Xiaoying breaks down the new Azure Language features in Foundry Tools, highlighting privacy-first AI agents, advanced PII redaction, and deterministic intent routing for developers building enterprise solutions on Azure.

Announcing Azure Language in Foundry Tools for Deterministic, Privacy-First Agents

As the demand for robust and compliant AI agent architectures accelerates, Microsoft introduces new Azure Language capabilities within Foundry Tools. With a focus on privacy, security, and determinism, these tools equip developers to build agents that meet enterprise requirements for predictability and compliance.

Key Enhancements

Azure Language Remote MCP Server

  • Centralized Language AI Tools: Access a suite of API-driven Language AI services (PII redaction, intent detection, entity extraction, question answering, and more) through a cloud-hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, simplifying agent workflows.
  • Seamless Integration: Native support for Foundry resource endpoints, two authentication methods (key-based and Microsoft Entra ID/RBAC), and straightforward addition via Foundry portal or agent playground.
  • No infrastructure management: Cloud-hosted, fully managed, and agent-ready.

Supported Language AI Capabilities

  • PII Redaction: Protect privacy in text or native documents by detecting and masking personal identifiers.
  • Intent Detection (CLU): Accurately route user queries by extracting intents and entities from conversational messages.
  • Exact Question Answering: Retrieve grounded answers from configured knowledge bases, supporting compliance-heavy scenarios.
  • Named Entity Recognition & Healthcare Entity Extraction: Identify people, organizations, medical entities, and financial terms.
  • Sentiment Analysis & Opinion Mining: Monitor sentiment levels for customer support or stakeholder feedback workflows.
  • Text Summarization & Key Phrase Extraction: Highlight actionable insights from meetings, documents, and conversations.
  • Language Detection: Support multilingual workflows and onboarding for users in various locales.

Example Agent Patterns

  • Privacy-Preserving AI Assistants: Use PII Redaction for healthcare, claims, or sensitive HR workflows.
  • Case Routing: Leverage Intent Detection and sentiment analysis to automate customer inquiries and escalation.
  • Enterprise Knowledge Assistants: Deliver reliable, policy-grounded responses using knowledge-based QA.
  • Compliance & Operations: Turn large documents into structured insights with NER, summarization, and key phrase extraction.
  • Multilingual HR Assistants: Detect languages and extract relevant entities for global teams.
  • Meeting/Productivity Assistants: Summarize key decisions and follow-ups from transcripts or documents.

Getting Started

  1. Connect to MCP Endpoint
    • Example: https://{foundry-resource-name}.cognitiveservices.azure.com/language/mcp?api-version=2025-11-15-preview
  2. Authenticate
    • Use key from Foundry resource (for prototyping).
    • Use Microsoft Entra ID for RBAC in enterprise scenarios.
  3. Configure in Foundry Portal
    • Add from Foundry Tools catalog, or directly to agents via agent playground.

Integration in VS Code with GitHub Copilot

  • Connect Azure Language MCP server in VS Code (using mcp.json and correct headers).
  • Test redaction, intent, and other AI tools directly from your developer environment.

Advanced Privacy & PII Redaction

  • Improved Model (2025-11-15-preview): Supports more entity types (Airport, City, Geopolitical Entity, etc.) and enhanced accuracy.
  • Synthetic Replacement: Mask PII with realistic synthetic values for safer sharing and analysis.
  • Analytics: Confidence scores, entity offset, and detailed tags for granular review.
  • Customer Validation: Real-world improvements with users like Nationwide Building Society (over 90% redaction accuracy).

Deterministic Intent Routing with CLU

  • Multi-turn Understanding: Accurately interpret full conversation context for better intent prediction.
  • Slot-Filling: Map entities to intents, identify missing information, and enable smarter bot interactions for processes like flight booking.
  • Quick Deploy with LLM: Streamlined deployment and playground testing for custom CLU models.

Summary

With Azure Language in Foundry Tools, developers gain access to a scalable, privacy-first Language AI foundation built for modern agentic solutions. Whether you’re automating customer service, compliance tasks, or knowledge workflows, these tools enable confident innovation on Azure.

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