Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a managed Kubernetes platform introduced by Microsoft in October 2017 that simplifies the deployment of Kubernetes clusters without the need to maintain the underlying infrastructure. This tutorial serves as a guide for setting up a proof of concept for AKS, detailing the step-by-step process of using the Azure CLI to configure an Azure subscription, create a resource group, and deploy an AKS cluster with a Kubernetes API version. The tutorial also covers cloning the Kubernetes configuration (kubeconfig) to a local machine, accessing AKS from a local terminal, and deploying a demo Nginx application on the cluster. By utilizing AKS, organizations can efficiently manage and scale containerized applications, leveraging Kubernetes' orchestration capabilities while minimizing infrastructure management overhead.