Microsoft Foundry advances AI agents with new models and production capabilities
Microsoft Foundry is now generally available with GPT-5.6 frontier models, an Asia-Pacific Data Zone, and hosted agents in its Agent Service, simplifying agent development and deployment. These updates allow organizations to build, run, and govern AI agents on a single platform, integrating with enterprise data, tools, and Microsoft 365. This aims to move AI agents from experimentation to production reliably and securely for over 100,000 organizations building on Foundry.
- →GPT-5.6 series models now generally available
- →Asia-Pacific Data Zone for regional AI model processing
- →Production agents available in Foundry Agent Service
- →Foundry IQ unifies enterprise knowledge access
- →Toolboxes for dynamic agent tool access
Features (5) ›
- GPT-5.6 series models now generally available
Microsoft Foundry now offers GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Terra, and GPT-5.6 Luna, providing advanced reasoning, balanced performance, and high-volume capabilities respectively. These models are available in Standard Global and Standard Data Zones, supporting various enterprise workloads and deployment options.
- Asia-Pacific Data Zone for regional AI model processing
The Asia-Pacific Data Zone is now generally available in Microsoft Foundry, allowing customers in the region to run frontier OpenAI models while keeping data processing within APAC. This addresses data sovereignty and compliance requirements without needing separate environments.
- Production agents available in Foundry Agent Service
Hosted agents, toolboxes, and publishing to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams are now generally available in Foundry Agent Service. This provides a single production runtime for agents built with various frameworks, including network isolation and resilient task support.
- Foundry IQ unifies enterprise knowledge access
Microsoft IQ, integrating Work IQ, Fabric IQ, and Web IQ, is now generally available as Foundry IQ. This provides a unified, SLA-backed knowledge layer for agents, enabling access to enterprise data, Microsoft 365 context, and live web grounding without complex retrieval pipelines.
- Toolboxes for dynamic agent tool access
Foundry Toolboxes are now generally available, allowing agents to dynamically select and access tools. This approach avoids shipping every tool definition on every request, improving efficiency.
Enhancements (1) ›
- Foundry Toolkit for VS Code and GitHub Copilot SDK
Agent development is supported through the Foundry Toolkit for VS Code and the generally available GitHub Copilot SDK. This allows developers to build agents where they already work, with Foundry serving as the production destination.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/frontier-models-and-production-agents-advancing-microsoft-foundry-for-the-agentic-era/
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