Introduction
At element61, we have solid experience in building custom chatbots and Generative AI solutions. The announcements at Microsoft Build 2025 caught our attention, as they bring new tools and features that can help us better support our clients. With a stronger focus on AI agents and the introduction of Windows AI Foundry, businesses now have even more ways to take advantage of what AI has to offer!
In this blog post, we take a closer look at the key Generative AI updates from Microsoft Build and how they can help create practical, forward-looking solutions.
Key Developments in AI Foundry
During the Microsoft Build 2025 conference, advancements were announced that hold significant promise for our industry!
Windows AI foundry upgrade
Microsoft improves and innovates Windows AI Foundry — the go-to end-to-end platform designed to streamline the entire AI development lifecycle. From choosing the right model to deploying it at scale, everything is brought together in one coherent environment.
In general, we see 2 key advantages:
- It gives a unified development environment: The launch of Windows AI Foundry offers a coherent platform that supports the entire AI development lifecycle. This encompasses everything from model selection to deployment.
- It brings flexibility: Developers can utilize model APIs for vision and language tasks, allowing for seamless integration of custom or open-source LLMs.
Azure AI foundry models
AI foundry is Azure’s Large Language Model (LLM) store - a central location to manage all your LLM deployments, their usage and who can access them. Microsoft introduces 2 major changes to this resource:
- Expanded Model Ecosystem: With the inclusion of Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models, azure AI Foundry now supports a wider selection of foundational models, catering to various AI applications.
- Model Router Feature: This intelligent system automatically selects optimal models for specific tasks, thus enhancing both performance and cost efficiency for businesses.
Custom agent solutions
The spotlight on AI agents continues to grow — and Microsoft is meeting this demand head-on! Microsoft just announced to offer additional Agent functionality from within AI foundry.
- Pre-built Agents: Companies can now leverage pre-built agents to handle routine tasks, enhancing productivity. This reduces development time and offers to reuse existing solutions at scale.
- Agent Customization: New tools in azure AI Foundry allow developers to create tailored agents that meet specific organizational needs, allowing for precise control of AI capabilities.
Enhanced security and governance
Securing your AI solutions is crucial in this day and age and Microsoft continues to improve the effectiveness of its current authentication and authorization mechanisms.
- Microsoft Entra Agent ID: This new feature enables secure and managed identities for AI agents, which is crucial for governance and compliance in business applications.
- Risk Management: By incorporating tools to set risk parameters and conduct automated evaluations, organizations can better manage the deployment of AI agents.
Supporting the Open Agentic Web with MCP
To realize the future of AI agents, Microsoft is advancing open standards and shared infrastructure. A critical component of this initiative is the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Microsoft is delivering broad first-party support for MCP across its agent platforms and frameworks, including GitHub, Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365, azure AI Foundry, Semantic Kernel, and Windows 11.
Microsoft's collaboration with GitHub has led to their inclusion in the MCP Steering Committee to facilitate secure, at-scale adoption of this open protocol. Recent contributions to the MCP ecosystem include:
- Updated Authorization Specification: This allows users to leverage their existing trusted sign-in methods to grant AI agents and LLM-powered apps access to data and services.
- MCP Server Registry Service: This innovative service allows for centralized management of public and private MCP server entries, enhancing discoverability and accessibility.
These efforts lay the groundwork for a shared infrastructure where agents can collaborate and operate across organizational boundaries, ensuring that Microsoft’s offerings are inline with the wider market trends.
What does this mean for you?
At element61, we see huge potential in these announced innovations — not just as technology updates, but as strategic tools to help our clients accelerate transformation! We identify the 4 following advantages.
- Enhancing automation = everything announced will further help streamlining workflows: Clients can automate not just simple tasks but also complex workflows across different systems, freeing their teams to focus on strategic initiatives.
- Informed decision-making = leveraging the new models and agents enables clients to derive insights from vast amounts of data, improving decision-making processes.
- Creating custom solutions = Through the ability to customize agents, businesses can develop tailored applications that resonate with their unique operations and customer needs.
- Scaling solutions faster = with Azure AI Foundry’s scalable architecture, clients can ensure their AI solutions grow alongside their business needs, maintaining performance and reliability.
Our summary: exciting stuff!
The insights from Microsoft Build 2025 mark an exciting moment for AI, particularly through the lens of AI Foundry. We are entering a new chapter in how business can use AI to work smarter and innovate faster.
At element61, we are passionate about helping our clients. With our strong background in building chatbots and Generative AI solutions, we guide organizations in make the most of these new advancements — keeping them ahead of the curve in a fast-moving digital world.
More information
If you have any questions or want to learn more, feel free to reach out — we would love to hear from you!
