How Office Depot Powers Enterprise AI with Azure Cosmos DB | Mick Feller | Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2026
Microsoft Developer presents a customer story from Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2026 where Mick Feller (ODP Corporation / Office Depot) explains how his team built a homegrown enterprise AI app (“Personal Assistant”) on Azure Cosmos DB.
Full summary based on transcript
What the team built
- A homegrown enterprise AI application called the Personal Assistant.
- The app is built on Azure Cosmos DB as a core data platform component.
Data used to improve AI context
- Time-series analytics data is used alongside HR profile storage.
- The goal is to provide AI models with richer context (combining behavioral/temporal signals with user profile information).
Scaling and adoption
- The solution is designed for hands-off scaling.
- Internal adoption reportedly doubled year over year, and the platform scaled to match that growth.
Cost and performance controls
- The team emphasizes fine-grained cost control while maintaining performance.
- Automatic scale (autoscale) is highlighted as a key capability that influenced the decision to choose Cosmos DB.
Event and related resources
- Session is part of Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2026 (virtual developer event).
- Playlist: https://aka.ms/CosmosConf26Playlist
- Cosmos Conf Challenge (DP-420 voucher for first 500 completions): https://aka.ms/CosmosDBConfChallenge
- Post-event survey: https://aka.ms/CosmosConf2026Survey
- Conference site: https://aka.ms/azurecosmosdbconf