Skip to main content

Spotto Chat: Investigate Your Cloud With AI

Overview​

Spotto Chat is the AI investigation assistant inside the Spotto Portal. Ask it "What is happening here?", "What should I do next?", or "What does Microsoft recommend for this?" without leaving the page you are on.

It gathers evidence from your Spotto data before it answers, cites its sources, and can bring in current Microsoft documentation and Azure pricing when the question needs them.

Why use this? (Jobs, pains, gains)​

Jobs to be done​

  • When I am on a page and need fast context, I want to ask about what I am looking at right now, so I do not have to manually reconstruct the story from several panels.
  • When I am investigating a wider problem, I want to ask across my environment, so I can move from one page to a connected cloud question without restarting the analysis somewhere else.
  • When I need current vendor guidance, I want to check Microsoft documentation and pricing context in the same workflow, so I do not lose time or accuracy by tab-hopping.
  • When I am making prioritization decisions, I want evidence and citations, so the answer can survive contact with engineers, FinOps, and security reviewers.

Common pains​

  • Cloud questions are rarely isolated to one screen, but most tools act like they are.
  • Provider documentation is useful, but leaving the investigation flow to find it breaks momentum.
  • Pricing and best-practice answers get stale quickly when they are copied into internal notes.
  • "AI answers" are hard to trust when they arrive with no evidence trail or no visible access boundaries.

Key capabilities​

Choose a chat mode​

Switch between the two modes at the top of the chat. Use the page mode for questions about what you are looking at, and Cloud Estate for questions across your subscriptions.

Spotto Chat has two modes, picked in the chat header. Page mode is named after the page you are on, for example Recommendations Page. It uses the page you are on and its filters, the subscriptions selected on that page, and that page's own tools and guidance. Example question: which of these filtered recommendations are quick wins? Cloud Estate mode is not tied to the page. It uses all available reports for the selected subscriptions, tools from every page within one company, and saved company strategy and objectives. Example question: where is secure score weakest across these subscriptions? In both modes: chat sees only what you can see, because Spotto resolves your company and subscriptions on the server and feature sets, permissions and hidden recommendation categories apply to chat too; chat looks up current facts from Microsoft Learn documentation and Azure retail prices, read-only; and chat never changes Azure. It reads Azure data only. A few Spotto actions, such as a tag rule, an alert or a recommendation comment, wait for your approval.Spotto Chat has two modes, picked in the chat header. Page mode is named after the page you are on, for example Recommendations Page. It uses the page you are on and its filters, the subscriptions selected on that page, and that page's own tools and guidance. Example question: which of these filtered recommendations are quick wins? Cloud Estate mode is not tied to the page. It uses all available reports for the selected subscriptions, tools from every page within one company, and saved company strategy and objectives. Example question: where is secure score weakest across these subscriptions? In both modes: chat sees only what you can see, because Spotto resolves your company and subscriptions on the server and feature sets, permissions and hidden recommendation categories apply to chat too; chat looks up current facts from Microsoft Learn documentation and Azure retail prices, read-only; and chat never changes Azure. It reads Azure data only. A few Spotto actions, such as a tag rule, an alert or a recommendation comment, wait for your approval.

Investigate with evidence, not just autocomplete​

For deeper questions, Spotto Chat plans the work, gathers the right evidence, uses specialist reasoning where needed, and then writes one answer with its sources. Hard cloud questions are rarely solved by one query and one guess.

Check official Microsoft guidance when current facts matter​

When your question depends on current vendor guidance, Spotto Chat can search official Microsoft documentation, for example:

  • best practices for a service or architecture decision
  • implementation guidance for a Microsoft feature
  • current service behavior, limits, or feature documentation

Add pricing context without leaving the investigation​

Spotto Chat can look up current Azure retail prices to compare SKUs, regions, and purchase options such as pay-as-you-go, reservations, and savings plans. Treat these as current list prices for comparison, not invoice guarantees.

Use saved priorities as additional context​

In Cloud Estate mode, the company strategy and objectives saved in the Portal give chat extra context for prioritization and tradeoff questions. For setup, see Companies.

See progress, citations, and approvals​

Depending on the question, you see progress updates during the investigation, citations and supporting sources, and an approval step before any action.

How it differs from external AI assistants​

External AI assistants connected through Spotto MCP are useful when you want Spotto data in your own preferred client.

Spotto Chat is different:

  • it lives inside the Portal where the current page context already exists
  • it can start from the resource, recommendation, or investigation surface you are looking at
  • it is designed to hand off naturally into Spotto features like Recommendations, Cost Analysis, Cost Tree, and Security

Use external assistants when you want Spotto data in another client. Use Spotto Chat when you want the Portal itself to become the investigation workspace.

Security and data handling​

  • Spotto enforces access on the server. The model does not decide what data it can access, and tool access is deny-by-default.
  • Text inside your data, such as resource names, tags, and notes, is treated as data, never as instructions to the assistant.
  • Actions that change Spotto settings run only after you approve the exact change, and only if your role allows that change outside chat too.
  • External lookups send only the structured arguments needed for that lookup.
  • Conversation history and audit records are stored in Spotto-controlled storage for continuity and traceability.
  • Where AI features are enabled, prompts and completions are processed through Azure Foundry model endpoints, with additional Spotto application-layer controls on top.

Limitations​

  • Spotto Chat only works within the scope you are authorized to access. It will not widen access to reach a subscription, company, or resource outside that scope.
  • Chat appears only when AI chat is enabled for your company and your role allows it.
  • Current-information lookups depend on the provider being available for the turn.
  • Pricing guidance is useful for comparison and prioritization, but it is not a contract or invoice forecast.
  • Some questions still require human judgment, especially when the answer involves production risk, organizational constraints, or change-management decisions.

Troubleshooting​

Chat cannot see the data I expected​

What you're seeing: Spotto Chat says it cannot access the subscription, resource, or context you expected.
Likely causes:

  • Your current company or subscription selection does not include that scope.
  • The page mode is too narrow for the question you asked.
  • A feature set or recommendation category is hidden for your company or role.
  • The underlying data has not synced yet. How to fix:
  1. Confirm you are in the correct company and subscription selection.
  2. Switch to Cloud Estate for questions that span the selected subscriptions.
  3. If the issue persists, validate that the resource or subscription is onboarded and synced in Spotto.

Chat asks for approval before continuing​

What you're seeing: Spotto Chat asks you to confirm an action instead of continuing immediately.
Likely cause: The requested step changes something in Spotto, such as a tag rule, an alert, or a recommendation comment.
How to fix:

  1. Review the action carefully.
  2. Approve it only if it matches the intended change.
  3. If you expected a read-only answer, rephrase the question to make it clear you want analysis or guidance rather than action.

The answer mentions documentation or pricing caveats​

What you're seeing: The answer includes a note about freshness, source limitations, or current vendor guidance.
Likely cause: The question depended on information that changes over time, such as Microsoft documentation, service behavior, or pricing.
How to fix:

  1. Treat the cited answer as the current guidance for the time of the lookup.
  2. Follow the linked citations or referenced feature pages if you need to validate the detail further.
  3. Re-run the question later if you need a refreshed pricing or vendor-doc view.
Optimize Your Azure Environment

Looking to enhance your cloud setup for cost efficiency, performance, reliability, or security?

Talk to a cloud specialist. Email us or schedule a 30-minute consultation and let's optimize your cloud environment together.

Book a Free Consultation