Students and small businesses using Azure tend to not understand when and how they can save money on cloud services.
I designed an AI agent that guided them to make smarter, more cost-effective decisions, and automated 70% of user's cost optimization process.
Timeline
June - September 2025
Role
UX Design Lead, Design Strategy
Collaboration
Azure Growth Experience team: Designers, Researchers, PM, Engineers
PREVIEW
A glance of an AI-assisted optimization process
Cost Simulator
The AI agent helps users visualize potential cost changes for each action they plan to take on the portal, so they can make a decision whether to move forward.
Autonomous AI action under human control
The agent can directly make changes to cloud services with the user’s approval. Users reserve full control over AI by monitoring and intervening its actions.
This is a dashboard tool that enables users monitor their spending on Azure cloud services.
It offers insights to help users stay within budget and reduce unnecessary costs.
Microsoft Azure is a complex system, and a lot of users don't understand how to manage their spending wisely and save money.
This is a huge problem specifically to users who have limited budget and limited technical experience.
Then what do users need to break out of this cycle?
users are interested in AI-based cost optimization suggestions
(A startup developer)
How Might We…
"Push the boundaries and go beyond the existing patterns. Just be creative."
Working on AI features for a legacy system like Microsoft Azure, I was still encouraged to explore visionary, futuristic concepts. Therefore, I explored how AI could be integrated naturally across the site and proactively support users exactly where they need it, instead of making them turn to the chatbot for help.
Cost Optimization User Flow
The AI agent is able to keep track of user's spending habit and proactively provide ways to optimize costs.
The suggestions are displayed on the dashboard to explain what's wrong with the current spending habit, how to improve it, and guide users to the next steps.
Final dashboard
After giving optimization suggestions, the AI agent helps users visualize potential cost changes, so they can make a decision whether to move forward.
As cloud users are mindful of their spending, this feature provides them with clear visibility into pricing whenever purchasing or modifying services.
What else can Copilot Agent do beside generating cost simulation?
What makes it different than regular chatbots?
Beside passively answering user's questions, the AI Agent in Azure Cost Management can autonomously suggest ways to optimize costs whenever possible, and directly make changes to cloud services with the user’s approval.
This feature is especially helpful for users who are new to Azure, lack cloud experience, or simply don’t have the time to manage cost optimization themselves.
The core priority of the process was to help users build trust with AI and feel more comfortable using AI features by maintaining transparency and human control.
Users have the ability to…
I tested the prototype with 8 users from diverse backgrounds—including students and tech professionals—with varying levels of cloud experience (beginner to intermediate) and from different regions across America, Europe, and Asia. The outcome was promising.
87%
Participants said the user flow was easy to comprehend, and the visual design and content were intuitive
70-75%
of the user process was automated by Copilot Agent, which gave users ease of mind
At the same time, I also received some valuable constructive feedback that could help me and the team improve the design further:
The transition between tabs and subpages under Cost Overview could be confusing
Some features/ buttons were vague or not noticeable
Some text content is lengthy
Responsible AI
Being assigned to work on an AI-first project, I always reminded myself the most important goal was to remain user-centric and make sure my AI-powered design could solve user problems.
Think outside the box
As a designer, I’m often encouraged to follow the design systems, but in this project, I was given the creative freedom to explore new design elements. This experience taught me to take bold steps beyond the patterns I had limited myself to, create something new, and demonstrate its usability to the team.
Two-way collaboration
As a young designer, I’ve always seen collaboration as a way to learn from others and get feedback on my work. But this project showed me that my ideas could also contribute to others’ projects and inspire them. My design turned out to be more influential than I expected!
Although this was my second internship with Microsoft, the experience didn't remain the same. I worked on a different product space, had a new manager and some new team members, and even got to connect with some of them in an in-person summer party! I learned a lot from this half-new-half-familiar internship experience.
