From Manual Document Processing to AI-Orchestrated Intelligence
Building an IDP Pipeline with Azure Durable Functions, DSPy, and Real-Time AI Reasoning The Problem Think about what happens when a loan application, an insurance claim, or a trade finance document arrives at an organisation. Someone opens it, reads it, manually types fields into a system, compares it against business rules, and escalates for approval. That process touches multiple people, takes hours or days, and the accuracy depends entirely on how carefully it's done. Organizations have tried to automate parts of this before — OCR tools, templated extraction, rule-based routing. But these approaches are brittle. They break when the document format changes, and they can't reason about what they're reading. The typical "solution" falls into one of two camps: Manual processing. Humans read, classify, and key in data. Accurate but slow, expensive, and impossible to scale. Single-model extraction. Throw an OCR/AI model at the document, trust the output, push to downstream systems. Fast but fragile — no validation, no human checkpoint, no confidence scoring. What's missing is the middle ground: an orchestrated, multi-model pipeline with built-in quality gates, real-time visibility, and the flexibility to handle any document type without rewriting code. That's what IDP Workflow is — a six-step AI-orchestrated pipeline that processes documents end to end, from a raw PDF to structured, validated data, with human oversight built in. This isn't automation replacing people. It's AI doing the heavy lifting and humans making the final call. Architecture at a Glance POST /api/idp/start → Step 1 PDF Extraction (Azure Document Intelligence → Markdown) → Step 2 Classification (DSPy ChainOfThought) → Step 3 Data Extraction (Azure Content Understanding + DSPy LLM, in parallel) → Step 4 Comparison (field-by-field diff) → Step 5 Human Review (HITL gate — approve / reject / edit) → Step 6 AI Reasoning Agent (validation, consolidation, recommendations) → Final structured result The backend is Azure Durable Functions (Python) on Flex Consumption — customers only pay for what they use, and it scales automatically. The frontend is a Next.js dashboard with SignalR real-time updates and a Reaflow workflow visualization. Every step broadcasts stepStarted → stepCompleted / stepFailed events so the UI updates as work progresses. The pattern applies wherever organisations receive high volumes of unstructured documents that need to be classified, data-extracted, validated, and approved. The Six Steps, Explained Step 1: PDF → Markdown We use Azure Document Intelligence with the prebuilt-layout model to convert uploaded PDFs into structured Markdown — preserving tables, headings, and reading order. Markdown turns out to be a much better intermediate representation for LLMs than raw text or HTML. class PDFMarkdownExtractor: async def extract(self, pdf_path: str) -> tuple[PDFContent, Step01Output]: poller = self.client.begin_analyze_document( "prebuilt-layout", analyze_request=AnalyzeDocumentRequest(url_source=pdf_path), output_content_format=DocumentContentFormat.MARKDOWN, ) result: AnalyzeResult = poller.result() # Split into per-page Markdown chunks... Output: Per-page Markdown content, total page count, and character stats. Step 2: Document Classification (DSPy) Rather than hard-coding classification rules, we use DSPy with ChainOfThought prompting. DSPy lets us define classification as a signature — a declarative input/output contract — and the framework handles prompt optimization. class DocumentClassificationSignature(dspy.Signature): """Classify document page into predefined categories.""" page_content: str = dspy.InputField(desc="Markdown content of the document page") available_categories: str = dspy.InputField(desc="Available categories") classification: DocumentClassificationOutput = dspy.OutputField() Categories are loaded from a domain-specific classification_categories.json. Adding new categories means editing a JSON file, not code. Critically, classification is per-page, not per-document. A multi-page loan application might contain a loan form on page 1, income verification on page 2, and a property valuation on page 3 — each classified independently with its own confidence score and detected field indicators. This means multi-section documents are handled correctly downstream. Why DSPy? It gives us structured, typed outputs via Pydantic models, automatic prompt optimization, and clean separation between the what (signature) and the how (ChainOfThought, Predict, etc.). Step 3: Dual-Model Extraction (Run in Parallel) This is where things get interesting. We run two independent extractors in parallel: Azure Content Understanding (CU): A specialized Azure service that takes the raw PDF and applies a domain-specific schema to extract structured fields. DSPy LLM Extractor: Uses the Markdown from Step 1 with a dynamically generated Pydantic model (built from the domain's extraction_schema.json) to extract the same fields via an LLM. The LLM provider is selectable at runtime — Azure OpenAI, Claude, or open-weight models deployed on Azure (Qwen, DeepSeek, Llama, Phi, and more from the Azure AI Model Catalog). # In the orchestrator — fire both tasks at once azure_task = context.call_activity("activity_step_03_01_azure_extraction", input) dspy_task = context.call_activity("activity_step_03_02_dspy_extraction", input) results = yield context.task_all([azure_task, dspy_task]) Both extractors use the same domain-specific schema but approach the problem differently. Running two models gives us a natural cross-check: if both extractors agree on a field value, confidence is high. If they disagree, we know exactly where to focus human attention — not the entire document, just the specific fields that need it. Multi-Provider LLM Support The DSPy extraction and classification steps aren't locked to a single model provider. From the dashboard, users can choose between: Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models — GPT-4.1, o3-mini (default) Claude on Azure — Anthropic's Claude models Foundry Models — Open-weight models deployed on Azure via Foundry Models: Qwen 2.5 72B, DeepSeek V3/R1, Llama 3.3 70B, Phi-4, and more The third option is key: instead of routing through a third-party service, you deploy open-weight models directly on Azure as serverless API endpoints through Azure AI Foundry. These endpoints expose an OpenAI-compatible API, so DSPy talks to them the same way it talks to GPT-4.1 — just with a different api_base. You get the model diversity of the open-weight ecosystem with Azure's enterprise security, compliance, and network isolation. A factory pattern in the backend resolves the selected provider and model at runtime, so switching from Azure OpenAI to Qwen on Azure AI is a single dropdown change — no config edits, no redeployment. This makes it easy to benchmark different models against the same extraction schema and compare quality. Step 4: Field-by-Field Comparison The comparator aligns the outputs of both extractors and produces a diff report: matching fields, mismatches, fields found by only one extractor, and a