Azure AI Foundry Agent Service

Foundry Agent Service is a platform that empowers developers to securely design, deploy, and scale AI agents with ease. It works with a rich ecosystem of models from the Azure AI Foundry model catalog; knowledge sources such as Bing, SharePoint, Microsoft Fabric, and Azure AI Search; and more than 1,400 action connectors with Azure Logic Apps.

Agents are your AI assistants that can help you optimize business processes and enhance productivity across all areas of your business. They are available in a wide array of capabilities, tools, and levels of complexity depending on your organization’s needs.

AI agents are powered by several key capabilities that make them far more dynamic and versatile than traditional systems. For example, agents can use tools such as web search, code execution, and calendars, while retaining memory of past interactions to inform decisions. The ability to plan, act, and react in real time allows these agents to provide adaptive solutions for a variety of use cases. AI agents can even critique their own performance and collaborate with humans to improve their output.

Foundry Agent Service addresses a wide range of use cases, including:
 

• Automating customer support by integrating with CRM systems to provide real-time assistance and resolve queries.

• Enhancing productivity by automating routine tasks and workflows, such as scheduling meetings, sending reminders, and generating reports.

• Improving decision-making by providing data-driven insights and recommendations based on real-time data analysis.

Developers can easily build enterprise-grade agents that are secure, scalable, and performant. They can ground their agents with relevant, secure enterprise knowledge, automate complex workflows, and use prebuilt tools for advanced data analysis. Additionally, developers can choose the best model for their needs and benefit from scalable, secure memory management.

Foundry Agent Service helps ensure data security by allowing you to bring your own data storage and private virtual networks, ensuring no public egress for your data traffic. It also supports keyless setup and on-behalf-of authentication and provides OpenTelemetry-based tracing for monitoring agent performance.

Copilot Studio is a streamlined, low-code platform that emphasizes ease of use and native Microsoft 365 integration for rapid AI agent creation. Foundry Agent Service, on the other hand, is a flexible, pro-code solution with extensive developer tooling and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) integration designed for complex enterprise scenarios. It uniquely supports multi-agent orchestration, enabling dynamic collaboration among specialized agents. Additionally, Foundry Agent Service offers advanced security, compliance features, flexible model support, and a wide array of connectivity options, making it better suited for large-scale, regulated environments.