Build smarter, connected agentic apps with Foundry Tools

Microsoft

Nov 18, 2025

Human progress has always been shaped by tools. They amplify our abilities by letting us see further, move faster, and build more than we ever could alone. Agentic applications follow the same pattern. Models provide intelligence, but tools unlock capability. Tools let agents retrieve real-time data, connect business systems, trigger workflows, analyze documents, and use multimodal functions to understand images or audio. They transform an LLM from a conversational interface into a system that can automate work and take meaningful action.

To make this possible at scale, agents need more than tools—they need a common way to use them. That’s where the Model Context Protocol (MCP) comes in. MCP defines the standard for how agents discover and invoke tools. It’s the connective tissue that turns a collection of tools into an interoperable ecosystem.

Introducing Foundry Tools

Tools have the most impact when they’re easy to find and use, which is why we’re introducing Foundry Tools in Microsoft Foundry, a new unified catalog of cutting-edge tools, connectors, and MCP servers.

Today we are making a series of announcements to empower developers to build AI agents that understand business context and may act on business systems:

Our Azure AI Services portfolio will now be fully available as tools.
We’re bringing over 1,400 Azure Logic Apps connectors into Foundry as tools.
We’re enabling select Frontier organizations to leverage A365 MCP servers to operate on Outlook, Teams, Word, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Dataverse.
All developers and software vendors may now build and publish custom tools securely in an internal registry.
Use of all tools in Foundry Tools is protected and governed with built-in security, observability, and lifecycle controls.

Starting today, customers can discover, connect, and manage a comprehensive set of tools essential for building agentic apps from a single, secure interface in Microsoft Foundry.

New tools in Foundry

Today, we are excited to announce that we are making it easier to leverage our premier AI capabilities—including Azure Speech, Azure Document Intelligence, Azure Content Understanding, Azure Translator, and Azure Language--all in Foundry Tools. These capacities are also exposed as MCP servers for rapid agent development, fully pre-configured inside Foundry.

We are also unveiling major innovations across this Azure tools portfolio:

Azure Content Understanding is now generally available with a new bring-your-own model option starting with GPT family of models, support for VNETs, managed identities, CMKs, expanded regions, and simplified pricing.
Live Interpreter is now generally available, delivering real-time multilingual interpretation for inclusive global collaboration. This is the same underlying technology that powers the Interpreter agent in Microsoft Teams.
LLM Speech brings advanced speech-to-text transcription and translation with prompting and diarization, available in public preview.
Photo Avatar, powered by VASA-1, enables lifelike avatars from a single photo, also available in preview.

These state-of-the-art AI tools Azure tools deliver significant business impact for our customers:

KPMG, a global professional services firm that provides audit, tax, and advisory services, said:

“We’re unleashing the power of AI to transform audit for 95,000 professionals worldwide. By integrating Azure Content Understanding into KPMG Clara, we’re converting complexity into clarity—turning millions of documents into insights that drive productivity and redefine the future of audit.”

- Thomas Mackenzie, Global Audit Chief Digital Officer, KPMG

eClinicalWorks offers a comprehensive suite of solutions for healthcare providers, including AI-powered EHR, telehealth, patient engagement, and revenue cycle management.

“Because the Voice Live API is integrated into one single, unified solution, we can deliver speech-to-text and text-to-speech in the same infrastructure. If we did multiple hops to go across different infrastructures, that would add up to a diminished patient experience.”

- Bhawna Batra, VP of Engineering at eClinicalWorks

Beyond state-of-the-art AI tools, many companies simply want to build agents that interact with business systems without writing custom code. With Azure Logic Apps now in Foundry Tools, customers can now connect agents to existing business workflows, use triggers for event-driven actions, and deliver intelligent, context-aware experiences.

In addition, organizations that want to run AI-powered tools without managing infrastructure can now host MCP servers on Azure Functions. This serverless model scales automatically to meet demand, lowers costs when idle, and ensures you only pay for what you use. Built-in security and seamless integration options help maintain compliance, while Azure’s global infrastructure delivers reliability.

Foundry Tools also enable agents to access enterprise data in Azure Databricks. Today, we’re announcing an integration with Genie in Azure Databricks, which enables builders to connect their Lakehouse to agents in Foundry as a tool call. Without the need for complex code, developers can bring trusted, conversational analytics and insights to agents directly within Foundry. We are also excited to partner with Databricks to bring this capability to Foundry IQ, our hero knowledge solution, in the near future.

Today, we are also announcing that frontier customers will have access to Agent 365 MCP servers, enabling AI workflows to integrate with Outlook, Teams, Word, OneDrive, SharePoint, Dataverse. These MCP servers allow agents to automate tasks such as scheduling, document drafting, emailing, and updating CRM records without manual input. Agent 365 MCP servers ensure secure, compliant access to business data with user permissions.

Manage and govern tools

In large enterprises, the teams that build applications and APIs are often different from teams that consume them to create AI agents, which can lead to friction, delays, and governance challenges.

Now with Azure API Center, customers can assemble a private tools catalog, to securely publish, discover, and manage internal MCP servers. With centralized publishing of metadata, authentication profiles, and version control, internal MCP servers are seamlessly available across the Microsoft Cloud, including Foundry.

From an authorization governance perspective, MCP servers now can leverage Microsoft Entra Managed Identity, Agent Identity and OAuth. In Foundry, your tools have a built-in gateway with customizable policies and Microsoft Entra Agent Identity built-in for secure, governed access to enterprise resources.

With full integration of observability and policy enforcement from A365 and Foundry Control Plane, organizations can innovate confidently, maintaining traceability and compliance at scale.

Get started today

The easiest way to explore these new innovations is through the Microsoft Foundry portal, and the Foundry Tools. From there you can follow the documentation and Microsoft Learn courses, and start building with MCP and built-in tools—all in a few clicks.

If you’re attending Microsoft Ignite 2025, or watching on-demand content later, be sure to check out these sessions: