Artificial Intelligence / Architectures / Online
Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft: When It's the Right Answer
Your data is already in Microsoft 365. In most cases, the first use case doesn’t require a server.An assistant in Teams, search in SharePoint, self-sorting email, and an agent that responds to customers: when data resides in your Microsoft tenant, processing it right where it is is the fastest, most integrated, and often the least expensive option. Provided you manage permissions before opening anything and know the pay-as-you-go cost of the service.
Three Situations Where Online Services Have the Edge
This isn't a matter of preference. These are three conditions, and when they are all met, building infrastructure would be an expense with no return.
Your data is already there
The documents are in SharePoint and OneDrive, the correspondence is in Teams , and Exchange, and the clients are in Dynamics 365. Moving them to a server so a model can read them means adding a copy, synchronization, and risk—all for a result that the service already provides locally.
We process data where it resides.
The first case is expected to be released in a few weeks
An assistant to help with your documents or sort through your emails is available without having to order any equipment, set up a server room, or manage a platform. You can focus your time on what matters: access rights, organization, and actual usage.
The timeframe is measured in weeks, not months.
Nothing requires a response within a few milliseconds
An employee who asks a question expects an answer within a few seconds; a production line expects an answer within a few milliseconds. As long as the user is human and the connection is reliable, the latency of the online service goes unnoticed.
Real-time processing is the domain of a different architecture.
Use cases that work well at Microsoft
Four cases in which the online service is the recommended architecture, and a fifth in which it is recommended provided that the documents can be read there.
Assistant for Company Documents
Find the correct procedure at SharePoint and Teams, along with the source code. Copilot or an agent Copilot Studio, once the terms have been reviewed.
RecommendedAutomated Email Processing
The message is already in Exchange Online: sort, draft a reply, open the case in Customer Service.
RecommendedCustomer Service and Contact Center
The agent receives assistance during the call, and simple requests are handled immediately at Dynamics 365 Contact Center or Luware.
RecommendedIntelligent Document Processing
Invoices, contracts, and forms reviewed by the departments Azure, reviewed, and then forwarded toERP or Dynamics 365.
PossiblePrivately Housed Business Assistant
Copilot already respects your access rights: it only reads what you are authorized to read. The question is whether your most sensitive documents can be opened by it.
IT Support Assistant
Access requests and frequently asked questions on service desk, handled by an agent at Teams.
What Powers This Architecture
Technology comes last, but it does come. Six Microsoft building blocks, and what each one does for you —not what it promises in a brochure.
Copilot for Microsoft 365
The Assistant in Word, Outlook, Teams , and SharePoint. It reads only what the user is authorized to read, and nothing else: that’s why managing permissions comes first.
Copilot Studio
Create an agent with a scope, permissions, a handover time, and a supervisor. On the public website, in Teams, and in the contact center.
Microsoft Foundry
The platform Azure for selecting a model, calling it from an app, evaluating it, and monitoring it. This is where custom development comes into play when Copilot Studio is no longer enough.
Services Azure for documents, language, vision, and voice
Reading an invoice, extracting fields from a form, transcribing a call, translating: ready-to-use services, billed by the page or by the minute.
Power Platform and Dataverse
Power Automate triggers, Power Apps displays, Dataverse preserves the data along with its permissions. This is what links a model result to the rest of the work.
Dynamics 365 and its agents
A case summary, a prepared response, a virtual agent that filters simple requests—these features are coming to the apps your teams already use.
The Azure in Switzerland, the data residency Microsoft 365 and the usage model for artificial intelligence features are documented by Microsoft and re-verified before each proposal: they change faster than a published text.
Things to Take Care of Before Opening Anything
Five questions a reseller doesn't ask—and that make the difference between a helpful assistant and a problem in the first week.
Who Has Access to What, Today?
An assistant doesn’t create leaks—it reveals the ones that already existed. A system that has been open to the entire company for four years has become a solution for the entire company. A site-by-site review of rights must be conducted before any system is opened up.
It's also a project that retains its value even if you decide to stop using the assistant later on.
Where the data is stored and where it is processed
Microsoft is committed to keeping data in Switzerland for several services Microsoft 365, provided that the tenant’s default region is Switzerland—which is indeed the case, since a tenant created ten years ago may not necessarily have it set to Switzerland. Processing by the models follows its own rules, which we are reviewing with your data protection officer.
