Feasibility of Using Azure OpenAI for Word Document Modification

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Feasibility of Using Azure OpenAI for Word Document Modification

Guillaume Gingras 10

Hello everyone,

We are currently exploring the use of Azure OpenAI resources, and possibly Prompt Flow, for a project that involves working with docx files. Our goal is to upload a docx file, prompt an AI model to make modifications, and then save the edited document back as a docx file.

Has anyone attempted something similar? Is this feasible with the tools and resources available in Azure OpenAI? Any insights or guidance on how to approach this would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Max Lacy 345 Reputation points

2024-12-03T22:04:04.68+00:00

I've built something similar using Azure OpenAI. For your use case, I'm assuming the Copilot integrated into Microsoft word doesn't work? Is this docx file a template and you'd be asking the automation to make additions/edits based on a prompt? If so you could do it with a combination of tools in Azure. If you can describe your specific use case we can probably come up with a high level overview of how you could engineer this.
Guillaume Gingras 10 Reputation points

2024-12-05T16:20:38.72+00:00

Thank you for your comment! No the Copilot integrated into Microsoft Word is not tailored for our specific use cases like modifying resume sections for targeted roles. Our approach focuses on taking an individual's resume as input, allowing for precise modifications to specific sections—like tailoring the summary for a particular job—while maintaining the original format for easy re-export. This ensures that the revised content aligns closely with the desired position and effectively highlights the individual's qualifications.

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Max Lacy 345 Reputation points

2024-12-03T22:04:04.68+00:00

I've built something similar using Azure OpenAI. For your use case, I'm assuming the Copilot integrated into Microsoft word doesn't work? Is this docx file a template and you'd be asking the automation to make additions/edits based on a prompt? If so you could do it with a combination of tools in Azure. If you can describe your specific use case we can probably come up with a high level overview of how you could engineer this.
Guillaume Gingras 10 Reputation points

2024-12-05T16:20:38.72+00:00

Thank you for your comment! No the Copilot integrated into Microsoft Word is not tailored for our specific use cases like modifying resume sections for targeted roles. Our approach focuses on taking an individual's resume as input, allowing for precise modifications to specific sections—like tailoring the summary for a particular job—while maintaining the original format for easy re-export. This ensures that the revised content aligns closely with the desired position and effectively highlights the individual's qualifications.

Answer 1

That is an interesting use case! I see two potential approaches using Azure AI services but i am sure there are more.

Approach 1 - Templatized Resume (Less effort): Your output resume is always the same format.

Using a WebApp, allow a user to upload a copy of their resume and the job description. Send the resume and description to an Azure OpenAI instance and ask the model to make suggestions to the resume to tailor it more towards the job description. Ensure the model returns a JSON object within the context of your templatized resume. Save the updated version to storage and serve the URL to the user for preview.

Approach 2 - Dynamic Resume Return: Your output is the user's resume with updated changes.

This approach may require a multi-agent approach. First, send the resume and job description as in the first suggestion. Second, utilize a Python docx reader or something similar to parse the document. Send the parsed document along with the suggested changes to the second agent and ask that agent to incorporate those changes. Render the updated document, save it to Azure Storage, and serve the URL to the user.

From a high level, these are the two approaches I would take. The technologies I could see you using are Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Services, Azure Storage, Azure APIM, Azure WebApps, DocX Parser, etc.

**Note: This is a high-level overview and does not cover security requirements and other necessary considerations.

To answer your question:
Has anyone attempted something similar?

I've done both of these approaches for similar use cases but not resume updates.

Is this feasible with the tools and resources available in Azure OpenAI?
Yes, but you'll need some additional resources outside of what is in Azure OpenAI.

Let me know if you have any additional questions!
Max

Emi Sanchez 0 Reputation points

2025-06-23T22:03:08.56+00:00

Hey Max,

Really appreciate the thoughtful response, super helpful.

Quick follow-up: We’ve been working with .docx files that tend to be pretty heavily formatted (lots of structured sections, bold/italic runs, styles, etc.). We’ve been using python-docx so far to preserve formatting while making targeted edits, but I was curious if you’ve ever tried using Azure Document Intelligence (ADI) for this kind of task.

Basically just wondering if ADI is viable when dealing with documents where the layout and formatting actually matter, or if it's better to just stick with python-docx or Graph API when you care about structure fidelity.
Essentially what we are trying to do is:

extract docx structure into json (Potentially use ADI or python-docx, whatever is best for extracting high formatting & detail!)

have user ask ai assistant to make changes

azure open ai sees those user instructions as well as docx structure json

azure openai outputs a edit recipe structured output

we run that recipe into a python-docx engine that make programmatic changes

user sees changes via URL to newly edited doc

Also agree that Copilot is a great tool, but not quite right for this kind of granular use case.

Thanks again for all the insight!

emi

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Feasibility of Using Azure OpenAI for Word Document Modification

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