The landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly. While chatbots will remain a key tool for handling basic natural language interactions and self-service applications, the future lies in more advanced, multimodal applications. These AI systems will combine large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies to act as self-organizing software agents. Unlike the simpler models of today, these complex AI applications will require more thoughtful design, greater coding efforts, intensive testing, and robust safeguards to ensure reliability and security.
As AI becomes more sophisticated, the tools we use to develop these applications must evolve as well. Although Microsoft’s Power Platform Copilot Studio has begun to provide tools for developing task-specific agents, building the next generation of AI applications will demand a greater level of complexity and versatility. This includes integrating frameworks like Semantic Kernel and using more advanced methodologies for application development.
Currently, Azure offers a range of tools for AI development, primarily focused on creating grounded chatbots and incorporating Microsoft’s Prompt Flow framework to facilitate retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). However, as businesses push toward more complex AI services, there is a pressing need for new tools that can support the creation of custom AI agents and provide more flexibility in integrating advanced AI models.
To address this gap, Microsoft has introduced the Azure AI Foundry SDK at Ignite 2024. Unlike Azure AI Studio, which has been a valuable resource for building AI solutions, Azure AI Foundry is designed to integrate directly into developer environments, such as Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and GitHub. This toolset offers a comprehensive platform for building, evaluating, and deploying AI applications at scale. Azure AI Foundry won’t replace Azure AI Studio but will complement it, allowing for seamless management of AI models and applications while fostering collaboration between business leaders and developers.