Discover what's coming to Microsoft Ignite, Nov 17-20, 2026.
AI agents and software
Move from pilot to production with real business impact. Build, ground, and govern agents and software with security from code to runtime.
Select the right AI Model
Compare models by quality, latency and cost
OVERVIEW
Innovate with agents and software
- The right models and tools for every team.
- Give agents the context of how people work and how the business operates.
- One control plane for usage, risk, policy, and lifecycle..
- Agents that plan, build, fix, and ship alongside your developers.
- Leading foundation models, matched to every task.
- Put agents to work across the lifecycle while checking every pull request.
- Any type or amount of data, at high performance.
- Deliver fast, relevant agent responses with built-in vector search.
- Ground language models in your own organizational data.
- Plan spend upfront. Compare token, model, and infrastructure costs.
- Match models to requests, track spend, and cap usage.
- Measure agent quality, safety, and operational health. Scale what works.
- See agent actions, latency, usage, and quality.
- Unique identity, least-privilege access, and protected data.
- Fix vulnerabilities before merge. See threats to your AI apps at runtime.
USE CASES
Deliver real business impact across every workflow
Unlock business innovation and improve customer experiences.
CUSTOMER STORIES
See how enterprises deliver real impact in production
Business Value: Real business impact
Prove business impact and return on investment
Estimate your return on investment with commissioned Forrester Total Economic Impact™ studies.
Microsoft Foundry: 327% ROI - A study found customers who use Microsoft Foundry saw a 327% ROI over three years.
(The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Foundry, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, February 2026).
GitHub Enterprise Cloud: 376% ROI - A separate commissioned study modeled a 376% three-year ROI for a composite organization using GitHub Enterprise Cloud.
(The Total Economic Impact™ Of GitHub Enterprise Cloud, commissioned by GitHub, July 2025).
Microsoft Foundry: 327% ROI - A study found customers who use Microsoft Foundry saw a 327% ROI over three years.
(The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Foundry, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, February 2026).
GitHub Enterprise Cloud: 376% ROI - A separate commissioned study modeled a 376% three-year ROI for a composite organization using GitHub Enterprise Cloud.
(The Total Economic Impact™ Of GitHub Enterprise Cloud, commissioned by GitHub, July 2025).
LEARN WITH EXPERTS
Learn with Azure AI experts
Discovery Sessions
Recognized as the most comprehensive and end-to-end enterprise data fabric solution among hyperscalers in the Q4 2025 Forrester Wave report.
Build and Scale AI Agents for Business Impact
This playlist helps you build and scale AI agents that can support real-world business needs across your organization. You’ll develop practical skills to create, enhance, connect, and manage agents so you can apply them to business processes and extend their impact across everyday work.
Adopt an AI-native software development lifecycle
This playlist helps you apply AI assistance across software planning, development, and cloud operations to move from ideas to reviewed, tested changes more efficiently. Build practical skills to streamline everyday work while keeping people in control of quality, security, and delivery decisions..
Create agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio
Intermediate learning path for functional consultants building agents powered by the GitHub Copilot harness in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Explore harnesses, define instruction-driven behavior, ground agents with knowledge, extend them with tools and skills, automate workflows, and prepare agents for production through evaluation, publishing, monitoring, and governance.
Products
Build, ground, and govern across your stack
Microsoft Foundry
Microsoft Foundry: Move agents and apps from pilot to production on any model, any provider, with grounding, evaluation, and observability..
GitHub
Build software, not just code: turn ideas into trusted software across the software development lifecycle on GitHub, the agent-native engineering system.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Build AI-ready apps with a fully managed, intelligent, and scalable PostgreSQL.
Azure Cosmos DB
Power intelligent apps with high-performance, real-time data, ingested and processed at any scale.
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Build governed agents and workflows in one studio to automate business processes and extend Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Azure Kubernetes Service
Develop, deploy, and scale cloud-native apps on managed Kubernetes in Azure or at the edge.
Microsoft Agent 365
Observe, govern, and secure every agent from one control plane with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Security controls.
Foundry Models
Innovate faster with more than 11,000 models from creators such as Microsoft, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Mistral, Meta, xAI, Black Forest Labs, Stability AI, Core42, Nixtla, NVIDIA, and Hugging Face.
Foundry Agent Service
Build and orchestrate production agents that automate complex business workflows while keeping teams in control.
Foundry tools
Build cutting-edge, market-ready AI applications with customizable tools, APIs, and models.
Foundry IQ
Turn fragmented data into governed, reusable knowledge that connects agents to the right data, systems, and context..
Azure Machine Learning
Use an enterprise-grade AI service for the end-to-end machine learning lifecycle.
Content Safety in Foundry Control Plane
Enhance the safety of generative AI applications with advanced guardrails for responsible AI.
