AI for business. Not experiments.

A business-case-led AI deployment programme on Azure OpenAI and Copilot Studio. Proven in production in FDA-regulated South African companies, not stuck in a pilot.

Runs on

Summarise yesterday's exceptions and route them.

AI Value Framework

Evaluate gate. TCO and payback signed off before anything deploys.

Brian

Building Reports In AI Now · Bioforum

Bioforum AI framework, live

0 months

Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa

0 of 9

Microsoft-certified professionals

Azure regions in South Africa

Most AI dies in the pilot. Braintree ships to production with a business case first.

Most AI starts as scattered pilots. A chatbot here, a point tool there, none of them costed, none of them owned. They stall because they start with the tool, not the case. Braintree builds your AI on Microsoft Azure, runs every agent through the AI Value Framework, and deploys only where the TCO case is proven. The governance, the security and the business case signed off before anything goes live.

The Microsoft AI stack you'll run. Five products. One governed environment.

Azure AI Foundry. Built by Braintree

The platform Braintree builds on. Content safety, evaluations and a logged audit trail on every agent.

Content safety filters on every agent

Documented evaluation sets

Logged, reviewable audit trail. POPIA-aligned

Copilot Studio

Build, publish and govern custom agents. Low-code, grounded on your data, inside your Microsoft tenant.

Azure OpenAI

Frontier models run inside your Azure tenant. Your prompts and your data stay yours.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

AI inside Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel. The tools your people already use every day.

Grounded on your data

Grounds every agent in your own documents and data. Answers with citations, not guesses.

AI agents across the business. Deployed where they earn their case.

AI is not one product. Agents show up across operations, service, sales, finance and knowledge work. Braintree deploys the ones with a proven business case through the AI Value Framework, and builds custom agents on Azure AI Foundry where Microsoft does not yet ship a named one.

Operations

Automation Agent

Handles routine, repeatable tasks across your systems. People keep the judgement work. The agent takes the repetition.

Documents

Document Intelligence Agent

Reads, extracts and routes information from incoming documents and forms. The data lands where it belongs without manual capture.

Service

Service Response Agent

Drafts case responses grounded in your knowledge base. The agent answers. The human approves and sends.

Contact centre

Customer Assist Agent

Sits beside the human on the call. Surfaces answers from your knowledge base in real time. No hold music.

Sales

Sales Development Agent

Microsoft ran this agent on its own pipeline. 61,734 outreaches, 15.1% lead-to-opportunity, January to November 2025. A Microsoft-published benchmark.

Sales

Sales Briefing Agent

Briefs the seller on the account, the news and the stakeholders before the meeting. The seller walks in prepared.

Finance

Reporting Agent

Compiles and narrates management reports from your own data. The numbers and the commentary, drafted for review.

Finance

Reconciliation Agent

Matches records across systems and flags the exceptions. A human clears the short list, not the whole ledger.

Knowledge

Knowledge Agent

Answers staff questions from your policy and process documents, with citations back to the source.

Custom agents. Built by Braintree on Azure AI Foundry

Built for the use cases Microsoft does not yet ship a named agent. SA-grounded. Production. POPIA-aligned. Custom agents enter through the AI Value Framework. Same business case discipline as the named agents above.

Built by Braintree

Every agent action logged and reviewable. The record that lets the environment survive an audit. POPIA-aligned.

Discover, Evaluate, Deploy, Build.

Four stages. Business case first. The full TCO modelled. Deployed only where the case proves out.

Discover

Map the operations and workflows across your business where agents carry the strongest TCO case.

Evaluate

Full TCO and payback model. Presented to management. Sign-off before any deployment.

$ Management sign-off gate

Deploy

Microsoft and Azure AI agents, deployed only where the business case warrants them.

Build

Custom domain agents on Azure AI Foundry where Microsoft does not yet ship a named one.

Braintree does not deploy AI agents by default. We deploy them where the TCO case is proven.

The fork is what you build, not whether it is governed.

Some AI value is a named Microsoft agent switched on where the case is obvious. Some is a custom agent Braintree builds for a job Microsoft does not ship. Both run the AI Value Framework. Both are governed and audit-ready. The fork is the build, not the discipline.

