As we wrap up this Cloud & AI Platforms series, I want to focus on where many partners are investing next: building AI apps and agents that move beyond experiments and into production, at scale, with trust built in.
Across industries, AI is reshaping how applications are designed, built, and delivered. We are witnessing the shift from point solutions to systems, with Copilots and agents that can reason, act, and collaborate across workflows. That shift is creating both urgency and opportunity for partners.
According to IDC research, 68% of global enterprises surveyed are already using generative AI, and another 26% plan to adopt it in the next 12 months. At the same time, organizations are rapidly moving from prebuilt generative AI apps toward customized or custom-built solutions, with IDC projecting that shift from 40% today to 70% in the next 24 months.1
This is exactly where Azure AI apps and agents come in, empowering customers to operationalize AI faster while keeping security, governance, and oversight front and center.
Putting developers at the center of AI innovation
AI innovation only moves as fast as developers do. Today, developers are expected to work across models, data, agents, infrastructure, and security, often across fragmented toolchains. That slows progress and pulls focus away from building differentiated experiences.
With Microsoft Foundry and GitHub, Microsoft puts developers at the center of AI innovation, extending AI across the full software development lifecycle. From design and experimentation to deployment and operations, developers can evaluate, build, customize, and manage AI apps and agents using the tools they already trust.
Microsoft Foundry IQ, currently in preview, makes it possible to connect AI agents to the right data without adding unnecessary complexity. Built on Azure AI Search, it streamlines how agents discover, retrieve, and reason over both public and private sources, including SharePoint, Fabric IQ, and the web.
GitHub complements this by bringing AI deeper into the software development lifecycle. With agent-based workflows in GitHub Copilot and new integrations that meet developers where they work, teams can move from idea to implementation with less friction and maintain momentum through testing and iteration.
For partners, this creates a clear opportunity, enabling customers to increase development velocity while building AI-native applications that are designed to scale from day one.
Partners who want to go deeper on the latest technologies can build relevant capabilities through dedicated skilling and enablement resources. Start with the Partner Skilling Hub module, Sales Accelerator: Driving Adoption of AI Apps and Agents, to sharpen technical and sales readiness. If you prefer in-person learning, explore the AI Tour for Partners. You can also access sales tools and co-sell resources to support customer conversations and accelerate execution.
From experimentation to production, faster
Many customers are no longer asking whether to adopt AI. They are asking how to operationalize it. Moving AI apps and agents from proof of concept to production remains one of the most challenging aspects, especially when teams are juggling infrastructure, observability, cost controls, and governance.
Microsoft Foundry adds capabilities designed specifically for this production path. That includes advances for orchestrating multi-agent systems (including a Semantic Kernel Agent Framework), as well as evaluation, tracing, and A/B testing so teams can track agent behavior, learn from real usage, and continuously improve quality as solutions mature.
On the application platform side, partners can help customers pair Microsoft Foundry with services like Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure App Service, and Azure Functions to run AI workloads efficiently and reliably. As customers shift from single agents to systems of agents tied to real business processes, consistent deployment patterns and lifecycle management become essential.
Building trust into AI apps and agents
As AI becomes embedded in applications, top priorities include security, governance, and responsible AI. Customers want innovation, but they also need confidence that AI solutions are safe, compliant, and aligned to business and regulatory expectations.
Microsoft Foundry expands safety and evaluation capabilities so teams can test and harden agentic systems before deployment, including tools like an AI Red Teaming Agent (public preview) and agentic evaluations that assess risk and quality. Microsoft Foundry also supports grounding through Microsoft Foundry IQ knowledge bases (powered by Azure AI Search), where agents can use an MCP-based knowledge retrieval tool to return citation-backed results and improve factual accuracy.
Announced at Microsoft Ignite 2025, Foundry Control Plane, currently in preview, gives teams real-time security, lifecycle management, and visibility across agent platforms. Foundry Control Plane consolidates signals from across the entire Microsoft Cloud, including Agent 365 and the Microsoft Security suite, into a single interface so users can optimize performance, apply agent controls, and maintain compliance.
For partners, this creates a stronger path to value: you can help customers move quickly while building trust into the solution from day one, with guardrails and evaluation practices that scale as usage grows.
Turning AI into measurable business outcomes
What makes AI apps and agents powerful is not the technology alone; it is the outcomes they make possible. Customers use AI to reinvent customer engagement through personalized, conversational experiences, reshape business processes through knowledge automation and document workflows, and enrich employee experiences with assistants that surface insights and reduce repetitive work.
There is also growing momentum around multi-agent systems that can coordinate work across specialized tasks and long-running processes. These are no longer future scenarios. Partners play a critical role in turning them into real deployments by aligning use cases to measurable outcomes, choosing the right patterns, and building the operating model that supports long-term success.
Learn more about AI use cases in this blog by Alysa Taylor.
How partners can capitalize
This is a category-defining shift, and partners are in position to lead it. The market is moving past pilots toward production-grade AI, and customers need providers who can connect technical depth to measurable business outcomes. Partners who move now can differentiate by mastering four high-value motions:
- Select and optimize the right models for each workload, balancing performance, cost, and compliance
- Design, build, and orchestrate agents that can reliably take action across real business processes
- Ground development experiences in trusted enterprise data using Foundry IQ knowledge bases and the knowledge retrieval tool to return citation-backed outputs that are accurate, relevant, and aligned to access controls
- Operationalize quality, safety, and governance as part of the delivery lifecycle
Azure offers a wide array of popular developer tools, the latest models, orchestration and multi-agent systems, databases optimized for AI, and enterprise-grade security, governance, compliance, and resiliency—all as part of a complete and trusted cloud for AI. When partners take advantage of this integration, they are better positioned to deliver end-to-end solutions faster, reduce risk for customers, and create durable, long-term value through ongoing optimization and lifecycle services.
Microsoft Agent Factory removes barriers to innovation for your customers when building AI agents with the Microsoft AI stack. As part of Agent Factory, customers can access Microsoft Agent Pre-Purchase Plan (P3), offering access to Copilot Studio and Microsoft Foundry services with a single pool of funds, so you can offer licensing flexibility to your customers. Skilling programs help your customers break adoption barriers, reduce the risk of stalled projects, and meet AI skilling priorities for the business. Find out more about Agent Factory and how you can empower your customers.
Getting started
As we close this series, one thing is clear. AI innovation is redefining how software is built, and partners are at the center of that change. With Azure AI apps and agents, you have the opportunity to help customers innovate faster, operate more efficiently, and build trust into the experiences they deliver.
1IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Microsoft, "What every company can learn from Frontier firms leading the AI revolution," IDC #US53838325, November 2025.