Azure AI Foundry: The Ultimate AI App and Agent Factory

Azure AI

Software development is transforming at lightning speed. In the past, building software was a lengthy relay weeks to plan, months to build, and quarters to launch. Today, AI-powered tools turn ideas into working prototypes in hours and production-ready solutions in days. To keep up with this pace, developers need an end-to-end platform that seamlessly integrates coding, collaboration, and cloud services. Microsoft is the only company delivering this trifecta, with Visual Studio Code, GitHub, and Azure combined into a unified, AI-native development experience designed to empower every developer to build the future with AI. We provide a full-stack AI platform, built with security and trust in mind, enabling you to build and run AI-powered apps and agents from cloud to edge.

In just two years, Microsoft Azure AI Foundry has evolved from early foundational AI models to intelligent agents capable of handling complex workflows. Today, Azure AI Foundry supports over 70,000 customers, processing 100 trillion tokens last quarter and powering 2 billion enterprise search queries daily. What started as an application layer has grown into a full-stack platform that helps you build intelligent agents delivering real business value.

Introducing 10 Major Innovations in Azure AI Foundry

To make these AI agents even smarter and capable of tackling more complex challenges, they require cutting-edge models, integrated tools, and built-in governance. At Microsoft Build 2025, we’re announcing 10 major innovations in Azure AI Foundry that make this possible.

1. New Models for Greater Choice and Flexibility

Expanding the catalog with models like Grok 3 from xAI, Flux Pro 1.1 from Black Forest Labs, and Sora in preview. Over 10,000 open-source models from Hugging Face, full fine-tuning support, and a new developer tier simplify experimentation.

Hugging face

2. Smarter Model Routing for Optimal Performance

Automatic selection of the best model with the new model router, extended reserved capacity, and a unified API streamline development and production.

3. Azure AI Foundry Agent Service: Production-Grade AI Agents Made Easy

A fully managed service to design, deploy, and scale AI agents, with connectors to 1,400+ data sources and seamless integration into Microsoft 365 and other platforms.

4. Multi-Agent Orchestration for Complex Workflows

Agents work collaboratively, managing context, errors, and long-running processes across clouds with open interoperability standards.

5. Agentic Retrieval for Smarter Information Access

A multi-turn query engine that breaks down complex questions, improving answer relevance and enabling effective connection to enterprise data.

Agentic Retrieval

6. Always-On Observability for Accountability

Built-in metrics, detailed logs, development playgrounds, CI/CD integrations, and real-time dashboards provide full visibility into AI agent performance.

7. Enterprise-Grade Identity Management with Microsoft Entra Agent ID

Unique, manageable identities for AI agents that enable enterprise-level access controls, authentication, and monitoring.

8. Trustworthy AI Built In

Automated evaluations, AI Red Teaming, advanced content filtering, guardrails, and integration with Microsoft Defender for Cloud ensure safety, fairness, and compliance.

9. Foundry Local: AI at the Edge

Offline AI model and agent runtime for Windows and Mac, supporting sensitive data scenarios and remote deployments, integrated with Azure Arc for centralized management.

10. Future Innovations from Foundry Labs

Cutting-edge projects like Project Amelie for autonomous ML pipelines, Magnetic-UI for multi-agent prototyping, and breakthroughs in biological AI models.

Labs

Empower Your AI Journey with Microsoft Azure AI Foundry

Microsoft and Azure AI Foundry are transforming how developers build intelligent, scalable, and trusted AI solutions whether in the cloud or at the edge helping you meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.