Quick Answer
The answer is the Cognitive Services User role. This RBAC role is the correct choice for a managed identity authenticating to Azure AI Vision because it grants the minimum permissions needed to call the Vision APIs—such as analyzing images or performing OCR—without allowing write, delete, or management operations on the resource itself. On the Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate AI-102 exam, this question tests your understanding of least privilege for managed identity authentication, often appearing in scenarios where you must distinguish between roles like Cognitive Services Contributor (which includes write access) and Cognitive Services User. A common trap is selecting Contributor because it sounds more encompassing, but the exam emphasizes that User is the only role that permits read-only API calls via a managed identity. Memory tip: think “User = Use the API only,” while “Contributor = Contribute changes to the resource.”
This AI-102 practice question tests your understanding of plan and manage an azure ai solution. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID for identity management. You are building an AI solution that uses Azure AI Vision to analyze images. The solution must use managed identities to authenticate to the Vision resource. Which RBAC role should you assign to the managed identity?
Owner
Why wrong: Owner includes full management rights, which are excessive.
Cognitive Services User
This role allows API access without management permissions.
Reader
Why wrong: Reader does not allow API access.
Contributor
Why wrong: Contributor includes management rights, which are not needed.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Cognitive Services User
The Cognitive Services User role (B) is the correct RBAC role because it grants the minimum required permissions for a managed identity to call Azure AI Vision APIs (e.g., analyze image, OCR) without allowing any write or management operations. This role is specifically designed for accessing Azure Cognitive Services endpoints, and it aligns with the principle of least privilege for authentication via managed identities.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Owner
Why it's wrong here
Owner includes full management rights, which are excessive.
Cognitive Services User
Why this is correct
This role allows API access without management permissions.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Reader
Why it's wrong here
Reader does not allow API access.
Contributor
Why it's wrong here
Contributor includes management rights, which are not needed.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse the Reader role (which grants read access to the resource's Azure Resource Manager properties) with the ability to read data from the service, but Reader does not include data-plane permissions for Cognitive Services APIs.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, managed identities use Azure AD tokens to authenticate; the RBAC role assignment determines the token's scope. The Cognitive Services User role maps to the 'Microsoft.CognitiveServices/accounts/CognitiveServicesUser' data action, which is required for the token to be accepted by the Vision service's REST API (e.g., POST to /vision/v3.2/analyze). In a real-world scenario, if you assign Reader instead, the managed identity can retrieve the endpoint URL but will receive a 403 Forbidden error when attempting to call the API, because the token lacks the necessary 'CognitiveServicesUser' claim.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
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FAQ
Plan and manage an Azure AI solution — This question tests Plan and manage an Azure AI solution — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Cognitive Services User — The Cognitive Services User role (B) is the correct RBAC role because it grants the minimum required permissions for a managed identity to call Azure AI Vision APIs (e.g., analyze image, OCR) without allowing any write or management operations. This role is specifically designed for accessing Azure Cognitive Services endpoints, and it aligns with the principle of least privilege for authentication via managed identities.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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