calculated match percentage. This feeds directly into the human review step. Output: "Match: 87.5% (14/16 fields)" Step 5: Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Gate The pipeline pauses and waits for a human decision. The Durable Functions orchestrator uses wait_for_external_event() with a configurable timeout (default: 24 hours) implemented as a timer race: review_event = context.wait_for_external_event(HITL_REVIEW_EVENT) timeout = context.create_timer( context.current_utc_datetime + timedelta(hours=HITL_TIMEOUT_HOURS) ) winner = yield context.task_any([review_event, timeout]) The frontend shows a side-by-side comparison panel where reviewers can see both values for each disputed field — pick Azure's value, the LLM's value, or type in a correction. They can add notes explaining their decision, then approve or reject. If nobody responds within the timeout, it auto-escalates (configurable behavior). The orchestrator doesn't poll. It doesn't check a queue. The moment the reviewer submits their decision, the pipeline resumes automatically — using Durable Functions' native external event pattern. Step 6: AI Reasoning Agent The final step uses an AI agent with tool-calling to perform structured validation, consolidate field values, and generate a confidence score. This isn't just a prompt — it's an agent backed by the Microsoft Agent Framework with purpose-built tools: validate_fields — runs domain-specific validation rules (data types, ranges, cross-field logic) consolidate_extractions — merges Azure CU + DSPy outputs using confidence-weighted selection generate_summary — produces a natural-language summary with recommendations The reasoning step can use standard models or reasoning-optimised models like o3 or o3-mini for higher-stakes validation. The agent streams its reasoning process to the frontend in real time — validation results, confidence scoring, and recommendations all appear as they're generated. Domain-Driven Design: Zero-Code Extensibility One of the most powerful design choices: adding a new document type requires zero code changes. Each domain is a folder under idp_workflow/domains/ with four JSON files: idp_workflow/domains/insurance_claims/ ├── config.json # Domain metadata, thresholds, settings ├── classification_categories.json # Page-level classification taxonomy ├── extraction_schema.json # Field definitions (used by both extractors) └── validation_rules.json # Business rules for the reasoning agent The extraction_schema.json is particularly interesting — it's consumed by both the Azure CU service (which builds an analyzer from it) and the DSPy extractor (which dynamically generates a Pydantic model at runtime): def create_extraction_model_from_schema(schema: dict) -> type[BaseModel]: """Dynamically create a Pydantic model from an extraction schema JSON.""" # Maps schema field definitions → Pydantic field annotations # Supports nested objects, arrays, enums, and optional fields We currently ship four domains out of the box: insurance claims, home loans, small business lending, and trade finance. See It In Action: Processing a Home Loan Application To make this concrete, here's what happens when you process a multi-page home loan PDF — personal details, financial tables, and mixed content. Upload & Extract. The document hits the dashboard and Step 1 kicks off. Azure Document Intelligence converts all pages to structured Markdown, preserving tables and layout. You can preview the Markdown right in the detail panel. Per-Page Classification. Step 2 classifies each page independently: Page 1 is a Loan Application Form, Page 2 is Income Verification, Page 3 is a Property Valuation. Each has its own confidence score and detected fields listed. Dual Extraction. Azure CU and the DSPy LLM extractor run simultaneously. You can watch both progress bars in the dashboard. Comparison. The system finds 16 fields total. 14 match between the two extractors. Two fields differ — the annual income figure and the loan term. Those are highlighted for review. Human Review. The reviewer sees both values side by side for each disputed field, picks the correct value (or types a correction), adds a note, and approves. The moment they submit, the pipeline resumes — no polling. AI Reasoning. The agent validates against home loan business rules: loan-to-value ratio, income-to-repayment ratio, document completeness. Validation results stream in real time. Final output: 92% confidence, 11 out of 12 validations passed. The AI flags a minor discrepancy in employment dates and recommends approval with a condition to verify employment tenure. Result: A document that would take 30–45 minutes of manual processing, handled in under 2 minutes — with complete traceability. Every step, every decision, timestamped in the event log. Real-Time Frontend with SignalR Every orchestration step broadcasts events through Azure SignalR Service, targeted to the specific user who started the workflow: def _broadcast(context, user_id, event, data): return context.call_activity("notify_user", { "user_id": user_id, "instance_id": context.instance_id, "event": event, "data": data, }) The frontend generates a session-scoped userId, passes it via the x-user-id header during SignalR negotiation, and receives only its own workflow events. No Pub/Sub subscriptions to manage. The Next.js frontend uses: Zustand + Immer for state management (4 stores: workflow, events, reasoning, UI) Reaflow for the animated pipeline visualization React Query for data fetching Tailwind CSS for styling The result is a dashboard where you can upload a document and watch each pipeline step execute in real time. Infrastructure: Production-Ready from Day One The entire stack deploys with a single command using Azure Developer CLI (azd): azd up What gets provisioned: Resource Purpose Azure Functions (Flex Consumption) Backend API + orchestration Azure Static Web App Next.js frontend Durable Task Scheduler Orchestration state management Storage Account Document blob storage Application Insights Monitoring and diagnostics Network Security Perimeter Storage network lockdown Infrastructure is defined in Bicep with: Parameterized configuration (memory, max instances, retention) RBAC role assignments via a consolidated loop Two-region deployment (Functions + SWA have different region availability) Network Security Perimeter deployed in Learning mode, switched to Enforced post-deploy Key Engineering Decisions Why Durable Functions? Orchestrating a multi-step pipeline with parallel execution, external event gates, timeouts, and retry logic is exactly what Durable Functions was designed for. The orchestrator is a Python generator function — each yield is a checkpoint that survives process restarts: def idp_workflow_orchestration(context: DurableOrchestrationContext): step1 = yield from _execute_step(context, ...) # PDF extraction step2 = yield from _execute_step(context, ...) # Classification results = yield context.task_all([azure_task, dspy_task]) # Parallel extraction # ... HITL gate, reasoning agent, etc. No external queue management. No state database. No workflow engine to operate. Why Dual Extraction? Running two independent models on the