the keyword “upload:” activates the hidden upload menu. Azure AI Agent Service – Backend Services The backend is developed using Express.js, orchestrating various services to handle: File Uploads: Accepts documents from the frontend and stores them in Azure Blob Storage. AI Processing: Utilizes Azure AI Projects to extract text, generate summaries, and create concise titles. Metadata Storage: Saves document metadata and summaries in Azure Cosmos DB for efficient retrieval. One of the Challenges was to not recreate the Agents each time our backend reloads. So a careful plan is configured, with several files – modules for the Azure AI Agent Service interaction and Agents creation. The initialization for example is taken care by a single file-module: const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require('@azure/identity'); const { SecretClient } = require('@azure/keyvault-secrets'); const { AIProjectsClient, ToolUtility } = require('@azure/ai-projects'); require('dotenv').config(); // Keep track of global instances let aiProjectsClient = null; let agents = { chatAgent: null, extractAgent: null, summarizeAgent: null, titleAgent: null }; async function initializeAI(app) { try { // Setup Azure Key Vault const keyVaultName = process.env.KEYVAULT_NAME; const keyVaultUrl = `https://${keyVaultName}.vault.azure.net`; const credential = new DefaultAzureCredential(); const secretClient = new SecretClient(keyVaultUrl, credential); // Get AI connection string const secret = await secretClient.getSecret('AIConnectionString'); const AI_CONNECTION_STRING = secret.value; // Initialize AI Projects Client aiProjectsClient = AIProjectsClient.fromConnectionString( AI_CONNECTION_STRING, credential ); // Create code interpreter tool (shared among agents) const codeInterpreterTool = ToolUtility.createCodeInterpreterTool(); const tools = [codeInterpreterTool.definition]; const toolResources = codeInterpreterTool.resources; console.log('🚀 Creating AI Agents...'); // Create chat agent agents.chatAgent = await aiProjectsClient.agents.createAgent("gpt-4o-mini", { name: "chat-agent", instructions: "You are a helpful AI assistant that provides clear and concise responses.", tools, toolResources }); console.log('✅ Chat Agent created'); // Create extraction agent agents.extractAgent = await aiProjectsClient.agents.createAgent("gpt-4o-mini", { name: "extract-agent", instructions: "Process and clean text content while maintaining structure and important information.", tools, toolResources }); console.log('✅ Extract Agent created'); // Create summarization agent agents.summarizeAgent = await aiProjectsClient.agents.createAgent("gpt-4o-mini", { name: "summarize-agent", instructions: "Create concise summaries that capture main points and key details.", tools, toolResources }); console.log('✅ Summarize Agent created'); // Create title agent agents.titleAgent = await aiProjectsClient.agents.createAgent("gpt-4o-mini", { name: "title-agent", instructions: `You are a specialized title generation assistant. Your task is to create titles for documents following these rules: 1. Generate ONLY the title text, no additional explanations 2. Maximum length of 50 characters 3. Focus on the main topic or theme 4. Use proper capitalization (Title Case) 5. Avoid special characters and quotes 6. Make titles clear and descriptive 7. Respond with nothing but the title itself Example good responses: Digital Transformation Strategy 2025 Market Analysis: Premium Chai Tea Cloud Computing Implementation Guide Example bad responses: "Here's a title for your document: Digital Strategy" (no explanations needed) This document appears to be about digital transformation (just the title needed) The title is: Market Analysis (no extra text)`, tools, toolResources }); console.log('✅ Title Agent created'); // Store in app.locals app.locals.aiProjectsClient = aiProjectsClient; app.locals.agents = agents; console.log('✅ All AI Agents initialized successfully'); return { aiProjectsClient, agents }; } catch (error) { console.error('❌ Error initializing AI:', error); throw error; } } // Export both the initialization function and the shared instances module.exports = { initializeAI, getClient: () => aiProjectsClient, getAgents: () => agents }; Our backend utilizes 4 agents, creating the Azure AI Agent Service Agents and we will find them in the portal, when the Backend deploys At the same time, each interaction is stored and managed as thread and that’s how we are interacting with the Azure AI Agent Service. Deployment and Security of Azure AI Agent Service WebApp Ensuring secure and efficient deployment is crucial. We’ve employed: Azure API Management (APIM): Secures API endpoints, providing controlled access and monitoring capabilities. Azure Key Vault: Manages sensitive information such as API keys and connection strings, ensuring data protection. Every call to the backend service is protected with Azure API Management Basic Tier. We have only the required endpoints pointing to the matching Endpoints of our Azure AI Agent Service WebApp backend. Also