From Microsoft 365 to Azure: unlocking AI potential

If you’re an advice firm using Microsoft, your next automation or AI project doesn’t need a new platform. It needs better use of the one you already have.

Most advice firms I know run on Microsoft 365, for good reason. It’s trusted to be enterprise-grade resilient, so it’s a foundation for storing and protecting the industry’s valuable client data.

But in meeting after meeting, I hear the same thing: firms using Microsoft 365 have bold new ideas for AI and automation, but have never even considered the bigger brother in the Microsoft stable, Azure. And that’s a missed opportunity.

If you’re on 365, Azure sits inside the same Microsoft ecosystem you already depend on. It’s usage-based, so when you design apps for it and govern it well, you unlock enormous capability for what is often a modest cost.

Tools like Logic Apps, Azure Functions and Azure AI Foundry give you the power to automate, integrate and innovate without adding new vendors into your tech stack.

For some firms, Azure looks daunting from a distance. But work with a good partner, start small and build confidence:

👉 Start with one workflow or feature.

👉 Leverage the built-in app connectors, especially into Microsoft 365.

👉 Put guardrails around cost and access from day one.

Do that, and you’ll find yourself innovating with a whole new level of power and flexibility, all within a relationship and platform you already trust.

I try to get wealth firms to think more creatively about their tech — to design an architecture that’s secure, scalable and ready for what’s next. 🙂