same document gives us: Cross-validation — agreement between models is a strong confidence signal Coverage — one model might extract fields the other misses Auditability — human reviewers can see both outputs side by side Graceful degradation — if one service is down, the other still produces results Why DSPy over Raw Prompts? DSPy provides: Typed I/O — Pydantic models as signatures, not string parsing Composability — ChainOfThought, Predict, ReAct are interchangeable modules Prompt optimization — once you have labeled examples, DSPy can auto-tune prompts LM scoping — with dspy.context(lm=self.lm): isolates model configuration per call Getting Started # Clone git clone https://github.com/lordlinus/idp-workflow.git cd idp-workflow # DTS Emulator (requires Docker) docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -p 8082:8082 \ -e DTS_TASK_HUB_NAMES=default,idpworkflow \ mcr.microsoft.com/dts/dts-emulator:latest # Backend python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt func start # Frontend (separate terminal) cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev You'll also need Azurite (local storage emulator) running, plus Azure OpenAI, Document Intelligence, Content Understanding, and SignalR Service endpoints configured in local.settings.json. See the Local Development Guide for the full setup. Who Is This For? If any of these sound familiar, IDP Workflow was built for you: "We're drowning in documents." — High-volume document intake with manual processing bottlenecks. "We tried OCR but it breaks on new formats." — Brittle extraction that fails when layouts change. "Compliance needs an audit trail for every decision." — Regulated industries where traceability is non-negotiable. This is an AI-powered document processing platform — not a point OCR tool — with human oversight, dual AI validation, and domain extensibility built in from day one. What's Next Prompt optimization — using DSPy's BootstrapFewShot with domain-specific training examples Batch processing — fan-out/fan-in orchestration for processing document queues Custom evaluators — automated quality scoring per domain Additional domains — community-contributed domain configurations Try It Out The project is fully open source: github.com/lordlinus/idp-workflow Deploy to your own Azure subscription with azd up, upload a PDF from the sample_documents/ folder, and watch the pipeline run. We'd love feedback, contributions, and new domain configurations. Open an issue or submit a PR!Announcing GPT‑5.2‑Codex in Microsoft Foundry: Enterprise‑Grade AI for Secure Software Engineering
Enterprise developers know the grind: wrestling with legacy code, navigating complex dependency challenges, and waiting on security reviews that stall releases. OpenAI’s GPT‑5.2‑Codex flips that equation and helps engineers ship faster without cutting corners. It’s not just autocomplete; it’s a reasoning engine for real-world software engineering. Generally available starting today through Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry Models, GPT‑5.2‑Codex is built for the realities of enterprise codebases, large repos, evolving requirements, and security constraints that can’t be overlooked. As OpenAI’s most advanced agentic coding model, it brings sustained reasoning, and security-aware assistance directly into the workflows enterprise developers already rely on with Microsoft’s secure and reliable infrastructure. GPT-5.2-Codex at a Glance GPT‑5.2‑Codex is designed for how software gets built in enterprise teams. You start with imperfect inputs including legacy code, partial docs, screenshots, diagrams, and work through multi‑step changes, reviews, and fixes. The model helps keep context, intent, and standards intact across that entire lifecycle, so teams can move faster without sacrificing quality or security. What it enables Work across code and artifacts: Reason over source code alongside screenshots, architecture diagrams, and UI mocks — so implementation stays aligned with design intent. Stay productive in long‑running tasks: Maintain context across migrations, refactors, and investigations, even as requirements evolve. Build and review with security in mind: Get practical support for secure coding patterns, remediation, reviews, and vulnerability analysis — where correctness matters as much as speed. Feature Specs (quick reference) Context window: 400K tokens (approximately 100K lines of code) Supported languages: 50+ including Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, Java, Go, Rust Multimodal inputs: Code, images (UI mocks, diagrams), and natural language API compatibility: Drop-in replacement for existing Codex API calls Use cases where it really pops Legacy modernization with guardrails: Safely migrate and refactor “untouchable” systems by preserving behavior, improving structure, and minimizing regression risk. Large‑scale refactors that don’t lose intent: Execute cross‑module updates and consistency improvements without the typical “one step forward, two steps back” churn. AI‑assisted code review that raises the floor: Catch risky patterns, propose safer alternatives, and improve consistency, especially across large teams and long‑lived codebases. Defensive security workflows at scale: Accelerate vulnerability triage, dependency/path analysis, and remediation when speed matters, but precision matters more. Lower cognitive load in long, multi‑step builds: Keep momentum across multi‑hour sessions: planning, implementing, validating, and iterating with context intact. Pricing Model Input Price/1M Tokens Cached Input Price/1M Tokens Output Price/1M Tokens GPT-5.2-Codex $1.75 $0.175 $14.00 Security Aware by Design, not as an Afterthought For many organizations, AI adoption hinges on one nonnegotiable question: Can this be trusted in security sensitive workflows? GPT-5.2-Codex meaningfully advances the Codex lineage in this area. As models grow more capable, we’ve seen that general reasoning improvements naturally translate into stronger performance in specialized domains — including defensive cybersecurity. With GPT‑5.2‑Codex, this shows up in practical ways: Improved ability to analyze unfamiliar code paths and dependencies Stronger assistance with secure coding patterns and remediation More dependable support during code reviews, vulnerability investigations, and incident response At the same time, Microsoft continues to deploy these capabilities thoughtfully balancing access, safeguards, and platform level controls so enterprises can adopt AI responsibly as capabilities evolve. Why Run GPT-5.2-Codex on Microsoft Foundry? Powerful models matter — but where and how they run matters just as much for enterprise. Organizations choose Microsoft Foundry because it combines Foundry frontier AI with Azure enterprise grade fundamentals: Integrated security, compliance, and governance Deploy GPT-5.2-Codex within existing Azure security boundaries, identity systems, and compliance frameworks — without reinventing controls. Enterprise ready orchestration and tooling Build, evaluate, monitor, and scale AI powered developer experiences using the same platform teams already rely on for production workloads. A unified path from experimentation to scale Foundry makes it easier to move from proof of concept to real deployment —without changing platforms, vendors, or operating assumptions. Trust at the platform level For teams working in regulated or security critical environments, Foundry and Azure provide assurances that go beyond the model itself. Together with GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Foundry provides a unified developer experience — from in‑IDE assistance to production‑grade AI workflows — backed by Azure’s security, compliance, and global scale. This is where GPT-5.2-Codex becomes not just impressive but adoptable. Get Started Today Explore GPT‑5.2‑Codex in Microsoft today. Start where you already work: Try GPT‑5.2‑Codex in GitHub Copilot for everyday coding and scale the same model to larger workflows using Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry. Let’s build what’s next with speed and security.Microsoft Foundry: An End-to-End Platform for Building, Governing, and Scaling AI
