Microsoft has made it easier than ever for developers to get started with their AI agents. With a free Microsoft Learn learning pathway, developers can learn how to build their first AI agents with Microsoft Foundry by working through bite-sized modules and real-world scenarios.
Whether you are a student, developer, or just someone interested in AI, this learning pathway is a great way to get started with AI agent development.
Why AI agents?
AI agents are quickly becoming one of the most in-demand skills in the software development industry.
Compared to traditional AI applications, AI agents are able to reason through requests, use external tools, retrieve information, and perform complex tasks, all while being able to complete these tasks independently.
To facilitate this type of development, Microsoft has released Microsoft Foundry, a development environment where developers can design, test, evaluate, and deploy AI applications and intelligent agents from prototype to production.
This learning pathway will walk you through both the theory behind AI agents, as well as give you the hands-on experience you need to develop your own AI agents with Microsoft's ecosystem.
What will you learn?
The learning pathway walks you through the essentials of:
- AI agents
- Microsoft Foundry
- Prompt engineering
- Building agents
- Calling tools
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Agent workflows
- Testing and Evaluation
- Best practices for production-grade applications
Everything is available for free on Microsoft Learn.
Who should take this learning pathway?
Anyone with an interest in AI agents can benefit from this learning pathway
Some examples of people that might be interested in this learning pathway include:
- Students
- Software developers
- Python developers
- Azure developers
- Generative AI enthusiasts
Anyone with a basic understanding of programming should be able to follow along.
Why I recommend it..
My favorite thing about this learning pathway is that it is very hands-on.
Instead of spending hours reading or watching lecture videos, you are immediately thrown into building your own AI agents while learning the concepts behind them, helping you better grasp the material.
Get started today
You can find the official Microsoft Learn pathway here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/develop-ai-agents-azure/?wt.mc_id=studentamb_551132
Final thoughts
Microsoft's free learning pathway is a great way to get started with AI agent development.
Whether you plan on competing in hackathons, contributing to open source, or just making your own AI applications, learning how to use Microsoft Foundry and developing AI agents will prove to be a valuable skill in the future.
Happy learning and happy building!
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