EY accelerates secure AI development using Microsoft Purview SDK

EY wanted to help clients adopt GenAI while mitigating data oversharing and loss. That required a way to embed data security, compliance, and governance directly into the custom applications the EY teams were building.

The firm adopted Microsoft Purview SDK to embed policy-based controls into AI apps, applying sensitivity labels, monitoring AI interactions, and logging activity to support compliance and secure-by-design deployment at scale.

By using Microsoft Purview SDK early in development, EY cut secure feature build time by 25%–30%. Teams now design with data security and compliance in mind, reducing delays and enabling faster rollout of GenAI tools in regulated environments.

EY has long helped clients navigate complex challenges in finance, tax, and risk. As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes industries, EY sees a defining opportunity in harnessing generative AI (GenAI) to accelerate the customer transformation journey while upholding the highest standards of data security, compliance, and governance. Many of the firm’s clients operate in highly regulated industries, where compliance and control are non-negotiable. As organizations increasingly adopt GenAI, the risks of data oversharing and leakage are also growing. Meeting expectations at scale requires a foundation of trust and a strategy that expands responsibly across complex global enterprises. For EY, that means helping clients adopt GenAI without compromising control, security, or accountability.

“Customers want to use GenAI, but they do not want to sacrifice data security and compliance. By using the Purview SDK, we are able to apply protections and observability directly into the design.”

Sumanta Kar, Partner, Innovation and Emerging Tech, EY

Creating AI environments grounded in data security

Achieving that vision required a new approach to application design. EY needed a way to embed data security and compliance directly into their AI platform and customize agents to gain visibility into AI interactions. Rather than construct safeguards from scratch, it chose the Microsoft Purview SDK, a set of APIs and tools that support policy-based access, protection controls, and oversight of sensitive content.

Using EY.ai, the firm’s GenAI platform for responsible innovation, EY has built Dragonfly, a low-code environment for creating and managing intelligent agents and AI workflows with data security and compliance built in upfront via integration with Purview SDK. “Customers want to use GenAI, but they do not want to sacrifice data security and compliance,” says Sumanta Kar, Partner, Innovation and Emerging Tech at EY. “By using the Purview SDK, we are able to apply protections and observability directly into the platform design.”

To support the platform’s design, Sumanta Kar’s team developed a pipeline that routed AI interactions data from Dragonfly into Purview, where the data is classified and stored as per the organization’s requirements. As data from Dragonfly agents come into Purview, data security admins have controls and visibility of data risks in their Purview portal with Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management for AI. The platform also supports the auditability needed for security investigations and adherence to communication compliance policies. It also empowers admins with alerts based on insider risk indicators.

“What was once fragmented is now centralized. With Purview, everything comes together on one platform, giving a unified foundation to innovate and move forward with confidence.”

Prashant Garg, Partner, Data and AI, EY

One of EY’s most ambitious deployments of EY.ai has been with a US$100 billion-global conglomerate with businesses spanning telecom, retail, metals, and more. The conglomerate adopted Dragonfly, EY’s low-code platform for AI agents, and now uses a customized instance called Intellect as a shared platform across 17 business units. With 50,000 employees using AI-driven tools for HR, finance, and operations, the company is applying Purview’s policy controls to maintain oversight. “What was once fragmented is now centralized,” says Prashant Garg, Partner, Data and AI at EY. He adds, “With Purview, everything comes together on one platform, giving a unified foundation to innovate and move forward with confidence.”

In addition to customers expanding their use of Dragonfly, EY’s internal teams are also using the platform to build AI tools for compliance management, contract review, and other transformation efforts. “We are a services firm; software is not the product,” says Prashant Garg. “Our role is to help clients transform. With Purview forming part of our app architecture, security concerns no longer slow us down.” He adds, “The way we build a contracts manager and the way we create compliance solutions for customers are all now done in Dragonfly. These tools need to be security compliant because they go into client environments.”

“We are a services firm; software is not the product. Our role is to help clients transform. With Purview forming part of our app architecture, security concerns no longer slow us down.”

Prashant Garg, Partner, Data and AI, EY

Proving what secure AI can deliver

Looking ahead, EY is working with Microsoft on a joint strategy to take Dragonfly to more customers in regulated sectors. Internally, the firm has already seen measurable results. Sumanta Kar reports that data security and compliance features, which once took an extra week to implement post-facto, are now built during the initial deployment cycle. “We are seeing 25%-30% time savings when we build secure features using Purview SDK,” he says.

The firm sees integration of EY.ai with Purview SDK as a foundational part of delivering secure AI. “We’re not just building AI tools, we are creating agentic solutions where trust, security, and transparency are present from the start, supported by the policy controls provided through the Purview SDK,” concludes Sumanta Kar.

With Purview-driven data security and compliance embedded in its GenAI platform, EY is helping customers securely adopt AI with confidence.