Microsoft Foundry: What It Is and How to Get Started As organizations accelerate their adoption of AI, one challenge consistently emerges: how to move from experimentation to production at scale in a secure, responsible, and efficient way. Microsoft Foundry exists to address exactly that challenge. What Is Microsoft Foundry? Microsoft Foundry is an end-to-end platform experience that brings together Microsoft’s AI development, deployment, and governance capabilities into a unified environment. It enables developers, data scientists, and enterprises to build, customize, deploy, and operate AI solutions, including generative AI, using Microsoft and partner models, tools, and services. Rather than being a single product, Foundry is a curated and integrated experience that spans model access, tooling, orchestration, evaluation, and enterprise-grade controls. Why Microsoft Foundry Exists AI innovation is moving fast, but enterprise adoption requires more than just access to models. Customers need: A consistent way to work with multiple models, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and open-source models Built-in security, compliance, and responsible AI capabilities Tooling that supports the full AI lifecycle, not just prototyping Seamless integration with existing data platforms, applications, and cloud operations Microsoft Foundry was created to reduce friction between experimentation and real-world deployment while aligning AI development with enterprise standards, governance, and scale. What’s Included in Microsoft Foundry? Microsoft Foundry brings together several key capabilities: 1. Model Choice and Flexibility Access to leading foundation models, including Azure OpenAI models and selected open-source models Ability to evaluate and select models based on performance, cost, and use case 2. AI Development and Orchestration Tools Prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and grounding with enterprise data Tools for building copilots, chat experiences, and AI-powered applications Orchestration across tools, APIs, and workflows 3. Evaluation, Safety, and Responsible AI Built-in evaluation for quality, latency, and cost Content safety, monitoring, and governance controls Alignment with Microsoft’s Responsible AI principles 4. Enterprise-Grade Platform Integration Native integration with Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Power Platform, and developer tools Identity, security, and compliance through Microsoft Entra and Azure controls Observability and lifecycle management for production workloads How to Get Started Getting started with Microsoft Foundry is straightforward: Start in Azure - Use Azure as the control plane to access Foundry experiences and services. Explore models and tools - Experiment with available models, build prompts, and prototype AI workflows. Ground with your data - Connect enterprise data securely to create more relevant and contextual AI experiences. Evaluate and deploy - Use built-in evaluation and safety tools, then deploy AI solutions into production with confidence. Scale responsibly - Apply governance, monitoring, and cost controls as adoption grows. Final Thoughts Microsoft Foundry represents Microsoft’s vision for enterprise AI done right. It offers flexible model choice, strong development tooling, and built-in trust. By unifying AI development and operations into a single experience, Foundry helps organizations move faster while staying secure, compliant, and future-ready. Whether you are just starting with generative AI or scaling existing solutions, Microsoft Foundry provides a practical foundation to build on.Announcing extended support for Fine Tuning gpt-4o and gpt-4o-mini
At Build 2025, we announced post-retirement, extended deployment and inference support for fine tuned models. Today, we’re excited to announce we’re extending fine-tuning training for current customers of our most popular Azure OpenAI models: gpt-4o (2024-08-06) and gpt-4o-mini (2024-07-18). Hundreds of customers have pushed trillions of tokens through fine-tuned versions of these models and we’re happy to provide even more runway for your AI agents and applications. Already using these models in Foundry? We have you covered as the only provider of fine tuning gpt-4o and gpt-4o-mini come April. Keep fine tuning! Not yet using Microsoft Foundry? Get started today by migrating your training data to Microsoft Foundry and fine tune using Global or Standard Training for gpt-4o and gpt-4o-mini using your existing OpenAI code. You’ll have the runway to continuously fine tune or update your models. You have until March 31 st , 2026, to become a fine-tuning customer of these models. Model Version Training retirement date Deployment retirement date gpt-4o 2024-08-06 No earlier than 2026-09-31 1 2027-03-31 gpt-4o-mini 2024-07-18 No earlier than 2026-09-31 1 2027-03-31 gpt-4.1 2025-04-14 At base model retirement One year after training retirement gpt-4.1-mini 2025-04-14 At base model retirement One year after training retirement gpt-4.1-nano 2025-04-14 At base model retirement One year after training retirement o4-mini 2025-04-16 At base model retirement One year after training retirement 1 For existing customers only. Otherwise, training retirement occurs at base model retirementNew Azure Open AI models bring fast, expressive, and real‑time AI experiences in Microsoft Foundry
