Build your own conversational AI agent and share $50K in prizes with Microsoft AI Skills Fest

What if your AI could do more than just respond? With Azure AI Agent Service, developers are building conversational AI agents that not only understand natural language but also take meaningful actions to drive business success. And with customized, self-paced skilling Plans and an upcoming, dedicated Hackathon event (with $50,000 in prizes!), Microsoft Learn is your one-stop resource for developing your own AI agent and further exploring the capabilities of Azure AI Agent Service.  

Build and deploy your own AI agent with Azure AI Agent Service 

Introduced at Microsoft Ignite 2024, Azure AI Agent Service is a fully managed platform designed to help you build, deploy, and scale high-quality conversational AI agents with minimal complexity. By leveraging Microsoft's advanced AI capabilities, this service provides a streamlined approach to developing intelligent applications that can understand natural language, retrieve relevant information, and take meaningful actions.  

Key capabilities of Azure AI Agent Service include: 

• Pre-trained models: Access to pre-built models for common use cases, enabling rapid development without starting from scratch.  

• Code-first customization: Flexibility to tailor AI solutions to specific business needs through a code-first approach.  

• Seamless integration: Ability to connect agents with other Azure services, external APIs, and various data sources, including Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.  

• Scalability: Ensures smooth performance under heavy user loads, allowing applications to grow with business needs without infrastructure concerns.  

• Advanced NLP: Utilizes natural language processing techniques to facilitate conversational interactions between agents and users.  

• Built-in analytics: Provides insights into agent performance and user behavior through an analytics dashboard.  

Earn a career-boosting AI skills badge and share in $50K in prizes 

Azure AI Agent Service continues a 50-year legacy of software and tools we at Microsoft have developed to help our users innovate, and our curated trove of AI learning resources goes a step further to help you develop crucial skills in a rapidly evolving tech space.  

That’s why we’re celebrating our 50th anniversary by launching a 24-hour, worldwide AI learning event aimed at empowering users to acquire new AI skills, drive AI transformation, and propel their careers. On April 8, 2025, Microsoft AI Skills Fest kicks off an exciting 5-week challenge that will not only push learners to achieve a verified AI skill badge that will differentiate them in today’s talent pool, but also share part of $50,000 in prizes!    

Running through the end of April, the AI Agents Hackathon will guide you through the process of building, training, and deploying autonomous agents across multiple programming languages using Azure AI. By taking part in the Hackathon, you’ll be able to:  

• Understand the basics of creating an AI agent 

• Utilize GitHub Copilot’s features to build and enhance AI agents 

• Create generative AI solutions with Azure AI Foundry 

• Accelerate AI app development with GitHub 

• Learn about GitHub Copilot Extensions to your AI agent 

The Microsoft AI Skills Fest is an excellent opportunity to deepen your understanding and application of AI agent technologies, and we’re hoping to break a world record by skilling 100 million global learners. Join us on April 8th to boost your career and make history! 

Start skilling now with our expert-curated Plans on Microsoft Learn  

In preparation for Microsoft AI Skills Fest, we’ve made available a wide range of self-paced, expert-curated learning resources to get you started. Checkout our Create agentic AI solutions by using Azure AI Foundry Plan on Learn for the latest advancements in agentic AI technologies. The Plan is designed to empower you to build and integrate AI-driven agents seamlessly into your applications and learn advanced model fine-tuning techniques.

Beyond AI agents, we have in-depth Plans on Microsoft Learn to help you explore the full scope of AI-based skilling we offer: 

• Develop, replatform, and improve AI apps with advanced Azure AI services: Master AI app development on Azure by learning to replatform existing applications, assess architectural changes, and build new solutions. You'll explore comprehensive skills in code modernization, security implementation, deployment strategies, and testing across Azure services. 

• Build, test, deploy applications securely with GitHub and Microsoft Azure: Elevate your DevOps and development workflow with an in-depth guide to secure application lifecycle management. You'll leverage GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, and Azure Pipelines to automate processes, implement advanced security measures with GitHub Advanced Security, and adopt industry-leading development best practices.  

• Find the best model for your generative AI solution with Azure AI Foundry: Unlock the potential of generative AI solutions using Azure AI Foundry, gaining expertise in model selection, multimodal capabilities, and advanced benchmarking. You'll learn to create sophisticated AI applications by effectively utilizing Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Service. 

Don’t miss out on this exciting AI skills challenge! 

Looking to take your AI skills to the next level and create your own conversational agent? Then join us on April 8, 2025, to join the Microsoft AI Skills Fest and the AI Agents Hackathon to earn your career-boosting skills badge and potentially share in $50,000 in prizes! Prepare for the event by participating in our series of Plans on Microsoft Learn.