Introduction
Unit 1 of 10 · Module 7: Develop AI agents with Microsoft Foundry and Visual Studio Code
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A clinic that never sleeps
Welcome to the second learning path, all about agents, and to Module 7. Picture a healthcare organization that wants to automate its conversations with patients, without letting its security standards slip. It needs an AI agent that can answer patients' questions, book appointments, and look up medical information in real time, like a front desk that never closes. The old way to build that means heavy lifting: lots of infrastructure to manage, lots of code to write, and a lot of care around keeping data safe. Microsoft Foundry Agent Service takes most of that weight off your hands, and still gives you enterprise-grade security. It's a fully managed platform for building, deploying, and scaling AI agents, so you never have to look after the compute and storage underneath. And you can build in the Foundry portal, or right inside Visual Studio Code.
What you'll learn
In this module, you'll build agents both ways: in the Foundry portal, and with Microsoft Foundry Toolkit for Visual Studio Code. You'll learn what AI agents are, what they can do, and the key features of Foundry Agent Service. You'll set up Foundry Toolkit, build agents and give them custom instructions in more than one way, and add tools and functions to them. Then you'll try your agents out in built-in playgrounds, deploy them, and plug them into applications. It helps if you already know your way around Azure and the Azure portal, the basics of generative AI, and Visual Studio Code.
Facts from Microsoft's documentation: What is Microsoft Foundry Agent Service?; Microsoft Foundry Toolkit for Visual Studio Code overview (CC BY 4.0), rewritten in Loop's own words and examples. Narration, animation, and quiz by Loop. Microsoft, Azure, and Microsoft Foundry are trademarks of Microsoft. Loop is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.