Switch on a named Microsoft agent

Best when an off-the-shelf Microsoft agent already fits the job.

Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio agents, configured to your data and your tenant.
Live once the business case clears the Evaluate gate.
100+ Microsoft-certified specialists configure, ground and govern it.
Usually live in weeks once the case clears the gate.

A custom agent on Azure AI Foundry

Best when the job is specific to your business and Microsoft does not ship a named agent.

One Microsoft partner. One agreement. One unified, secure solution.

Most AI starts as scattered pilots. A chatbot here, a point AI tool there, each with its own contract, its own data path and its own security review. Braintree puts your AI inside one Microsoft agreement, on Azure, governed once. One agreement, one security posture, one accountable partner.

Separate tools, separate contracts.

Before. Pilot sprawl.

Governed once.

After. One Intelligent Agreement.

2 months

Bioforum. A secure AI framework on Azure, live in two months.

Bioforum is a South African biometric clinical research organisation. FDA-regulated, 200 employees. Braintree delivered a secure AI framework on Microsoft Azure in two months, and the FDA is reviewing it as an industry benchmark. The team built “Brian”, Building Reports In AI Now, on the same governed foundation.

FDA reviewing as a benchmark

The framework is under FDA review as an industry benchmark for governed AI.

"Brian", in production

Building Reports In AI Now. A custom agent on the same governed foundation.

The FDA is reviewing our AI framework as an industry benchmark. Braintree built it on Azure with the governance and audit trail in from day one.

Jacques van der Merwe, Director of IT, Bioforum

A do-it-yourself AI project, AI Jumpstart, and the practical winner.

What matters	Do-it-yourself pilot	AI Jumpstart with Braintree
Governance	Some policy, not enforced in the tooling	✓ Content safety, evaluations and an audit trail from day one
Data residency	Public AI clouds, US / EU / APAC	✓ Azure South Africa, Joburg and Cape Town. POPIA-aligned
Business case	A public tool and a credit card	✓ TCO and payback modelled before any deployment
Time to production	Easy to start, hard to finish	✓ Live in weeks once the case clears the gate
Ownership	Whoever built it, until they move on	✓ Braintree, with 100+ Microsoft-certified specialists
Cost to start	Low. A public tool and a credit card	A scoped engagement with a specialist team
5 to 1 in Braintree's favour. A do-it-yourself pilot is cheaper to start. It is also where most AI stalls. Honest.

Three specialists. One direct line. Plus the 8-minute readiness check.

Three specialists lead the AI Jumpstart practice. You talk to one of them, not an account manager, not a gate. Names land in your calendar invite when you book the scoping call.

Microsoft Certified · Azure AI

Microsoft Certified · Azure AI Foundry

Microsoft Certified · Azure & AI

How AI-ready is your business against the SA enterprise median?

8 questions, mapped against benchmarks from 220+ SA clients. You get a tier, above median, at median, or below median, and the actions to close the gap.

From scoping call to AI in production in three steps.

Tell us what you run today

Your data, your systems, the workflows you would point an agent at, your security and compliance constraints. Five to ten minutes on your side.

Get the opportunity map

Braintree returns a scoped AI opportunity map, the agent candidates and the AI Value Framework TCO view. Inside five business days.

Review with the practice lead

Review the opportunity map, shortlist the agents, choose the fork, named or custom, and discuss the South African data residency answer. No sales pitch.

What leaders ask before they book.

Where does our data live if Braintree builds our AI?

On Microsoft Azure South Africa North in Johannesburg, with three Availability Zones, or Microsoft Azure South Africa West in Cape Town. Your models, your prompts and the data they are grounded on run there. POPIA-aligned by default. The Information Regulator’s 2026/27 priorities shifted from reactive complaints to proactive industry sweeps. The first direct-marketing fine of R100,000 was issued to FT Rams Consulting. The maximum penalty is R10 million or 10 years. A public AI cloud routes your data offshore. Braintree keeps it in South Africa.

What does "built to audit" actually mean?