Modern AI applications, whether voice‑first experiences or building large software systems, rarely fit into a single prompt. Real work unfolds over time: maintaining context, following instructions, invoking tools, and adapting as requirements evolve. When these foundations break down through latency spikes, instruction drift, or unreliable tool calls, both user conversations and developer workflows are impacted. OpenAI’s latest models address this shared challenge by prioritizing continuity and reliability across real‑time interaction and long‑running engineering tasks. Starting today, GPT-Realtime-1.5, GPT-Audio-1.5, and GPT-5.3-Codex are rolling out into Microsoft Foundry. Together, these models reflect the growing needs of the modern developer and push the needle from short, stateless interactions toward AI systems that can reason, act, and collaborate over time. GPT-5.3-Codex at a glance GPT‑5.3‑Codex brings together advanced coding capability with broader reasoning and professional problem solving in a single model built for real engineering work. It unifies the frontier coding performance of GPT-5.2-Codex with the reasoning and professional knowledge capabilities of GPT5.2 in one system. This shifts the experience from optimizing isolated outputs to supporting longer running development efforts; where repositories are large, changes span multiple steps, and requirements aren’t always fully specified at the start. What’s improved Model experiences 25% faster execution time, according to Open AI, than its predecessors so developers can accelerate development of new applications. Built for long-running tasks that involve research, tool use, and complex, multi‑step execution while maintaining context. Midtask steerability and frequent updates allow developers to redirect and collaborate with the model as it works without losing context. Stronger computer-use capabilities allow developers to execute across the full spectrum of technical work. Common use cases Developers and teams can apply GPT‑5.3‑Codex across a wide range of scenarios, including: Refactoring and modernizing large or legacy applications Performing multi‑step migrations or upgrades Running agentic developer workflows that span analysis, implementation, testing, and remediation Automating code reviews, test generation, and defect detection Supporting development in security‑sensitive or regulated environments Pricing Model Input Price/1M Tokens Cached Input Price/1M Tokens Output Price/1M Tokens GPT-5.3-Codex $1.75 $0.175 $14.00 GPT-Realtime-1.5 and GPT-Audio-1.5 at a glance The models deliver measurable gains in reasoning and speech understanding for real‑time voice interactions on Microsoft Foundry. In OpenAI’s evaluations, it shows a +5% lift on Big Bench Audio (reasoning), a +10.23% improvement in alphanumeric transcription, and a +7% gain in instruction following, while maintaining low‑latency performance. Key improvements include: What's improved More natural‑sounding speech: Audio output is smoother and more conversational, with improved pacing and prosody. Higher audio quality: Clearer, more consistent audio output across supported voices. Improved instruction following: Better alignment with developer‑provided system and user instructions during live interactions. Function calling support: Enables structured, tool‑driven interactions within real‑time audio flows. Common use cases Developers are using GPT-Realtime-1.5 and GPT-Audio-1.5 for scenarios where low‑latency voice interaction is essential, including: Conversational voice agents for customer support or internal help desks Voice‑enabled assistants embedded in applications or devices Live voice interfaces for kiosks, demos, and interactive experiences Hands‑free workflows where audio input and output replace keyboard interaction Pricing Model Text Audio Image Input Cached Input Output Input Cached Input Output Input Cached Input Output GPT-Realtime-1.5 $4.00 $0.04 $16.0 $32.0 $0.40 $64.00 $4.00 $0.04 $16.0 GPT-Audio-1.5 $2.50 n/a $10.0 $32.00 n/a $64.00 $2.50 n/a $10.0 Getting started in Microsoft Foundry Start building in Microsoft Foundry, evaluate performance, and explore Azure Open AI models today. Foundry brings evaluation, deployment, and governance into a single workflow, helping teams progress from experiments to scalable applications while maintaining security and operational controls.Building Knowledge-Grounded Conversational AI Agents with Azure Speech Photo Avatars
From Chat to Presence: The Next Step in Conversational AI Chat agents are now embedded across nearly every industry, from customer support on websites to direct integrations inside business applications designed to boost efficiency and productivity. As these agents become more capable and more visible, user expectations are also rising: conversations should feel natural, trustworthy, and engaging. While text‑only chat agents work well for many scenarios, voice‑enabled agents take a meaningful step forward by introducing a clearer persona and a stronger sense of presence, making interactions feel more human and intuitive (see healow Genie success story). In domains such as Retail, Healthcare, Education, and Corporate Training, adding a visual dimension through AI avatars further elevates the experience. Pairing voice with a lifelike visual representation improves inclusiveness, reduces interaction friction, and helps users better contextualize conversations—especially in scenarios that rely on trust, guidance, or repeated engagement. To support these experiences, Microsoft offers two AI avatar options through Azure Speech: Video Avatars, which are generally available and provide full‑ or partial‑body immersive representations, and Photo Avatars, currently in public preview, which deliver a headshot‑style visual well suited for web‑based agents and digital twin scenarios. Both options support custom avatars, enabling organizations to reflect their brand identity rather than relying solely on generic representations (see W2M custom video avatar). Choosing between Video Avatars and Photo Avatars is less about preference and more about intent. Video Avatars offer higher visual fidelity and immersion but require more extensive onboarding, such as high-quality recorded video of an avatar talent. Photo Avatars, by contrast, can be created from a single image, enabling a lighter‑weight onboarding process while still delivering a human‑centered experience. The right choice depends on the desired interaction style, visual presence, and target deployment scenario. What this solution demonstrates In this post, I walk through how to integrate Azure Speech Photo Avatars — powered by Microsoft Research's VASA-1 model — into a knowledge‑grounded conversational AI agent built on Azure AI Search. The goal is to show how voice, visuals, and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) can come together to create a more natural and engaging agent experience. The solution exposes a web‑based interface where users can speak naturally to the AI agent using their voice. The agent responds in real time using synthesized speech, while live transcriptions of the conversation are displayed in the UI to improve clarity and accessibility. To help compare different interaction patterns, the sample application supports three modes: 1) Photo Avatar mode, which adds a lifelike visual presence. 2) Video Avatar mode, which provides a more immersive, full‑motion experience. 