Foundry Local
Manage models, agents, and their components on Windows and MacOS devices.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Build AI-ready apps with a fully managed, intelligent, and scalable PostgreSQL.
Azure Cosmos DB
Power AI apps with high-performance and real-time data, ingested and processed at any scale.
Azure SQL Database
Fuel resource-intensive apps, keep mission-critical workloads running at peak performance, and modernize SQL data.
Azure HorizonDB (preview)
Build and scale mission-critical apps on high-performance PostgreSQL.
Azure Kubernetes Service
Develop, deploy, and scale cloud-native apps on managed Kubernetes in Azure or at the edge.
Azure App Service
Modernize and scale your applications to accelerate time to market and deliver new experiences.
Azure Container Apps
Run modern apps and microservices using serverless containers.
Azure Functions
Execute event-driven serverless code with an end-to-end development experience.
Azure API Management
Enable intelligent and agentic apps by securely and easily exposing popular AI models to your intelligent app developers.
Azure Managed Redis
Accelerate your AI application performance and empower RAG AI application development with the latest Redis innovations.
GitHub Copilot
Put agents and leading models to work across the software development lifecycle. Developers complete tasks up to 55% faster with GitHub Copilot.
GitHub Enterprise
Build software, not just code, on GitHub, the agent-native engineering system. A commissioned Forrester study modeled a 376% three-year ROI for a composite organization using GitHub Enterprise Cloud..
Visual Studio
Empower your development journey and redefine the way you code with the seamless interoperation of the Visual Studio platform and GitHub Copilot.
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Let teams closest to the business process build governed agents and workflows..
Microsoft Agent 365
Observe, govern, and secure your agent fleet from one control plane with Microsoft Entra, Purview, and Defender.
Foundry Control Plane
Unify management to deliver visibility, governance, and control for AI agents, models, and tools.
GitHub Advanced Security and Defender for Cloud
Fix code flaws in pull requests across the software development lifecycle with GitHub Advanced Security and see threats across your AI environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
- Enterprise AI solutions on Azure combine foundation models, agent services, developer tools, enterprise knowledge, and governance controls so organizations can build, run, and secure agents and software with real business impact. Teams build custom agents in Microsoft Foundry, ship software in GitHub, create business workflows in Microsoft Copilot Studio, ground agents in enterprise knowledge, and govern them in Microsoft Agent 365.
- Securing and governing agents and software spans observation, governance, and security from code to runtime. Microsoft Foundry and Microsoft Agent 365 provide continuous visibility and policy control, Microsoft Entra Agent ID (preview) assigns each agent a unique identity, Microsoft Purview protects sensitive data, GitHub Advanced Security checks pull requests across the software development lifecycle before merge, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud shows threats across your AI environment.
- It depends on who is building and the job to be done, and the three are designed to work together. Business teams build governed agents and workflows in Microsoft Copilot Studio, AI engineers build and evaluate custom pro-code agents in Microsoft Foundry, and software developers plan, code, review, and ship software across the software development lifecycle with GitHub Copilot. Microsoft Agent 365 gives IT one place to observe and govern agents built in Copilot Studio and Microsoft Foundry.
- No. Azure AI refers to the cloud platform services and models on Azure, led by Microsoft Foundry, that teams use to build custom apps and agents. Copilot is Microsoft's family of assistants and studios, including Microsoft 365 Copilot for everyday work, GitHub Copilot for software engineering, and Microsoft Copilot Studio for building business agents.
- Agents move from pilot to production when teams redesign workflows end to end and prove quality, control cost, and govern access. Teams use the Workflow Value Blueprint to prioritize high-impact workflows, evaluate and trace agent runs in Microsoft Foundry, route requests to the right model for cost and latency, track spend in Microsoft Cost Management, cap usage with Azure API Management, and govern production agents with Microsoft Agent 365.
- Start with one high-value workflow, the business data the agent needs, and the controls it must meet. Build custom agents in Microsoft Foundry or business workflows in Copilot Studio, connect the agent to your enterprise knowledge, and evaluate quality before rollout with a free Azure account.
- Cost depends on the models, token volume, and platform services your workload uses. Plan spend upfront with the Azure pricing calculator and Microsoft Foundry benchmarks, use model router to match each request to the right model, track and cap usage with Microsoft Cost Management and Azure API Management, and estimate return with the commissioned Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of Microsoft Foundry.
- Connect agents to the knowledge and data they need, and keep access tied to each user's existing permissions. Build, evaluate, and improve the agent in Microsoft Foundry.
Next steps
Start building with the right Azure account
Pay as you go or try Azure free for up to 30 days.
E-Book
Select the Right AI Model
Choose the right model for your agents and workflows by use case, quality, latency, and cost.
Programs
Programs
Frontier Accelerate for Azure
Fuel your cloud and AI transformation with experts and investments throughout your AI adoption journey.
Explore Azure Portal 