we are storing the AIConnectionString variable in Key Vault and we can move all Variables in Key Vault as well, which i recommend ! Get started with Azure AI Agent Service To get started with Azure AI Agent Service, you need to create an Azure AI Foundry hub and an Agent project in your Azure subscription. Start with the quickstart guide if it’s your first time using the service. You can create a AI hub and project with the required resources. After you create a project, you can deploy a compatible model such as GPT-4o. When you have a deployed model, you can also start making API calls to the service using the SDKs. There are already 2 Quick-starts available to get your Azure AI Agent Service up and running, the Basic and the Standard. I have chosen the second one the Standard plan, since we have a WebApp, and the whole Architecture comes very handy ! We just added the CosmosDB interaction and the API Management to extend to an enterprise setup ! Our own Azure AI Agent Service deployment, allows us to interact with the Agents, and utilize tools and functions very easy. Conclusion By harnessing the power of Azure’s cloud services, we’ve developed a scalable and efficient web application that simplifies document management through AI-driven processing. This solution not only enhances productivity but also ensures secure and organized access to essential information. References Azure AI Agent Service Documentation What is Azure AI Agent Service Azure AI Agent Service Quick starts Azure API Management Azure AI Foundry Azure AI Foundry Inference DemoMulti Model Deployment with Azure AI Foundry Serverless, Python and Container Apps
Intro Azure AI Foundry is a comprehensive AI suite, with a vast set of serverless and managed models offerings designed to democratize AI deployment. Whether you’re running a small startup or an 500 enterprise, Azure AI Foundry provides the flexibility and scalability needed to implement and manage machine learning and AI models seamlessly. By leveraging Azure’s robust cloud infrastructure, you can focus on innovating and delivering value, while Azure takes care of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. In this demonstration, we delve into building an Azure Container Apps stack. This innovative approach allows us to deploy a Web App that facilitates interaction with three powerful models: GPT-4, Deepseek, and PHI-3. Users can select from these models for Chat Completions, gaining invaluable insights into their actual performance, token consumption, and overall efficiency through real-time metrics. This deployment not only showcases the versatility and robustness of Azure AI Foundry but also provides a practical framework for businesses to observe and measure AI effectiveness, paving the way for data-driven decision-making and optimized AI solutions. Azure AI Foundry: The evolution Azure AI Foundry represents the next evolution in Microsoft’s AI offerings, building on the success of Azure AI and Cognitive Services. This unified platform is designed to streamline the development, deployment, and management of AI solutions, providing developers and enterprises with a comprehensive suite of tools and services. With Azure AI Foundry, users gain access to a robust model catalog, collaborative GenAIOps tools, and enterprise-grade security features. The platform’s unified portal simplifies the AI development lifecycle, allowing seamless integration of various AI models and services. Azure AI Foundry offers the flexibility and scalability needed to bring your AI projects to life, with deep insights and fast adoption path for the users. The Model Catalog allows us to filter and compare models per our requirements and easily create deployments directly from the Interface. Building the Application Before describing the methodology and the process, we have to make sure our dependencies are in place. So let’s have a quick look on the prerequisites of our deployment. GitHub - passadis/ai-foundry-multimodels: Azure AI Foundry multimodel utilization and performance metrics Web App. Azure AI Foundry multimodel utilization and performance metrics Web App. - passadis/ai-foundry-multimodels github.com Prerequisites Azure Subscription Azure AI Foundry Hub with a project in East US. The models are all supported in East US. VSCode with the Azure Resources extension There is no need to show the Azure Resources deployment steps, since there are numerous ways to do it and i have also showcased that in previous posts. In fact, it is a standard set of services to support our Micro-services Infrastructure: Azure Container Registry, Azure Key Vault, Azure User Assigned Managed identity, Azure Container Apps Environment and finally our Azure AI Foundry Model deployments. Frontend – Vite + React + TS The frontend is built using Vite and React and features a dropdown menu for model selection, a text area for user input, real-time response display, as well as loading states and error handling. Key considerations in the frontend implementation include the use of modern React