The Microsoft AI Insider's Playbook: Your Guide to Cloud Strategy and Digital Transformation

By Krishna C. Mukherjee

Embark on a journey from the foundations of Microsoft's early innovations to today's AI-powered enterprise solutions. Beginning with the evolution from BASIC to Windows and Office, this book shows how usability, scalability, and automation shaped the modern technology landscape. Along the way, you will explore landmark systems such as the Intelligent Filing Manager, discover the power of declarative programming, and gain insights into building efficient processes and scaling Agile in a cloud-first world. Moving from principles to practice, the book dives deep into the technologies driving today's digital transformation. With dedicated chapters on Azure, SaaS, and strategic cloud-AI architecture, the book offers a detailed exploration of Azure AI Services, the Copilot ecosystem, and the Power Platform. By weaving together history, case studies, and practical guidance, this playbook equips you to effectively harness the Microsoft cloud and AI stack. Most books stop at features, documentation, and step-by-step tutorials. This one goes further. Written by a former principal architect on Microsoft's core engineering teams, it draws on over three decades of building and deploying enterprise systems. It connects hard-won lessons from the past with the demands of modern AI-driven organizations. The result is a practical, insider's view of Microsoft's AI and cloud strategy--so you understand not just the what and how, but the why.
What You Will Learn Map business processes, assess data readiness, quantify impact, and prioritize a staged roadmap from proof of concept to production Design and build enterprise solutions using low-code, cloud, and AI-driven development approaches Architect and implement Azure AI Services (now Foundry Tools)--including Azure OpenAI Service, Speech, Language, Vision, and Document Intelligence--to build enterprise-grade conversational AI and virtual assistants Apply reference patterns for data pipelines, retrieval-augmented applications, model serving, and SaaS integration--balancing latency, reliability, quality, and cost Put governance, security, privacy, compliance, monitoring, drift detection, incident response, and cost control into daily practice Who This Book Is For Enterprise and cloud architects, Azure practitioners, and data and machine learning leaders responsible for planning or executing AI-driven digital transformation. IT managers, solution architects, and business technologists exploring Microsoft's low-code and AI platforms will also find practical guidance throughout.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GRZ3BBB8
• ISBN13: 9798868827297
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Apress L. P.
• Length: 680 Pages
• Weight: 2.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.0" x 10.0"