Making Enterprise Generative AI Accessible Across a Medical School

Indiana University School of Medicine is a national leader in medical research and education, offering programs across nine campuses throughout Indiana. As the largest medical school in the United States, the institution emphasizes modern medical information and advanced research training.

To support a new generative AI initiative, IUSOM sought a way to provide students, faculty, and administrators with secure AI tools that aligned with institutional governance, privacy, and security requirements. New Era Technology partnered with the organization to help identify and implement an approach capable of delivering enterprise-grade AI capabilities at scale.

Overview

IUSOM launched a generative AI initiative focused on making emerging AI technologies accessible across the institution. Leadership sought a solution that would enable innovation while maintaining alignment with academic data governance and privacy standards.

Initially, stakeholders explored the possibility of creating a custom ChatGPT-style application on Azure infrastructure. As discussions progressed, New Era Technology introduced Microsoft Copilot Studio as an alternative approach capable of providing scalability, security, and ease of use while reducing development complexity.

Balancing Innovation, Accessibility, and Governance

As interest in generative AI increased across the institution, IUSOM needed a solution that could support faculty, staff, and administrative users while remaining aligned with privacy and governance requirements. The organization wanted to encourage innovation without creating unnecessary technical barriers for future users.

The institution also faced a decision between building a custom AI application and adopting an existing platform. Any solution would need to provide strong security controls, support broad adoption, and allow the organization to realize value quickly while maintaining confidence in governance and oversight.

For educational leaders exploring generative AI, balancing accessibility, security, governance, and cost often determines whether AI initiatives can successfully scale across the broader institution.

A Scalable and Secure Alternative to Custom Development

Microsoft Copilot Studio is a low-code and no-code platform that allows organizations to create AI-powered solutions without extensive development resources. The platform provides built-in security and governance features while continuously receiving new AI capabilities from Microsoft.

New Era Technology recommended Microsoft Copilot Studio as a more economical alternative to developing a custom ChatGPT-like application. The engagement was executed in two phases. During Phase I, New Era delivered Microsoft's Copilot Studio in a Day curriculum to a cross-functional team over the course of one week. During Phase II, New Era provided six weeks of consulting support focused on identifying use cases and building proof-of-concept solutions.

As part of the engagement, New Era maintained proactive communication regarding platform updates and opportunities, provided hands-on support during proof-of-concept development, and served as an on-call partner to support emerging priorities.

Accelerating Time to Value Across the Institution

The implementation demonstrated how educational institutions can rapidly and securely deploy generative AI capabilities across their organizations. By leveraging Microsoft Copilot Studio, IUSOM gained a platform that enabled rapid deployment of AI solutions while maintaining alignment with institutional security and governance requirements.

The engagement also helped make AI solution development more accessible to users without coding expertise. Through the platform's low-code and no-code capabilities, faculty and staff were able to participate more directly in creating AI solutions while benefiting from continuous platform innovation and enterprise-grade security.

The success of the engagement demonstrated how a secure, scalable AI platform can help institutions accelerate time to value while providing a foundation for ongoing innovation and adoption.

High-Level Benefits

The engagement delivered value by helping IUSOM accelerate AI adoption, reduce development complexity, and enable secure innovation across the institution.

Accessibility for non-technical users

Faculty and staff without coding expertise could create AI solutions using the platform's low-code and no-code capabilities.

Faster time to value

Solutions that traditionally required months of development could be deployed in days, helping the institution accelerate adoption and experimentation.

Reduced development costs

The platform provided a more economical alternative than developing and maintaining a custom-built AI application.

Enterprise-grade security and governance

Built-in security and knowledge source management features helped address privacy, governance, and data protection requirements.

Continuous innovation

Automatic access to new AI capabilities ensured the institution could benefit from ongoing platform improvements and emerging innovations.

New Era Technology helped Indiana University School of Medicine accelerate its generative AI initiative by implementing Microsoft Copilot Studio as a secure, scalable, and cost-effective alternative to custom development. Through a combination of training, consulting, and ongoing support, the organization was able to explore use cases, develop proof-of-concept solutions, and expand access to generative AI capabilities across the institution.

By combining low-code development capabilities, enterprise-grade security, and continuous platform innovation, the solution demonstrated how educational institutions can rapidly deploy AI technologies while maintaining alignment with governance and privacy requirements.