Start from a live FinOps signal
Anomaly, budget, allocation, and savings signals give the investigation a concrete starting point.
Proactive FinOps agent
Ask Finn turns Azure cost signals into clear next steps.
CloudMonitor surfaces anomalies, budget risks, allocation gaps, and savings opportunities. Ask Finn helps your team investigate them in plain English using the same governed Microsoft Fabric data and permissions behind your reports.
What proactive means
The signal arrives before the cost review. Finn helps you explain it.
Ask Finn starts where a dashboard usually stops. CloudMonitor identifies a cost signal, and Finn gives the reviewer a guided investigation with evidence, follow-up questions, and a next step. Your team stays accountable for the decision.
The boundary
Finn can investigate and recommend. It cannot resize a VM, buy a commitment, change a budget, or modify a workload.
Ask the next question in plain English
Compare periods, challenge a forecast, or ask which driver deserves attention without rebuilding the view.
Keep evidence beside the answer
Charts, tables, cost context, and links into Explorer keep the investigation open to review.
Give the decision an owner
Investigations can be owned, shared, or assigned so the finding enters the team’s working cadence.
Inform → Optimize → Operate
One investigation can move through the full FinOps cycle.
The phases repeat as the data and decision change. Finn keeps the question, evidence, and accountable next step connected.
1
Inform
Explain the signal
Compare periods, trace cost-group and service drivers, and surface anomalies or unallocated spend without building a report first.
What changed in July versus June, and what should I investigate next?
2
Optimize
Rank the opportunity
Question the savings backlog, review the evidence and caveats, and put the highest-value recommendation at the top of the queue.
Which open savings should the Platform team review first, and why?
3
Operate
Carry the decision forward
Share or assign the investigation, record the next step, and let the accountable owner decide what changes through the existing process.
Summarize this investigation for the owner and list the checks before action.
Recorded investigations
See the questions Ask Finn already handles.
The public sandbox shows four recorded paths. Each one follows the same pattern: question, evidence, context, and a useful next investigation.
Month close
What changed in July versus June, and what should I investigate next?
Finn compares the periods, ranks the cost drivers, flags anomalies and unallocated spend, then suggests the next drill-down.
- Period comparison
- Cost-group drivers
- Next investigation
AI budget risk
At the current run rate, when will AI and Copilot spend cross the budget?
Finn connects actual spend to the forecast so finance and product owners can see the likely crossing point and the assumptions behind it.
- Actual vs. budget
- Run-rate forecast
- Assumptions
Variance diagnosis
Why did ML and AI go over budget, and does the baseline need to change?
Finn separates a new run rate from a one-off spike and gives the reviewer evidence to keep or revise the baseline.
- Trend
- Service drivers
- Baseline check
Savings backlog
Which open savings should we prioritize?
The recorded sample groups $21,550 per month in open opportunities, adds evidence and caveats, and points to the first review.
- $258,600/year sample
- Evidence
- Caveats
From signal to decision
Proactive does not mean autonomous change.
Ask Finn shortens the route to a decision while the controls stay where your organization expects them.
- 1
CloudMonitor surfaces the signal.
An anomaly, budget risk, allocation gap, or savings opportunity creates a reason to investigate.
- 2
Finn investigates governed cost data.
The answer uses the workspace and permissions behind CloudMonitor, with the question carrying its period and cost basis.
- 3
A reviewer checks the evidence.
Open the same scope in The Ledger for a report-bound number, or continue the analysis in Explorer.
- 4
The accountable owner decides.
Your team follows its existing approval and change process. CloudMonitor does not modify the Azure resource.
Ask with a full scope
Put the period, cost group, and cost basis in the question.
Ask Finn does not inherit the global report filters. A complete question produces a clearer answer and makes the investigation easier to verify.
Ask Finn Grounded in CloudMonitor data Read-only
Compare billed Azure cost for the Platform cost group in July versus June. Rank the three largest service drivers and tell me what to investigate next.
Now separate one-off anomalies from changes that look like a new run rate.
Add the period, cost group, and billed or amortized cost basis.
Trust and control
An answer should make review easier, not hide the work.
Finn keeps the evidence visible and the resource change outside the agent.
Governed access
Workspace permissions and cost-group policy control which CloudMonitor data a user can investigate.
Read-only by design
Finn returns an answer, recommendation, and supporting evidence. It does not change an Azure resource.
Evidence before action
Use the answer as a pointer. Confirm any number going into a report in The Ledger with the same scope.
Human oversight
CloudMonitor operates a certified ISO/IEC 42001 AI management system with human review and lifecycle controls.
Availability
Ask Finn is included in Professional and Enterprise.
Each workspace is configured during CloudMonitor setup. Starter does not include the agent.
Ask Finn FAQ
What teams ask before they use Finn.
What is Ask Finn?
Ask Finn is CloudMonitor’s FinOps agent. It answers plain-English questions about Azure cost, explains CloudMonitor signals, and keeps the investigation grounded in your governed cost data.
What makes Ask Finn proactive?
CloudMonitor already surfaces anomalies, budget risks, allocation gaps, and savings opportunities. Finn turns those signals into investigations, suggests useful follow-up questions, and helps an owner move from detection to a reviewed next step. A user can also start with a question of their own.
Can Ask Finn change Azure resources?
No. CloudMonitor is read-only for your workloads. Finn can explain evidence and recommend a next step, but your team or your existing automation decides and makes any change.
What data does Ask Finn use?
Finn uses the cost and usage data CloudMonitor processes for your workspace in Microsoft Fabric. Access follows your scoped permissions and governance policy. CloudMonitor does not read the application data inside your Azure resources.
Why should the question include a period and cost basis?
Ask Finn treats the question as its scope and does not inherit the global report filters. State the period, Azure scope or cost group, and whether you mean billed or amortized cost when that distinction matters.
How should I verify an answer?
Treat an answer as the start of an investigation. If a number will appear in a report or decision record, open The Ledger with the same period, cost group, and cost basis. Use Explorer when you need a deeper saved analysis.
Which plans include Ask Finn?
Ask Finn is included with CloudMonitor Professional and Enterprise. It is not part of Starter. See the pricing comparison for the current service-level details.
Is Ask Finn available in Microsoft Teams?
Ask Finn is available inside CloudMonitor. The Microsoft Teams extension is on the product roadmap, so the in-app agent and the future Teams surface should not be treated as the same release.
Is the public demo live or recorded?
The Ask Finn path in the public demo uses recorded investigations in a read-only sandbox. Live answers require a configured customer workspace because Finn grounds answers in that organization’s own cost data.
See an Ask Finn investigation from question to evidence.
Open the recorded, read-only path directly in the CloudMonitor sandbox. No signup required.