patterns and hooks, ensuring a responsive design for various screen sizes, providing clear feedback for user interactions, and incorporating elegant error handling. The current implementation allows us to switch models even after we have initiated a conversation and we can keep up to 5 messages as Chat History. The uniqueness of our frontend is the performance information we get for each response, with Tokens, Tokens per Second and Total Time. Backend – Python + FastAPI The backend is built with FastAPI and is responsible for model selection and configuration, integrating with Azure AI Foundry, processing requests and responses, and handling errors and validation. A directory structure as follows can help us organize our services and utilize the modular strengths of Python: backend/ ├── app/ │ ├── __init__.py │ ├── main.py │ ├── config.py │ ├── api/ │ │ ├── __init__.py │ │ └── routes.py │ ├── models/ │ │ ├── __init__.py │ │ └── request_models.py │ └── services/ │ ├── __init__.py │ └── azure_ai.py ├── run.py # For Local runs ├── Dockerfile ├── requirements.txt └── .env Azure Container Apps A powerful combination allows us to easily integrate both using Dapr, since it is natively supported and integrated in our Azure Container Apps. try { const response = await fetch('/api/v1/generate', { method: 'POST', headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', }, body: JSON.stringify({ model: selectedModel, prompt: userInput, parameters: { temperature: 0.7, max_tokens: 800 } }), }); However we need to correctly configure NGINX to proxy the request to the Dapr Sidecar since we are using Container Images. # API endpoints via Dapr location /api/v1/ { proxy_pass http://localhost:3500/v1.0/invoke/backend/method/api/v1/; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade'; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade; Azure Key Vault As always all our secret variables like the API Endpoints and the API Keys are stored in Key Vault. We create a Key Vault Client in our Backend and we call each key only the time we need it. That makes our deployment more secure and efficient. Deployment Considerations When deploying your application: Set up proper environment variables Configure CORS settings appropriately Implement monitoring and logging Set up appropriate scaling policies Azure AI Foundry: Multi Model Architecture The solution is built on Azure Container Apps for serverless scalability. The frontend and backend containers are hosted in Azure Container Registry and deployed to Container Apps with Dapr integration for service-to-service communication. Azure Key Vault manages sensitive configurations like API keys through a user-assigned Managed Identity. The backend connects to three Azure AI Foundry models (DeepSeek, GPT-4, and Phi-3), each with its own endpoint and configuration. This serverless architecture ensures high availability, secure secret management, and efficient model interaction while maintaining cost efficiency through consumption-based pricing. Conclusion This Azure AI Foundry Models Demo showcases the power of serverless AI integration in modern web applications. By leveraging Azure Container Apps, Dapr, and Azure Key Vault, we’ve created a secure, scalable, and cost-effective solution for AI model comparison and interaction. The project demonstrates how different AI models can be effectively compared and utilized, providing insights into their unique strengths and performance characteristics. Whether you’re a developer exploring AI capabilities, an architect designing AI solutions, or a business evaluating AI models, this demo offers practical insights into Azure’s AI infrastructure and serverless computing potential. References Azure AI Foundry Azure Container Apps Azure AI – Documentation AI learning hub CloudBlogger: Text To Speech with ContainersBuilding a Basic Chatbot with Azure OpenAI
Overview In this turorial, we'll build a simple chatbot that uses Azure OpenAI to generate responses to user queries. To create a basic chatbot, we need to set up a language model resource that enables conversation capabilities. In this tutorial, we will: Set up the Azure OpenAI resource using the Azure AI Foundry portal. Retrieve the API key needed to connect the resource to your chatbot application. Once the API key is configured in your code, you will be able to integrate the language model into your chatbot and enable it to generate responses. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a working chatbot that can generate responses using the Azure OpenAI model. Signing In and Setting Up Your Azure AI Foundry Workspace Signing In to Azure AI Foundry Open the Azure AI Foundry page in your web browser. Login to your Azure account. If you don't have an account, you can sign up. Setting Up Your Azure AI Foundry Workspace Select + Create project to create a new project. Perform the following tasks: Enter Project name. It must be a unique value. Select Hub you'd like to use (create a new one if needed). Select Create. Setting Up the Azure OpenAI Resource in Azure AI Foundry In this step, you'll learn how to set up the Azure OpenAI resource in Azure AI Foundry. Azure OpenAI is a pre-trained language model that can generate responses to user queries. We'll be using it in our chatbot. Select Models + endpoints from the left side menu. On this page, you can deploy language models and set up Azure AI resources. In this step, we will deploy the Azure OpenAI GPT-4 language model. Select + Deploy model. Select Deploy base model. In this tutorial, we will deploy the GPT-4o model. Select GPT-4o. Select Confirm. Select Deploy. The model will be deployed. Once the deployment is complete, you will see the model listed on the Models + endpoints page. Now that the model is deployed, you can retrieve the API key needed to connect the model to your chatbot application. Select the model you deployed on the Models + endpoints page. ` On the model details page, you can view information about the model, including the API key. We will come back this page later to add the required information into the environment variables. Setting Up the Project and Install the Libraries Now, you will create a folder to work in and set up a virtual environment to develop a program. Creating a Folder to Work Inside It Open a terminal window and type the following command to create a folder named basic-chatbot in the default path. mkdir basic-chatbot Type the following command inside your terminal to navigate to the basic-chatbot folder you created. cd basic-chatbot Creating a Virtual Environment Type the following command inside your terminal to create a virtual environment named .venv. python -m venv .venv Type the following command inside your terminal to activate the virtual environment. .venv\Scripts\activate.bat NOTE If it worked, you should see (.venv) before the command prompt. Installing the Required Packages Type the following commands inside your terminal to install the required packages. openai: A Python library that provides integration with the Azure OpenAI API. python-dotenv: A Python library for managing environment variables stored in an .env file. pip install openai python-dotenv Setting up the Project in Visual Studio Code To create a basic chatbot program, you will need two files: example.py: This file will contain the code to interact with Azure resources. .env: This file will store the Azure credentials and configuration details. NOTE Purpose of the .env File The .env file is essential for storing the Azure information required to connect and use the resources you created. By keeping the Azure credentials in the .env file, you can ensure a secure and organized way to manage sensitive information. Setting Up example.py File Open Visual Studio Code. Select File from the menu bar. Select Open Folder. Select the basic-chatbot folder that you created, which is located at C:\Users\yourUserName\basic-chatbot. In the left pane of Visual Studio Code, right-click and select New File to create a new file named example.py. Add the following code to the example.py file to import the required libraries. from openai import AzureOpenAI from dotenv import load_dotenv import os # Load environment variables from the .env file load_dotenv() # Retrieve environment variables AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT") AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY") AZURE_OPENAI_MODEL_NAME = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_MODEL_NAME") AZURE_OPENAI_CHAT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_CHAT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME") AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION") # Initialize Azure OpenAI client client = AzureOpenAI( api_key=AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY, api_version=AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION, base_url=f"{AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT}/openai/deployments/{AZURE_OPENAI_CHAT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME}" ) print("Chatbot: Hello! How can I assist you today? Type 'exit' to end the conversation.") while True: user_input = input("You: ") if user_input.lower() == "exit": print("Chatbot: Ending the conversation. Have a great day!") break response = client.chat.completions.create( model=AZURE_OPENAI_MODEL_NAME, messages=[ {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."