How much the service costs per use
Artificial intelligence features are billed on a per-use basis: per query, per page read, per minute transcribed, per agent message. The actual cost becomes apparent in the third month, not on the quote. We estimate the cost beforehand, and someone is assigned to review the invoice afterward.
What Copilot Doesn't Do
It doesn’t read a system that isn’t connected, it doesn’t make decisions for you, and it doesn’t resolve conflicting documents: it chooses one with the confidence of a software program. What remains human is written into each use case.
What Happens If You Change Your Mind
The documents remain yours, in your tenant. An agent Copilot Studio is deactivated. What was built for storage, permissions, and usage can then be used for any other architecture—including an on-premises platform.
The three situations in which we offer an alternative
Understanding all four architectural styles is what allows you to tell when one isn’t right for you— and to point that out before you sign on the dotted line.
The data cannot be exported
A contract, a trade secret, a regulated dataset: when online service is ruled out as a matter of principle, the model and the dataset operate within your datacenter. This is a private architecture, and it has its own operational requirements.
Only part of it can be removed, or the volumes are too large
Identity, Teams , and the interface remain with Microsoft; document search and inference on sensitive data remain on your premises. Beyond a certain volume of queries, this is also the most cost-effective solution.
The decision is made by a machine in real time
A camera on a production line, a sensor on a piece of equipment, a site without a reliable connection: processing takes place right next to the machine. The online service can receive the results; it cannot make the decision.
Are you still on the fence?
Seven questions provide a preliminary answer, and one of the possible outcomes is “Copilot in your licenses is sufficient.” The result helps guide the first meeting; it does not replace a assessment.
How We Do It
There are four steps, and the first one is the one we skip most often. It’s also the one that determines everything else.
Record of Rights and Data
Which websites, which shared files, which documents, which permissions. Anything that’s left too open will close before an assistant can read it.
That's half the project, and it's the half that retains its value no matter what happens next.
The use case: written and measured
What the assistant or agent should do, what they don’t do, to whom they delegate, and how we’ll know they’ve been helpful.
The Gradual Opening
One service, then a second, with licenses reallocated to those who use them. Usage is tracked weekly.
Maintenance
Business models change, licensing terms change, and practices evolve. Someone reviews the responses, the terms, and the invoice.
The scope is defined before we begin. What we’ll handle, what you’ll retain, and the boundaries clearly stated. The same engineers will work with you from the rights assessment through maintenance.
Related pages
Details on the technology, and the two other approaches to take when this one isn't enough.
Roll it out without a hitch during the first week
First, sort out the rights; then, consider real-world use cases; and finally, assess the scope. And why not start by purchasing just a few licenses?
View the page Copilot StudioAgents with a scope and permissions
An employee's job description: what they know, what they are authorized to do, when they hand over responsibility, and who supervises them.
View the page Microsoft AzureSwiss regions, Azure Local and the actual cost
Zurich, Genève (restricted access), and what the projection doesn't reveal about the third month's bill.
View the page SharePointThe source that the assistant reads to provide an answer
Permissions, restricted search, data storage location: what is configured SharePoint in the setup wizard.
View the page HybridWhen a party must remain on your premises
Microsoft's interface, sensitive data on your premises, and the line that must be drawn.
View the page On-premisesWhen Nothing Is Supposed to Come Out
The template, documents, and calculation on your web datacenter, and what is required to use them.
View the pageLet's talk about your use case
Let's start with the access map
Let us know where your documents are stored, what else is involved, and whether any Copilot licenses have been received or are expected. We’ll get back to you with the first use case to address, what needs to be resolved beforehand, and a written scope of work.
What we offer is the opportunity to meet with the engineers who will do the work. The assessment of rights and the project scope are part of the project. The discussion that precedes them is free of charge.
Renens, Sion, Châtel-Saint-Denis
Microsoft Solutions Partner. We also implement the other three architectures, which is what allows us to tell you when this one is sufficient.
Renens VD +41 21 806 37 15
Sion VS +41 27 552 00 22
Châtel-Saint-Denis FR +41 26 322 59 05