3) Voice‑only mode, which focuses purely on speech‑to‑speech interaction. Key architectural components An end‑to‑end architecture for the solution is shown in the diagram below. The solution is composed of the following core services and building blocks: Microsoft Foundry — provides the platform for deploying, managing, and accessing the foundation models used by the application. Azure OpenAI — provides the Realtime API for speech‑to‑speech interaction in the voice‑only mode and the Chat Completions API used by backend services for reasoning and conversational responses. gpt‑4.1 — LLM used for reasoning tasks such as deciding when to invoke tool calls and summarizing responses. gpt-realtime-mini — LLM used for speech-to-speech interaction in the Voice-only mode. text‑embedding‑3‑large — LLM used for generating vector embeddings used in retrieval‑augmented generation. Azure Speech — delivers the real‑time speech‑to‑text (STT), text‑to‑speech (TTS), and AI avatars capabilities for both Photo Avatar and Video Avatar experiences. Azure Document Intelligence — extracts structured text, layout, and key information from source documents used to build the knowledge base. Azure AI Search — provides vector‑based retrieval to ground the language model with relevant, context‑aware content. Azure Container Apps — hosts the web UI frontend, backend services, and MCP server within a managed container runtime. Azure Container Apps Environment — defines a secure and isolated boundary for networking, scaling, and observability of the containerized workloads. Azure Container Registry — stores and manages Docker images used by the container applications. How you can try it yourself The complete sample implementation is available in the LiveChat AI Voice Assistant repository, which includes instructions for deploying the solution into your Azure environment. The repository uses Infrastructure as Code (IaC) deployment via Azure Developer CLI (azd) to orchestrate Azure resource provisioning and application deployment. Prerequisites: An Azure subscription with appropriate services and models' quota is required to deploy the solution. Getting the solution up and running in just three simple steps: Clone the repository and navigate to the project git clone https://github.com/mardianto-msft/azure-speech-ai-avatars.git cd azure-speech-ai-avatars Authenticate with Azure azd auth login Initialize and deploy the solution azd up Once deployed, you can access the sample application by opening the frontend service URL in a web browser. To demonstrate knowledge grounding, the sample includes source documents derived from Microsoft’s 2025 Annual Report and Shareholder Letter. These grounding documents can optionally be replaced with your own data, allowing the same architecture to be reused for domain‑specific or enterprise scenarios. When using the provided sample documents, you can ask questions such as: “How much was Microsoft’s net income in 2025?”, “What are Microsoft’s priorities according to the shareholder letter?”, “Who is Microsoft’s CEO?” Bringing Conversational AI Agents to Life This implementation of Azure Speech Photo Avatars serves as a practical starting point for building more engaging, knowledge‑grounded conversational AI agents. By combining voice interaction, visual presence, and retrieval‑augmented generation, Photo Avatars offer a lightweight yet powerful way to make AI agents feel more approachable, trustworthy, and human‑centered — especially in web‑based and enterprise scenarios. From here, the solution can be extended over time with capabilities such as long‑term memory, richer personalization, or more advanced multi‑agent orchestration. Whether used as a reference architecture or as the foundation for a production system, this approach demonstrates how Azure Speech Photo Avatars can help bridge the gap between conversational intelligence and meaningful user experience. By emphasizing accessibility, trust, and human‑centered design, it reflects Microsoft’s broader mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.Open AI’s GPT-5.1-codex-max in Microsoft Foundry: Igniting a New Era for Enterprise Developers
Announcing GPT-5.1-codex-max: The Future of Enterprise Coding Starts Now We’re thrilled to announce the general availability of OpenAI's GPT-5.1-codex-max in Microsoft Foundry Models; a leap forward that redefines what’s possible for enterprise-grade coding agents. This isn’t just another model release; it’s a celebration of innovation, partnership, and the relentless pursuit of developer empowerment. At Microsoft Ignite, we unveiled Microsoft Foundry: a unified platform where businesses can confidently choose the right model for every job, backed by enterprise-grade reliability. Foundry brings together the best from OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Black Forest Labs, Cohere, Meta, Mistral, and Microsoft’s own breakthroughs, all under one roof. Our partnership with Anthropic is a testament to our commitment to giving developers access to the most advanced, safe, and high-performing models in the industry. And now, with GPT-5.1-codex-max joining the Foundry family, the possibilities for intelligent applications and agentic workflows have never been greater. GPT 5.1-codex-max is available today in Microsoft Foundry and accessible in Visual Studio Code via the Foundry extension . Meet GPT-5.1-codex-max: Enterprise-Grade Coding Agent for Complex Projects GPT-5.1-codex-max is engineered for those who build the future. Imagine tackling complex, long-running projects without losing context or momentum. GPT-5.1-codex-max delivers efficiency at scale, cross-platform readiness, and proven performance with top scores on SWE-Bench (77.9), the gold standard for AI coding. With GPT-5.1-codex-max, developers can focus on creativity and problem-solving, while the model handles the heavy lifting. GPT-5.1-codex-max isn’t just powerful; it’s practical, designed to solve real challenges for enterprise developers: Multi-Agent Coding Workflows: Automate repetitive tasks across microservices, maintaining shared context for seamless collaboration. Enterprise App Modernization: Effortlessly refactor legacy .NET and Java applications into cloud-native architectures. Secure API Development: Generate and validate secure API endpoints, with `compliance checks built-in for peace of mind. Continuous Integration Support: Integrate GPT-5.1-codex-max into CI/CD pipelines for automated code reviews and test generation, accelerating delivery cycles. These use cases are just the beginning. GPT-5.1-codex-max is your partner in building robust, scalable, and secure solutions. Foundry: Platform Built for Developers Who Build the Future Foundry is more than a model catalog—it’s an enterprise AI platform designed for developers who need choice, reliability, and speed. • Choice Without Compromise: Access the widest range of models, including frontier models from leading model providers. • Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure: Built-in security, observability, and governance for responsible AI at scale. • Integrated Developer Experience: From GitHub to Visual Studio Code, Foundry connects with tools developers love for a frictionless build-to-deploy journey. Start Building Smarter with GPT-5.1-codex-max in Foundry The future is here, and it’s yours to shape. Supercharge your coding workflows with GPT-5.1-codex-max in Microsoft Foundry today. Learn more about Microsoft Foundry: aka.ms/IgniteFoundryModels. Watch Ignite sessions for deep dives and demos: ignite.microsoft.com. Build faster, smarter, and with confidence on the platform redefining enterprise AI.