}, {"role": "user", "content": user_input} ], max_tokens=200 ) print("Chatbot:", response.choices[0].message.content.strip()) Setting Up .env File To set up your development environment, we will create a .env file and store the necessary credentials directly. NOTE Complete folder structure: └── YourUserName . └── basic-chatbot . ├── example.py . └── .env In the left pane of Visual Studio Code, right-click and select New File to create a new file named .env. Add the following code to the .env file to include your Azure information. AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=your_azure_openai_api_key AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT=https://your_azure_openai_endpoint AZURE_OPENAI_MODEL_NAME=your_model_name AZURE_OPENAI_CHAT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=your_deployment_name AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION=your_api_version Retrieving Environment Variables from Azure AI Foundry Now, you will retrieve the required information from Azure AI Foundry and update the .env file. Go to the Models + endpoints page and select your deployed model. On the Model Details page, copy the following information in to the .env file.: AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT AZURE_OPENAI_MODEL_NAME AZURE_OPENAI_CHAT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME Paste this information into the .env file in the respective placeholders. Running the Chatbot Program Type the following command inside your terminal to run the program and see if it can answer questions. python example.py Interact with the chatbot by typing your questions or messages. The chatbot will generate responses based on the Azure OpenAI model you deployed. NOTE You can find the full example of this chatbot, including the code and .env template, in my GitHub repository: GitHub RepositoryHow to create your personal AI powered Email Assistant
Crafting an AI Powered Email Assistant with Semantic Kernel and Neon Serverless PostgreSQL Intro In the realm of Artificial Intelligence, crafting applications that seamlessly blend advanced capabilities with user-friendly design is no small feat. Today, we take you behind the scenes of building an AI Powered Email Assistant, a project that leverages Semantic Kernel for embedding generation and indexing, Neon PostgreSQL for vector storage, and the Azure OpenAI API for generative AI capabilities. This blog post is a practical guide to implementing a powerful AI-driven solution from scratch. The Vision Our AI Powered Email Assistant is designed to: Draft emails automatically using input prompts. Enable easy approval, editing, and sending via Microsoft Graph API. Create and store embeddings of the Draft and Send emails in NEON Serverless PostgreSQL DB. Provide a search feature to retrieve similar emails based on contextual embeddings. This application combines cutting-edge AI technologies and modern web development practices, offering a seamless user experience for drafting and managing emails. The Core Technologies of our AI Powered Email Assistant 1. Semantic Kernel Semantic Kernel simplifies the integration of AI services into applications. It provides robust tools for text generation, embedding creation, and memory management. For our project, Semantic Kernel acts as the foundation for: Generating email drafts via Azure OpenAI. Creating embeddings for storing and retrieving contextual data. 2. Vector Indexing with Neon PostgreSQL Neon, a serverless PostgreSQL solution, allows seamless storage and retrieval of embeddings using the pgvector extension. Its serverless nature ensures scalability and reliability, making it perfect for real-time AI applications. 3. Azure OpenAI API With Azure OpenAI, the project harnesses models like gpt-4 and text-embedding-ada-002 for generative text and embedding creation. These APIs offer unparalleled flexibility and power for building AI-driven workflows. How We Built our AI Powered Email Assistant Step 1: Frontend – A React-Based Interface The frontend, built in React, provides users with a sleek interface to: Input recipient details, subject, and email description. Generate email drafts with a single click. Approve, edit, and send emails directly. We incorporated a loading spinner to enhance user feedback and search functionality for retrieving similar emails. Key Features: State Management: For handling draft generation and email sending. API Integration: React fetch calls connect seamlessly to backend APIs. Dynamic UI: A real-time experience for generating and reviewing drafts. The backend, powered by ASP.NET Core, uses Semantic Kernel for AI services and Neon for vector indexing. Key backend components include Semantic Kernel Services: Text Embedding Generation: Uses Azure OpenAI’s text-embedding-ada-002 to create embeddings for email content. Draft Generation: The AI Powered Email Assistant creates email drafts based on user inputs using Azure OpenAI gpt-4 model (OpenAI Skill). public async Task<string> GenerateEmailDraftAsync(string subject, string description) { try { var chatCompletionService = _kernel.GetRequiredService<IChatCompletionService>(); var message = new ChatMessageContent( AuthorRole.User, $"Draft a professional email with the following details:\nSubject: {subject}\nDescription: {description}" ); var result = await chatCompletionService.GetChatMessageContentAsync(message.Content ?? string.Empty); return result?.Content ?? string.Empty; } catch (Exception ex) { throw new Exception($"Error generating email draft: {ex.Message}", ex); } } } Vector Indexing with Neon: Embedding Storage: Stores embeddings in Neon using the pgvector extension. Contextual Search: Retrieves similar emails by calculating vector similarity. Email Sending via Microsoft Graph: Enables sending emails directly through an authenticated Microsoft Graph API integration. Key Backend Features: Middleware for PIN Authentication: Adds a secure layer to ensure only authorized users access the application. CORS Policies: Allow safe fronted-backend communication. Swagger Documentation: The Swagger Docs that simplify API testing during development. Step 3: Integration with Neon The pgvector extension in Neon PostgreSQL facilitates efficient vector storage and similarity search. Here’s how we integrated Neon into the project: Table Design: A dedicated table for embeddings with columns for subject, content,type, embedding, and created_at. The type column can hold 2 values draft or sent in case the users want to explore previous unsent drafts. Index Optimization: Optimizing the index can save us a lot of time and effort before facing performance issues with CREATE INDEX ON embeddings USING ivfflat (embedding) WITH (lists = 100); Search Implementation: Using SQL queries with vector operations to find the most relevant embeddings. Enhanced Serverless Out-Of-the-box: Even the free SKU offers Read Replica and Autoscaling making it Enterprise-ready. Why This Approach Stands Out Efficiency: By storing embeddings instead of just raw data, the system maintains privacy while enabling rich contextual searches. Scalability: Leveraging Neon’s serverless capabilities ensures that the application can grow without bottlenecks. Autoscale is enabled User-Centric Design: The combination of React’s dynamic frontend and Semantic Kernel’s advanced AI delivers a polished user experience. Prerequisites Azure Account with OpenAI access Microsoft 365 Developer Account NEON PostgreSQL Account .NET 8 SDK Node.js and npm Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio 2022 Step 1: Setting Up Azure Resources Azure OpenAI Setup: Create an Azure OpenAI resource Deploy two models: GPT-4 for text generation text-embedding-ada-002 for embeddings Note down endpoint and API key Entra ID App Registration: Create new App Registration Required API Permissions: Microsoft Graph: Mail.Send (Application) Microsoft Graph: Mail.ReadWrite (Application) Generate Client Secret Note down Client ID and Tenant ID Step 2: Database Setup NEON PostgreSQL: Create a new project Create database Enable pgvector extension Save connection string Step 3: Backend Implementation (.NET) Project Structure: /Controllers - EmailController.cs (handles email operations) - HomeController.cs (root routing) - VectorSearchController.cs (similarity search) /Services - EmailService.cs (Graph API integration) - SemanticKernelService.cs (AI operations) - VectorSearchService.cs (embedding operations) - OpenAISkill.cs (email generation) Key Components: SemanticKernelService: Initializes Semantic Kernel Manages AI model connections Handles prompt engineering EmailService: Microsoft Graph API integration Email sending functionality Authentication management VectorSearchService: Generates embeddings Manages vector storage Performs similarity searches Step 5: Configuration Create new dotnet project with: dotnet new webapi -n SemanticKernelEmailAssistant Configure appsettings.json for your Connections. Install Semantic Kernel ( Look into the SemanticKernelEmailAssistant.csproj for all packages and versions) – Versions are Important ! When all of your files are complete, then you can execute: dotnet build & dotnet publish -c Release To test locally simply run dotnet run Step 5: React Frontend Start a new React App with: npx create-react-app ai-email-assistant Change directory in the newly created Copy all files from Git and run npm install Initialize Tailwind npx tailwindcss init (if you see any related errors) Step 6: Deploy to Azure Both our Apps are Containerized with Docker, so pay attention to get the Dockerfile for each App. Use: [ docker build -t backend . ] and tag and push: [ docker tag backend {acrname}.azurecr.io/backend:v1 ] , [ docker push {acrname}.azurecr.io/backend:v1 ]. The same applies for the Frontend. Make sure to login to Azure Container Registry with: az acr login --name $(az acr list -g myresourcegroup --query "[].{name: name}" -o tsv) We will be able to see our new Repo on Azure Container Registry and deploy our Web Apps Troubleshooting and Maintenance Backend Issues: Use Swagger (/docs) for API testing and debugging. Check Azure Key Vault for PIN and credential updates. Embedding Errors: Ensure pgvector is correctly configured in Neon PostgreSQL. Verify the Azure OpenAI API key and endpoint are correct. Frontend Errors: Use browser dev tools to debug fetch requests. Ensure environment variables are correctly set during build and runtime. Conclusion In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, building an AI-powered application is no longer a daunting task, primarily thanks to groundbreaking technologies like Semantic Kernel, Neon PostgreSQL, and Azure OpenAI. Most importantly, this project clearly demonstrates how these powerful tools can seamlessly work together to deliver a robust, scalable, and user-friendly