Bespoke vs. Off-the-Shelf AI: The Faster Path to Business Value
Join Microsoft and Celestial Systems at Microsoft's San Francisco office for an intimate, invitation-only workshop. You'll leave with a concrete view of what purpose-built Agentic AI looks like in practice — and what it takes to build it on the Microsoft AI stack.
The workshop will demonstrate how bespoke, organization-specific AI solutions consistently outperform off-the-shelf third-party tools in delivering measurable ROI and strategic advantage.
The session will highlight how a purpose-built Bespoke AI approach:
Solves domain-specific problems with greater precision
Accelerates AI adoption across business functions
Reduces total cost of ownership compared to generic tools
Enhances security, compliance, and data governance
Delivers superior business outcomes and decision intelligence through leadership-ready dashboards
Additionally, we will demonstrate how leveraging Microsoft's integrated stack significantly shortens the learning curve, enabling both business and technology teams to rapidly design, deploy, and scale AI solutions with confidence.
Agenda
2:00–2:15 PM — Welcome & Opening Remarks
2:15–3:00 PM — Session 1: Building Purpose-Built Agentic AI Solutions
Walkthroughs of production-grade Agentic AI solutions built for enterprise clients
Where off-the-shelf alternatives fell short, and why purpose-built won
The architectural choices behind each — Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Fabric, and the Power Platform
3:00–3:15 PM — Coffee Break & Networking
3:15–4:00 PM — Session 2: Build and Scale AI Solutions on Azure
The Azure AI Foundry stack
Designing with the best models
Model development to deployment and monitoring
Building safe, trustworthy AI
Microsoft Fabric for data foundation and AI-ready analytics
How these pieces come together for real-world enterprise scenarios
4:00–4:30 PM — Networking & Close
Our Speakers
Devanshi Thakar — Partner Solutions Architect, Microsoft
Devanshi is a Partner Solutions Architect at Microsoft, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been with Microsoft for over five years, with OpenHack coaching certifications in AI-Powered Knowledge Mining and Modern Data Warehousing. She holds a BS in Computer Science and Technology Information Management from UC Santa Cruz.
Maurice Chang — AI Strategist & Architect, Celestial Systems
Maurice is a trusted strategic advisor to senior business executives and a hands-on developer of AI applications. After 20+ years of management consulting and engineering experience at PwC, EY, and IBM, he co-founded Digital^Shift to focus on AI, ML, and NLP, helping clients with AI pilots, proof-of-concepts, and managed services. Maurice is a licensed Professional Engineer (BASc, University of Toronto) and holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business, with certifications in data science and cloud engineering from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Washington, and Google.
Lakshmi Chandra — Director of Solutions, Celestial Systems
Lakshmi brings over a decade of enterprise technology experience, including deep specialization in AI enablement and cloud architecture at Celestial Systems. He has architected and delivered more than 20 enterprise AI and data solutions on the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, with a focus on helping organizations in regulated industries meet data sovereignty and compliance requirements.
The Venue
Microsoft Office
555 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94104
Microsoft's office at 555 California Street in downtown San Francisco — in the Financial District, easily accessible from BART and Muni.
About Us
Microsoft — Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Its AI platform — Azure AI, Azure OpenAI Service, Copilot Studio, Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft Fabric, and the Power Platform — provides the foundation for purpose-built enterprise AI.
Celestial Systems — Founded in 2001, Celestial Systems combines a heritage of industry leadership in application engineering with deep expertise in AI solutions. With headquarters in Vancouver and a fully in-house engineering team, Celestial empowers organizations to leverage the power of AI in practical, responsible ways — unlocking new opportunities, reducing risk, and sharpening their competitive advantage.
Space is limited to ensure meaningful conversation. Register now to secure your spot.