How to Reliably Gauge LLM Confidence?
a { text-decoration: none; color: #464feb; } tr th, tr td { border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; } tr th { background-color: #f5f5f5; } I’m trying to estimate an LLM’s confidence in its answers in a way that correlates with correctness. Self-reported confidence is often misleading, and raw token probabilities mostly reflect fluency rather than truth. I don’t have grounding options like RAG, human feedback, or online search, so I’m looking for approaches that work in this constraint. What techniques have you found effective—entropy-based signals, calibration (temperature scaling), self-evaluation, or others? Any best practices for making confidence scores actionable?Introducing OpenAI’s GPT-image-1.5 in Microsoft Foundry
Developers building with visual AI can often run into the same frustrations: images that drift from the prompt, inconsistent object placement, text that renders unpredictably, and editing workflows that break when iterating on a single asset. That’s why we are excited to announce OpenAI's GPT Image 1.5 is now generally available in Microsoft Foundry. This model can bring sharper image fidelity, stronger prompt alignment, and faster image generation that supports iterative workflows. Starting today, customers can request access to the model and start building in the Foundry platform. Meet GPT Image 1.5 AI driven image generation began with early models like OpenAI's DALL-E, which introduced the ability to transform text prompts into visuals. Since then, image generation models have been evolving to enhance multimodal AI across industries. GPT Image 1.5 represents continuous improvement in enterprise-grade image generation. Building on the success of GPT Image 1 and GPT Image 1 mini, these enhanced models introduce advanced capabilities that cater to both creative and operational needs. The new image models offer: Text-to-image: Stronger instruction following and highly precise editing. Image-to-image: Transform existing images to iteratively refine specific regions Improved visual fidelity: More detailed scenes and realistic rendering. Accelerated creation times: Up to 4x faster generation speed. Enterprise integration: Deploy and scale securely in Microsoft Foundry. GPT Image 1.5 delivers stronger image preservation and editing capabilities, maintaining critical details like facial likeness, lighting, composition, and color tone across iterative changes. You’ll see more consistent preservation of branded logos and key visuals, making it especially powerful for marketing, brand design, and ecommerce workflows—from graphics and logo creation to generating full product catalogs (variants, environments, and angles) from a single source image. Benchmarks Based on an internal Microsoft dataset, GPT Image 1.5 performs higher than other image generation models in prompt alignment and infographics tasks. It focuses on making clear, strong edits – performing best on single-turn modification, delivering the higher visual quality in both single and multi-turn settings. The following results were found across image generation and editing: Text to image Prompt alignment Diagram / Flowchart GPT Image 1.5 91.2% 96.9% GPT Image 1 87.3% 90.0% Qwen Image 83.9% 33.9% Nano Banana Pro 87.9% 95.3% Image editing Evaluation Aspect Modification Preservation Visual Quality Face Preservation Metrics BinaryEval SC (semantic) DINO (Visual) BinaryEval AuraFace Single-turn GPT image 1 99.2% 51.0% 0.14 79.5% 0.30 Qwen image 81.9% 63.9% 0.44 76.0% 0.85 GPT Image 1.5 100% 56.77% 0.14 89.96% 0.39 Multi-turn GPT Image 1 93.5% 54.7% 0.10 82.8% 0.24 Qwen image 77.3% 68.2% 0.43 77.6% 0.63 GPT image 1.5 92.49% 60.55% 0.15 89.46% 0.28 Using GPT Image 1.5 across industries Whether you’re creating immersive visuals for campaigns, accelerating UI and product design, or producing assets for interactive learning GPT Image 1.5 gives modern enterprises the flexibility and scalability they need. Image models can allow teams to drive deeper engagement through compelling visuals, speed up design cycles for apps, websites, and marketing initiatives, and support inclusivity by generating accessible, high‑quality content for diverse audiences. Watch how Foundry enables developers to iterate with multimodal AI across Black Forest Labs, OpenAI, and more: Microsoft Foundry empowers organizations to deploy these capabilities at scale, integrating image generation seamlessly into enterprise workflows. Explore the use of AI image generation here across industries like: Retail: Generate product imagery for catalogs, e-commerce listings, and personalized shopping experiences. Marketing: Create campaign visuals and social media graphics. Education: Develop interactive learning materials or visual aids. Entertainment: Edit storyboards, character designs, and dynamic scenes for films and games. UI/UX: Accelerate design workflows for apps and websites. Microsoft Foundry provides security and compliance with built-in content safety filters, role-based access, network isolation, and Azure Monitor logging. Integrated governance via Azure Policy, Purview, and Sentinel gives teams real-time visibility and control, so privacy and safety are embedded in every deployment. Learn more about responsible AI at