solution. First and foremost, the integration of Semantic Kernel effectively streamlines AI orchestration and prompt management. Additionally, Neon PostgreSQL provides exceptional serverless database capabilities that automatically scale with your application’s needs. Furthermore, Azure OpenAI’s reliable API and advanced language models consistently ensure high-quality AI responses and content generation. Moreover, whether you’re developing a customer service bot, content creation tool, or data analysis platform, this versatile technology stack offers the essential flexibility and power to bring your innovative ideas to life. Consequently, if you’re ready to create your own AI application, the powerful combination of Semantic Kernel and Neon serves as your ideal starting point. Above all, this robust foundation successfully balances sophisticated functionality with straightforward implementation, while simultaneously ensuring seamless scalability as your project continues to grow and evolve. References: Semantic Kernel Vector Store Embeddings NEON Project
How to process multiple receipts on one scan
Dear Community, I am building a simple receipt recognizer solution and I face the issue when users tend to fill a full A4 with receipts. As far as I understand, the built-in receipt model does not work with multiple items on one page. Tried a few libraries, to process these scans with Python (like cv2), but in general, edge detection does not work, because many times there's no visible edge, receipts are rotated or partly pushed under each other. Is there any (AI) solution that can help me to first extract the distinct receipts before feeding it to document intelligence? I don't need the text at this point, only the receipts as image. Thanks, vmIA y NET LATAM - Episodio 6
Buenas, Es un placer para nosotros, Bruno y Pablito Piova compartir con ustedes nuestras impresiones sobre el episodio 6 de la serie AI + .NET LATAM que tuvimos el honor de presentar el 6 de Diciembre junto con Jose Luis Latorre y Luis Beltran En el episodio número 6 de nuestra serie en Microsoft Reactor, exploramos cómo la inteligencia artificial (IA) está transformando el panorama tecnológico a través de herramientas innovadoras como Agentes autónomos, Semantic Kernel y otras tecnologías avanzadas. Además, discutimos las tendencias clave de IA que marcarán el 2025 y pudimos revisar algunas noticias frescas posteriores al gran evento Microsoft Ignite 2024. A continuación, destacamos algunos de los puntos más interesantes que se mencionaron en la charla y compartimos los enlaces de referencia: 6 AI trends you’ll see more of in 2025 Un repaso a las tendencias que marcan la hoja de ruta de la IA para el futuro próximo, desde modelos más potentes y accesibles, hasta el auge de los agentes inteligentes. Microsoft Ignite 2024 Book of News Un resumen completo de todos los anuncios más relevantes presentados en Ignite, incluyendo nuevos servicios, herramientas y mejoras para desarrolladores y profesionales de TI. Introducing Microsoft Copilot actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT| Microsoft 365 Blog Copilot va más allá del simple chat; ahora incluye agentes y acciones que automatizan tareas y mejoran la productividad empresarial. Ignite 2024: Announcing the Azure AI Foundry SDK Un nuevo SDK que unifica y facilita el despliegue y la orquestación de soluciones de IA en Azure, acelerando los ciclos de desarrollo. Introducing Azure AI Agent Service Nuevas funcionalidades que facilitan la creación y administración de agentes de IA capaces de interactuar con otras herramientas y servicios. New Copilot Prompt Gallery helps you discover, save, and share your favorite prompts | Microsoft Community Hub Una galería para descubrir, guardar y compartir prompts, facilitando el trabajo con modelos generativos. Ideal para estandarizar y reutilizar buenas prácticas. Unlocking the Power of Memory: Announcing General Availability of Semantic Kernel’s Memory Packages Una galería para descubrir, guardar y compartir prompts, facilitando el trabajo con modelos generativos. Ideal para estandarizar y reutilizar buenas prácticas. eShopLite-SemanticSearch | eShopLite-SemanticSearch-AzureAISearch Ejemplos prácticos sobre cómo incorporar búsqueda semántica e IA en aplicaciones, utilizando .NET y Azure. Azure AI Content Understanding Servicio en vista previa para procesar y comprender contenidos complejos (texto, imágenes, audio, video) y extraer información relevante. Estamos muy entusiasmados con la creciente participación e interés de la comunidad. Seguiremos comprometidos en ofrecer contenido de alta calidad que promueva el conocimiento y la innovación. Los invitamos a dejar sus comentarios, compartir sus opiniones y contarnos qué más les gustaría ver en futuros episodios. Agradecemos su apoyo y esperamos verlos en el próximo episodio, el 10 de enero de 2025. Registro: https://aka.ms/IAyNET-LATAM Redes de LinkedIn de Microsoft-Reactor: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/microsoft-reactor/ Un saludo, Bruno y Pablito