Every agent Braintree builds carries content safety filters, a documented evaluation set and a logged trail of what it did and why. If a regulator, an auditor or your own board asks how the AI reached a decision, the record exists. Bioforum’s AI environment, built by Braintree on Azure, is being reviewed by the FDA as an industry benchmark. Governance is built in from day one, not bolted on after an incident.

We have tried AI pilots before and they stalled. Why is this different?

Most pilots stall because they start with the tool, not the business case. The AI Value Framework runs the other way. Stage 01 Discover maps where an agent would actually earn its keep. Stage 02 Evaluate models the ROI and TCO and puts a go or no-go gate in front of management. Nothing deploys until the case is signed off. The pilots that stall are the ones nobody costed. Braintree does not deploy AI agents by default. We deploy them where the ROI is proven.

Do we need Microsoft 365 Copilot, or custom agents, or both?

It depends on the job. Where Microsoft already ships a named agent that fits, you deploy it: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio agents, configured to your tenant. Where the job is specific to your business and Microsoft does not ship a named agent, Braintree builds a custom one on Azure AI Foundry, grounded on your own data and rules. Most businesses run both. The scoping call sorts which is which.

How long does it take and what does it cost?

A named Microsoft agent, configured and governed, is usually live in weeks once the business case clears the Evaluate gate. A custom agent on Azure AI Foundry is scoped per use case, typically 4 to 12 weeks. Cost depends on the agents in scope and your Azure consumption. The 5-day scoped response after your call gives you the opportunity map and the ROI view before you commit to anything. Bioforum’s full secure AI framework was delivered in two months.

Will our data train a public AI model?

No. Azure OpenAI runs the models inside your own Azure tenant. Your prompts and your data are not used to train the underlying models and are not shared with other customers. Custom agents on Azure AI Foundry are grounded on your data through retrieval, not by retraining a model on it. Your information stays your information. That is the difference between enterprise AI on Azure and a consumer AI tool.

Who owns and runs the AI after it goes live?

Braintree. The agents and the data they use sit under one Microsoft Customer Agreement, with one accountable partner. 100+ Microsoft-certified specialists own the run-state: monitoring, evaluations, updates and the audit trail. A do-it-yourself pilot is owned by whoever built it, until they move on. AI in production needs an owner who is still there in a year.

Why Braintree?

Three answers. Credentials. Braintree is one of three Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa, with 220+ SA clients, 100+ Microsoft-certified professionals and 10+ years delivering Microsoft solutions. Data residency. The only honest answer to “your AI and its data stay in South Africa” comes from a partner with SA Azure operations. Method. The AI Value Framework gates every agent against ROI, every time. Most partners sell the AI catalogue. Braintree sells the case for each agent. We do not deploy AI agents by default. We deploy them where the ROI is proven.

Insights for leaders evaluating enterprise AI.

Governance

Built to ship, built to audit. Why AI governance is not optional in 2026.

Content safety, evaluation sets, audit trails and POPIA. The governance an AI environment needs before anyone asks how it works.

Where AI agents actually earn their keep. Five business areas.

Agents

Operations, customer service, sales, finance, knowledge work. The honest map of where an agent pays for itself.

TCO

The AI Value Framework. Why we model the TCO before we deploy an agent.

Discover, Evaluate, Deploy, Build. The four-stage gate that keeps AI projects from stalling in pilot.

AI Jumpstart sits inside the Microsoft estate.

Modern Workplace

Where Copilot lands and sticks. Microsoft 365 Copilot is AI inside the tools your people already use. Modern Workplace is the licensing and adoption layer that makes it stick.

CRM

The systems agents reach into. An agent is only as useful as the systems it reaches into. A modern Dynamics 365 core gives your AI clean processes and data to act on.

Data & Analytics

The data under every agent. An agent is only as good as the data under it. Microsoft Fabric and Power BI give your AI a single, governed source of truth to reason over.

Let's grow.

Book the 30-minute scoping call. We map where AI pays back in your
business, model the TCO, and tell you what to build first. No pitch deck.

Specialists in Business Applications, Modern Workplace and Azure.