Introduction to Jean-Daniel Delaplagne and ITER
Jean-Daniel Delaplagne serves as the IT Section Leader for ITER, an organization he has been a part of for 15 years. ITER has a long-standing relationship with Microsoft, utilizing Office 365, Windows servers, and other Microsoft tools across the organization. However, over the past year, this partnership has expanded into new areas.

Enhancing Knowledge Management
"One of our primary objectives was to establish a more effective connection with our extensive knowledge base," Delaplagne explained. With over 20 years of knowledge and more than 1 million documents, ITER aimed to improve access to this valuable resource. To achieve this, Delaplagne’s team refined an Azure OpenAI Service chatbot designed to facilitate easier mining of the database. In collaboration with Microsoft partner Witivio, ITER has been working to integrate this knowledge platform with Microsoft 365 Copilot through the incorporation of agentic features. An example of an "agentic element" is a tool specifically designed to translate the hundreds of acronyms used by ITER.

The Benefits of the Chatbot
Delaplagne reported that the chatbot has proven to be highly beneficial in various ways. "Ultimately, we have been receiving high-quality answers to very technical questions regarding ITER’s knowledge," he stated. The chatbot excels not only in finding documents but also in extracting information from within documents and providing insight into different aspects of engineering and construction.

Expansion of Microsoft 365 Copilot
Following an initial beta testing phase with 50 users, ITER is now expanding its use of Microsoft 365 Copilot to over 300 licenses, with plans to further increase this number. Delaplagne noted that Copilot is being utilized for administrative tasks, such as initial evaluations of CVs, as well as for purchasing and inventory management.

Additional Applications of Azure OpenAI Service
The Azure OpenAI Service is also being employed to make the history of all IT tickets on file searchable. With approximately 40,000 requests for IT assistance each year, making the history of these help requests and solutions searchable could significantly speed up the resolution of common issues. According to Delaplagne, the system has been well-received thus far. Additionally, health and safety officers have leveraged Copilot to draft inspection methodologies and checklists, including generating open-ended questions.