Microsoft. Pricing Model Pricing (per 1M tokens) - Global GPT-image-1.5 Input Tokens: $8 Cached Input Tokens: $2 Output Tokens: $32 Cost efficiency improves as well: image inputs and outputs are now cheaper compared to GPT Image 1, enabling organizations to generate and iterate on more creative assets within the same budget. For detailed pricing, refer here. Getting started Learn more about image generation, explore code samples, and read about responsible AI protections here. Try GPT Image 1.5 in Microsoft Foundry and start building multimodal experiences today. Whether you’re designing educational materials, crafting visual narratives, or accelerating UI workflows, these models deliver the flexibility and performance your organization needs.Azure OpenAI Model Upgrades: Prompt Safety Pitfalls with GPT-4o and Beyond
Upgrading to New Azure OpenAI Models? Beware Your Old Prompts Might Break. I recently worked on upgrading our Azure OpenAI integration from gpt-35-turbo to gpt-4o-mini, expecting it to be a straightforward configuration change. Just update the Azure Foundry resource endpoint, change the model name, deploy the code — and voilà, everything should work as before. Right? Not quite. The Unexpected Roadblock As soon as I deployed the updated code, I started seeing 400 status errors from the OpenAI endpoint. The message was cryptic: The response was filtered due to the prompt triggering Azure OpenAI's content management policy. At first, I assumed it was a bug in my SDK call or a malformed payload. But after digging deeper, I realized this wasn’t a technical failure — it was a content safety filter kicking in before the prompt even reached the model. The Prompt That Broke It Here’s the original system prompt that worked perfectly with gpt-35-turbo: YOU ARE A QNA EXTRACTOR IN TEXT FORMAT. YOU WILL GET A SET OF SURVEYJS QNA JSONS. YOU WILL CONVERT THAT INTO A TEXT DOCUMENT. FOR THE QUESTIONS WHERE NO ANSWER WAS GIVEN, MARK THOSE AS NO ANSWER. HERE IS THE QNA: BE CREATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL. I WANT TO GENERATE A DOCUMENT TO BE PUBLISHED. {{$style}} +++++ {{$input}} +++++ This prompt had been reliable for months. But with gpt-4o-mini, it triggered Azure’s new input safety layer, introduced in mid-2024. What Changed with GPT-4o-mini? Unlike gpt-35-turbo, the gpt-4o family: Applies stricter content filtering — not just on the output, but also on the input prompt. Treats system messages and user messages as role-based chat messages, passing them through moderation before the model sees them. Flags prompts that look like prompt injection attempts like aggressive instructions like “YOU ARE…”, “BE CREATIVE”, “GENERATE”, “PROFESSIONAL”. Flags unusual formatting (like `+++++`), artificial delimiters or token markers as it may look like encoded content. In short, the model didn’t even get a chance to process my prompt — it was blocked at the gate. Fixing It: Softening the Prompt The solution wasn’t to rewrite the entire logic, but to soften the system prompt and remove formatting that could be misinterpreted. Here’s what helped: - Replacing “YOU ARE…” with a gentler instruction like “Please help convert the following Q&A data…” - Removing creative directives like “BE CREATIVE” or “PROFESSIONAL” unless clearly contextualized. - Avoiding raw JSON markers and template syntax (`{{ }}`, `+++++`) in the prompt. Once I made these changes, the model responded smoothly — and the upgrade was finally complete. Evolving the Prompt — Not Abandoning It Interestingly, for some prompts I didn’t have to completely eliminate the “YOU ARE…” structure. Instead, I refined it to be more natural and less directive. Here’s a comparison: ❌ Old Prompt (Blocked) ✅ New Prompt (Accepted) YOU ARE A SOURCING AND PROCUREMENT MANAGER. YOU WILL GET BUYER'S REQUIREMENTS IN QNA FORMAT. HERE IS THE QNA: {{$input}} +++++ YOU WILL GENERATE TOP 10 {{$category}} RELATED QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE ASKED OF A SUPPLIER IN JSON FORMAT. THE JSON MUST HAVE QUESTION NUMBER AS THE KEY AND QUESTION TEXT AS THE QUESTION. DON'T ADD ANY DESCRIPTION TEXT OR FORMATTING IN THE OUTPUT. BE CREATIVE AND PROFESSIONAL. I WANT TO GENERATE AN RFX. You are an AI assistant that helps clarify sourcing requirements. You will receive buyer's requirements in QnA format. Here is the QnA: {$input} Your task is to generate the top 10 {$category} related questions that can be asked of a supplier, in JSON format. - The JSON must use the question number as the key and the question text as the value. - Do not include any description text or formatting in the output. - Focus on creating clear, professional, and relevant questions that will help prepare an RFX. Key Takeaways - Model upgrades aren’t just about configuration changes — they can introduce new moderation layers that affect prompt design. - Prompt safety filtering is now a first-class citizen in Azure OpenAI, especially for newer models. - System prompts need to be rewritten with moderation in mind, not just clarity or creativity. This experience reminded me that even small upgrades can surface big learning moments. If you're planning to move to gpt-4o-mini or any newer Azure OpenAI model, take a moment to review your prompts — they might need a little more finesse than before.
