Discover why to build AI apps and agents with Microsoft and sell through Marketplace

Brady-B

Microsoft

Jan 29, 2026

App Advisor shows you how to meet the rapid customer demand for AI apps and agents.

Customer demand for AI is accelerating fast. And your company's AI app or agent should be there to meet it.

In this fiscal year, Microsoft has already seen 2x growth in customers purchasing AI products through Microsoft Marketplace, while also being the largest catalog of AI apps and agents in the industry.

Building AI apps and agents isn’t just about model performance or speed to market. It’s about meeting your customers’ needs when they have them. For software companies, success depends on whether your AI solution is secure, compliant, responsibly designed, and ready to scale in real-world work environments.

To meet growing customer appetite for AI apps and agents, Microsoft has 11,000+ AI models, tools custom-built for security and resilience, and industry-leading Responsible AI principles.

That’s why App Advisor starts by showing the many reasons why building with Microsoft is the right foundation for AI apps and agents.

Why building AI apps and agents with Microsoft is different

Microsoft, named an AI Leader by Gartner, brings together AI innovation, Responsible AI, and enterprise-grade security into a single, integrated platform. This matters when you’re quickly building AI-powered experiences and agents that your customers can trust.

When you build with Microsoft, you’re building on an AI-native platform designed for production use:

Industry-leading AI and agentic capabilities supporting Gen AI, RAG, ML, predictive analytics, and multi-modal agent workflows,

Integrated developer tools to help teams ship faster that you already use and trust (like GitHub Copilot, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Foundry),

Seamless integration across the Microsoft stack to make it easier to connect data, services, and user experiences without stitching different systems together.

This foundation helps you focus on what you’re building. Microsoft handles the complexity behind the scenes.

Build confidently from day one, stay up to date with AI best practices

Building with AI doesn't have to be risky. Data access, model behavior, governance, and compliance all matter more when AI and agents are embedded directly into customer workflows. Microsoft approaches this with end-to-end security and Responsible AI practices that are integrated throughout the development lifecycle.

That's why App Advisor and Microsoft keep you up with the speed of designing with AI:

Principles to design your own AI Center of Excellence,

Sessions focused on the future of AI and agents in the AI Tour,

Resources and webinars, like the AI envisioning sessions, to keep you current.

This is especially critical for software companies selling into regulated or security-conscious industries. Security isn't an afterthought. You’re building on a platform where they’re already part of the system.

How App Advisor can help answer questions about building AI apps and agents

The first step in App Advisor is intentionally focused on clarity. Instead of jumping straight into tooling or publishing requirements, it helps you evaluate:

Why Microsoft is the right platform for AI apps and agents,

How building with Microsoft assists in development, scaling, and customer trust,

What kinds of opportunities exist in the Microsoft Marketplace and how to maximize on them.

However, App Advisor doesn’t stop at discovery or development.

The same experience that helps you build AI apps and agents also supports growth through the Microsoft Marketplace—giving you access to global customers, streamlined procurement, and enterprise-ready distribution. From first line of code to go-to-market readiness, the platform is designed to support sustainable, scalable growth with confidence.