Forum Discussion
Could Marketplace Become an AI Discovery Agent?
Today, customers still find apps in Marketplace by searching keywords or browsing categories. In a large catalog like the Marketplace, that often feels like guesswork. Publishers describe similar solutions differently, and customers rarely know the exact keywords to use.
Many customers end up scrolling through listings, getting tired, and leaving. When that happens, we as publishers never get the chance to connect with them.
What if Marketplace used AI to change that?
Instead of searching, customers could simply describe what they need:
“I need a time-tracking app that works natively in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, has light project management, follows our security policies, and keeps all company data inside our tenant in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).”
An AI agent could instantly suggest the best matching apps and guide the customer directly to Get it now.
And maybe the next step is even bigger:
What if Marketplace became an agent or coworker for Microsoft Copilot, helping users discover and install the right apps simply by asking?
Curious what others think—could this be the future of Marketplace discovery?
6 Replies
justinroyal and kc_msft
It’s great to see Marketplace taking this route and applying AI to the app search experience. I think this has a lot of potential, but it also seems clear that the feature is still quite early in its development.
From what I can see, the category appears to be determined largely from the wording used in the search query. This means that if the user doesn’t happen to use the terminology that matches the expected category, they can end up with no results, even though there may be relevant apps in the Marketplace.
This makes me wonder how much the AI is currently analyzing the actual product information, particularly the product description, capabilities, and features, versus primarily matching the search text against predefined categories or keywords.
For an AI-driven Marketplace search, I would expect the product description and its underlying meaning to play a significant role. For example, a user may describe what they want to accomplish in completely different terms from how the app is described or categorized, and the AI should ideally be able to make that connection.
So I think the direction is very promising, but it would be interesting to understand whether semantic analysis of the full product description is currently part of the search process, or whether that is something planned for a later stage.
- kc_msft
Microsoft
Hi Asgrimur_Skarp - Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. I think some of your questions are addressed in our Learn documentation. See the FAQs on intelligent discovery.
The search in Microsoft Marketplace uses Microsoft Foundry and Azure OpenAI to understand what you're looking for and translate it into actions—such as applying filters, refining search results, opening product detail pages, and generating side-by-side comparisons—so you can discover the right solution faster.
- Information is based on Marketplace listings. The AI references information from product listings in the Marketplace catalog. It can't access external websites or documentation beyond what is available in the catalog.
- justinroyal
Thanks for sharing this, kc_msft ! Asgrimur_Skarp - have you tried out Intelligent Discovery yet? If so, we'd love to hear your feedback!
- kc_msft
You asked, we listened! 🎉
Excited to share that intelligent discovery is now live in Microsoft Marketplace as of August 25, 2026.
Finding the right solution shouldn't depend on knowing the perfect keyword. With intelligent discovery, you can simply describe your business needs in natural language and AI will understand your intent, automatically apply relevant filters, and surface the most relevant Marketplace solutions.
✨ With Intelligent Discovery, you can:
- Find the right solutions faster using natural language instead of keyword searches.
- Chat, compare, and evaluate options side by side to make more informed decisions.
- Shortlist and share solutions with your team for collaborative evaluation.
- Benefit from AI throughout the entire Marketplace journey, from search to decision, with no new tools or workflows to learn.
If you've ever been frustrated trying to find the right solution in a crowded marketplace, we'd love to hear your feedback as you try out this new experience.
This is a great feature! kc_msft thanks for the update!
We’d love to better understand how it actually works so we can align our product description accordingly.
For example, I asked it to “find me an app for Teams that could help me schedule meetings.” It returned several options that didn’t seem particularly relevant to the query. Our app was also included in the shortlist, which was great to see, but only following those non relevant apps.
It would be really helpful to understand what factors are used to determine the recommendations, so we can make sure our Marketplace description is optimized appropriately.
- justinroyal
Thank you for the feedback, Asgrimur_Skarp! Curious to hear others' feedback on this - do you agree with the recommendation for an "AI discovery agent"? If so, what would be the most important features/capabilities?
