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If you're scheduling AI agents in Azure, you've probably defaulted to Azure Functions. But Microsoft Foundry just introduced something that might change your approach — Foundry Routines. I recently built the same AI agent health check using both Azure Functions and Foundry Routines to see how they compare. The results were eye-opening. The Use Case I created an AI agent called HealthCheckAgent in Microsoft Foundry with a web search tool.  The goal: ping the agent every 10 minutes, verify it responds, check if it used the web search tool, and log a status summary. Simple enough. But the setup complexity was very different depending on which approach I used. Azure Functions: Powerful but Heavy To get a Python timer-triggered Azure Function running, I needed a Function App (Flex Consumption plan since Python requires Linux), a Storage Account, Managed Identity with Entra ID authentication, IAM role assignments on the Foundry resource, three environment variables, and a deployment ...

Stop Guessing — Here's How to Pick the Right AI Model in Azure AI Foundry A quick guide for developers and AI builders who want a smarter, data-driven approach . Most people choose an AI model by reputation — "GPT-4o is popular, so I'll use that." But for AI agents that make real decisions, call external tools, and run multiple model calls per task, that guess can cost you in three ways: wasted money, sluggish responses, and broken workflows. Azure AI Foundry already has everything you need to choose smarter. You just have to know where to look. The Four Things That Actually Matter Before picking any model, evaluate it across four dimensions: Quality — benchmark scores across reasoning, coding, and Q&A tasks. Important, but don't over-index on general averages if your use case is specialized. Cost — not just per-token pricing, but total cost per completed agent task. An agent that makes 10 model calls per task spends 10× what a simple chatbot does. That math c...

Today’s post is a little different — and very close to my heart. My 10‑year‑old son, Advik, has been talking a lot about turning 11 soon. But instead of asking for gifts or planning a party, he surprised me with something completely unexpected. He said,  “I want to start earning my own pocket money. I want to work for it.” And honestly, that one sentence made me pause. At 10, I was definitely not thinking about earning or creating anything. But he has this spark — this excitement to build something on his own. So, he came up with an idea:  “What if I make activity books for kids?” And that’s exactly what he did. After days of choosing puzzles, testing pages, arguing about which ones were “fun enough,” and learning how books are made… he finally created his first one: 🕵️‍♂️ I Spy Secret Missions – 35‑Page Activity Book (Ages 5–7) It’s colorful, cute, and full of little challenges that kids love. And the best part? He is so proud of it. We’ve priced it at just $3 for the launch...

Have you ever spent hours trying to design a landing page, only to end up with something that looks... average? I've been there. That's exactly why I got excited when I discovered MotionSites.ai. What Is It? MotionSites is a library of premium AI prompts built specifically for web design. You pick a template, copy the prompt, paste it into an AI tool like Lovable or Claude, and within seconds you get a fully animated, professional-looking website section — no design skills required. What I Built I used one of their prompts to create an animated character carousel called TOONHUB — complete with smooth color transitions, depth effects, grain overlays, and responsive layouts. The whole thing came together on the first try. Watch me build it here: Why It Works The magic is in the prompts. Each one is packed with design decisions — fonts, animations, spacing, color palettes — that would normally take hours to figure out. You're not just saving time, you're borrowing expertis...

If you have spent any time building AI agents, you have probably run into this moment: you tell your agent something important, it responds perfectly, and then one message later it acts like the conversation never happened. Blank slate. No memory. Total amnesia. This is not a quirk. It is how large language models work by design. Every call to the model is stateless. Without explicit history being passed back each time, the model starts fresh on every turn. Context Providers are how the Microsoft Agent Framework solves this — and they do a lot more than just memory. What Is a Context Provider? A Context Provider is a class that wraps around every LLM call your agent makes. It gets two hooks: one before the call and one after. Before the call fires, the provider can inject anything into the conversation — previous messages, today's menu, user preferences, business rules, tool definitions. The LLM sees all of it before generating a response. After the call fires, the provider can ext...

Learn how to use Claude AI to audit your car insurance, find hidden discounts, and negotiate a lower premium — with 13 simple copy-paste prompts. Most people renew their car insurance every year without reading a single line of their policy. The number goes up slightly, they sigh, and they pay it. Insurance companies have built their entire business model around this habit. Here is what they do not tell you: they are legally required to justify every charge on your policy. Every coverage, every fee, every add-on. The only catch is that you have to ask. And now, with Claude AI, asking has never been easier. What Is Claude AI and Why Does It Work for Car Insurance? Claude is a free AI assistant at claude.ai. No technical skills needed. What makes it powerful for car insurance is simple — it reads complex documents, runs financial calculations, and generates professional scripts in plain language. Everything a good insurance broker would do, without the commission motive. You upload your ...

✨ “Wait… me? In the top 5? I had to blink twice. Honored!” Just spotted my name in a "Top 5 list for Claude Code projects" — and I genuinely had to blink twice. Moments like this remind me why I keep building, experimenting, breaking things, fixing things… and sharing every step of the journey. From custom MCP servers  to Claude specs  to local AI workflows —  it’s surreal to see the work resonate. Grateful. Energized. And absolutely fired up for what’s next ✨ Onwards — the star era continues 🌟 5 Fun Projects Using Claude Code - KDnuggets