Jason Haley

Ramblings from an Independent Consultant

My Session at Boston Code Camp 40

Saturday was Boston Code Camp 40, hard to believe it is still going after all these years. We had a good turn out too! I presented “Agentic RAG”, which was very similar to the session I presented at the Memphis AgentCamp a couple of weeks ago. Due to all the traveling I’ve done since then, I didn’t have a lot of time to update it. Agentic RAG It was nice to have an in person group of attendees, so I was able to tailor the content to spend more time on what they wanted. I spent more time on the basics of RAG than Agentic RAG this time. Resources Python + Agents: Building AI agents and workflows with Agent Framework Docs Getting Started: Microsoft Agent Framework Github: Agent-Framework Agentic retrieval in Azure AI Search Azure-Search-Python-Samples – …

Posted by Jason on Tuesday, March 31, 2026

My Session at Memphis AgentCamp

Today is Memphis AgentCamp - you still have time to catch some sessions! The schedule is here: Schedule. As always Doug Starnes did a fantastic job organizing a multi-track conference. I’m always impressed at how well he organizes his events. I presented “Agentic RAG”, which was a long form of the session I presented at the Agent Framework Dev in January. This one was all new code too. Agentic RAG The presentation was a quick overview of traditional RAG and focused on using agent framework to build Agentic RAG. Resources Python + Agents: Building AI agents and workflows with Agent Framework Docs Getting Started: Microsoft Agent Framework Github: Agent-Framework Agentic retrieval in Azure AI Search Azure-Search-Python-Samples – agentic-retrieval-pipeline-example and …

Posted by Jason on Monday, March 16, 2026

My Session at Boston Code Camp 39

This past Saturday was Boston Code Camp 39 (fall edition). For those of you who don’t know, the Boston Code Camp is the one that started it all (back in 2004) - see wikipedia for more info … at this point it may also be the last remaining one (not sure.). I got to visit with many old friends that I mostly just see at Code Camp these days … many of which I met at a code camp some time in the past 20+ years. I did not get to attend any sessions due to taking the time to catch up with people instead. I presented a “lessons learned” session, which was well attended and very interactive. I had a lot of really good questions regarding RAG, chunking, etc. Lessons Learned from a Year of Building Copilot Agents & RAG Applications The presentation was a split …

Posted by Jason on Thursday, November 27, 2025

Hands-on Boston AgentCon Workshop

This past Saturday, I held my latest hands on workshop: From Static Files to Smart Agents: Unlocking Document Intelligence at AgentCon Boston. I ended up with around 30 attendees. There was quite a bit of interaction, with some real practical questions being asked about RAG and GenAI applications. Hand-on-Lab: From Static Files to Smart Agents: Unlocking Document Intelligence The repository is located at: https://github.com/JasonHaley/agentcon-boston-workshop What is it? The end result (which is the “completed” branch of the repo), is a Chainlit application designed to provide four use cases: Compare a clause between two contracts and get detail and risk analysis of the clause Analyze a clause that is in one contract but not the other Compare two complete contracts Create a …

Posted by Jason on Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Virtual Boston Azure AI - Microsoft Build Recap

Last night Bill, Udai, Veronika and I gave our top picks from Microsoft Build at the Virtual Boston Azure AI meetup. In order to not overlap topics, we each picked areas to cover - mine was Copilot and Copilot Studio. My picks: Copilot Wave 2 Spring release features – this was announced in April but still hasn’t landed for us. You’ll know when this lands due to the look of Copilot changing. The navigation will be on the left side of the screen with the new release (instead of the right where it is now). Publish custom agents to SharePoint sites – This adds SharePoint as a channel to push a Copilot Studio agent to. Additional maker controls for knowledge (Copilot Studio) – This is several things together: Ability to upload related files into a file collection Ability to change settings on …

Posted by Jason on Thursday, May 29, 2025

My Session at Boston Global AI Bootcamp

Yesterday was Boston Azure AI’s Edition of the Global AI Bootcamp at the NERD in Cambridge. We had a lot of interest in the event - 85 people on the RSVP list and almost that on the waitlist. Since the space we had couldn’t handle any more people, unfortunately we couldn’t let more people in. However since there was such good interest in a Saturday AI oriented bootcamp, we are working on planning another one soon - so if you happen to be one of those people that couldn’t attend - stay tuned! This year we only had one challenge with the facilities … lack of power strips. Thanks to Rich Crane and Mill 5 for getting a bunch of power strips at the last minute for us! Also a big thanks to Daymark for providing the breakfast and lunch - they were really good and …

Posted by Jason on Sunday, March 23, 2025

Boston Code Camp 37 Session

Yesterday was Boston Code Camp 37. I spent the majority of the day talking with people in the community I haven’t seen for awhile, as well as some new people I hadn’t met before. I only made it to one session (Juan Pablo Garcia Gonzalez - Agentic AI: Unlocking the Power of Multi-Agent Systems), which was good and got me thinking about how to rewrite my demos in my talk to use agents. It was nice to see a good amount of new (and younger) people attending the code camp. We always have a lot of student volunteers from Curry College that help out and the last couple of years I’ve noticed some of them still continue to attend even after they have graduated. After having a full day of socializing, I realized that I must be an introvert because my energy was gone. Talk: Using …

Posted by Jason on Sunday, November 24, 2024

Virtual Boston Azure Lunchtime November 2024

Today at lunchtime Bill Wilder and I spoke at the Virtual Boston Azure meetup. Our talks were based on the same material we presented on Tuesday night, however I introduced eShopSupport as well today. The recording of the session can be found on the (Lunchtime editions) Boston Azure YouTube channel. Talk: Add Gen AI to your existing .NET apps with Semantic Kernel & Azure SQL My part of the presentation PDF can be downloaded here. The resources: Semantic Kernel https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel Smart Components https://github.com/dotnet/smartcomponents eShopSupport https://github.com/dotnet/eShopSupport EFCore.SqlServer.VectorSearch https://github.com/efcore/EFCore.SqlServer.VectorSearch How to add genuinely useful AI to your webapp (not just chatbots) …

Posted by Jason on Friday, November 15, 2024

Virtual Boston Azure November 2024

Last night Bill Wilder and I spoke at the Virtual Boston Azure meetup. Our talks were about adding GenAI to .NET applications. My portion was mostly demos that focused on Azure SQL’s new native VECTOR support, Entity Framework Core and Semantic Kernel. The recording of the session can be found on the Boston Azure YouTube channel. Talk: Add Gen AI to your existing .NET apps with Semantic Kernel & Azure SQL The presentation pdf can be downloaded here. The resources: Semantic Kernel https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel Smart Components https://github.com/dotnet/smartcomponents EFCore.SqlServer.VectorSearch https://github.com/efcore/EFCore.SqlServer.VectorSearch How to add genuinely useful AI to your webapp (not just chatbots) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSNAvFJoP4M …

Posted by Jason on Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Techbash 2024

This week I presented at the TechBash conference in Pocono Manor, PA. All the resources for the conference are available on the TechBash GitHub repo. Below are links to my presentations specifically. It was great to see companies sending their employees to conferences again. This was my first time at TechBash, and I finally got to meet Alvin Ashcraft in person (the Morning Dew). I also met a bunch of people from the Philly area and around Pennsylvania, but there were attendees from all over-even a couple of guys from Panama! Talk: Getting Started with RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) The presentation pdf can be downloaded here. Talk: What is the Azure Dev CLI (AZD) and How Can You Use It? The presentation pdf can be downloaded here. If you have a questions or comments, please message …

Posted by Jason on Friday, September 27, 2024

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agent framework agentic rag agentic rag series agents ai assistants api azd azure azure ai search azure document intelligence azure sql career chainlit conferences container apps copilot copilot studio ef core entity framework core eshopsupport series evaluations function calling graph rag hands-on-lab langchain learning local rag series micrsoft build announcements neo4j ollama openai pc build personal update phi4 presentation python rag rag demo series semantic kernel semantic kernel hello world series sql sql server study notes series text-to-sql vpn
ABOUT ME
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Jason is an experienced developer and solutions architect focused on helping companies provide real business value with custom software development using the Microsoft stack of technologies. This includes C#, .NET, Azure and AI services. In 2024, Jason was awarded a Microsoft MVP in AI - highlighting his latest focus on AI and specifically Generative AI technologies in real world business applications. The prior seven years, he was a Microsoft Azure MVP.

Let's work together to find solutions that fit your needs. Reach out today to discuss how I can support your goals—I'm here to help!

Jason Haley MVP