Announcing the Microsoft AI Skills Fest: Save the date!
*Updated as of March 28, 2025 The best way to learn something new is by taking it one step at a time. We know all this talk of AI can be overwhelming, so how about we take it one skill at a time? At Microsoft, our mission has always been to create technology that empowers others to innovate and solve real-world problems. And it’s no different with AI—we want to help you learn to use this powerful technology to make your life easier, especially as it becomes an integral part of our daily lives. Sometimes, starting is the hardest part, so we want to make that part simple for you. This is why we’re excited to announce the Microsoft AI Skills Fest, a global event this April and May, designed to bring learners across the globe together to build their AI skills, from beginner explorers to the technologically gifted. Together, we can learn a new AI skill and maybe even set a groundbreaking record at the same time! Everyone everywhere is invited The AI Skills Fest is designed with you in mind, offering a wide variety of AI training for everyone, regardless of background or expertise. Join us to build your AI skills and unlock new opportunities for productivity, innovation, and growth. Tech professionals. Learn how to quickly build AI-powered solutions using Microsoft's AI apps and services. Gain skills and experience working with agents, AI security, Azure AI Foundry, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, and more. Business professionals. Find out how much easier your work life can be when you use Microsoft Copilot to simplify tasks and let your creativity loose! Students. Explore technical skills to bring your ideas to life, with AI learning experiences for all skill levels and interests. Business leaders. Empower your teams with AI skills for future success through curated upskilling opportunities. Let’s earn a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title together on April 8, 2025! The Microsoft AI Skills Fest will begin with a spectacular Kickoff Celebration on April 8, 2025. Starting in Australia at 9 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time and wrapping up in the United States at 4 PM Pacific Daylight Time, this 24-hour, globe-spanning event will feature a variety of AI learning activities designed to engage and inspire learners of all experience levels. Together, we’ll have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attempt a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for most users to take an online multi-level artificial intelligence lesson in 24 hours. Don’t miss this unique chance to learn, compete, and celebrate your achievements—and to be part of these unprecedented and record-setting global festivities. Check out the learning experiences we've prepared for this day. Mark your calendar and register now. Deepen your skills over 50 days of AI learning The celebration doesn't stop there! Following the kickoff, the AI Skills Fest will continue for 50 days— through May 28, 2025—offering a wide array of learning opportunities. Whether you're a tech professional, business leader, business professional, student, or AI enthusiast, there will be engaging and challenging training for you. Participate in hackathons, live in-person and virtual training, self-paced tutorials, on-demand training, community events, Microsoft Learn Challenges, and more. Mark your calendar for 50 days of AI discovery and learning. The countdown to make history together Save the date, attempt a world record, and get ready to unlock the future with 50 days of AI discovery and learning. Read all the details and register now. Now let’s get learning!Powering career and business growth through AI-led, human-enhanced skilling experiences
Every day, it seems like there’s a new AI tool making headlines. In fact, this year alone, thousands of new AI-powered apps and platforms have launched—reshaping how we work, create, and solve problems. Instead of tech that demands more attention, we’re focused on AI that helps you make better decisions and gives you the skills to grow your career and your business. Work Change Report: AI is Coming to Work. January 2025. All this innovation makes one thing clear: evolving your skills at the pace businesses expect is essential—and really challenging. With over 3.6[1] billion people in the global workforce, organizations and individuals everywhere are grappling with the same question: How do we keep pace with AI? It’s not just a technical challenge—it’s a human one. With the steady stream of new courses, articles, and videos, finding exactly what you need—in the right format, with the right depth, and ready to share with your team—can feel overwhelming. We’ve heard from business leaders, developers, and employees alike: you want learning that’s relevant to your roles and projects, easily accessible, and short enough to fit into your busy day. That’s why we’re committed to deliver clear, role-based skilling paths and AI-led, human-enhanced skilling in a unified and accessible way—so teams can adopt AI faster and lead with confidence. Introducing AI Skills Navigator Today, at Microsoft Ignite, we’re releasing the next-generation AI Skills Navigator—an agentic learning space, bringing together AI-powered skilling experiences and credentials that help individuals build career skills and organizations worldwide accelerate their business. This is a smarter, more personalized way to build both technology skills and the uniquely human skills required to set yourself apart in an AI-dominated workplace. A single, unified experience: Build and verify your skills with AI and cloud content and credentials from Microsoft, LinkedIn Learning, and GitHub—all in one spot. Personalized recommendations: Get learning content curated just for you—based on your role, goals, and learning style, whether you prefer videos, guides, or hands-on labs. Innovative learning experiences: Immerse yourself in interactive skilling sessions—videos of human instructors, combined with real-time agentic AI coaching. Watch, engage, and understand concepts more deeply, like you would in a live classroom. Learn the way you like: Prefer to listen? Instantly convert skilling materials into AI-generated podcasts to fit learning effortlessly into your day. Custom, shareable skilling playlists: Use AI to build tailored learning paths that you can easily assign to your team or share with your friends—and track their progress—turning upskilling into a collaborative social experience. & Digital Skills, Vodafone. AI Skills Navigator is now available to everyone around the world as a public preview! For now, all features are in English, but stay tuned—we’re working quickly to add more features and languages, so you can keep growing your skills—wherever you are. Showcasing expertise in action Learning new skills is important. Proving to employers that you have them is just as critical. That’s why we’re expanding Microsoft Credentials—trusted for over 30 years—to help you verify your real-world skills in AI, cloud, and security. Whether you’re looking to stand out in your career or find the right employee to build out your team, our credentials are here to help highlight and verify great talent. Gartner Unveils Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users in 2026 and Beyond (press release). October 21, 2025. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Here’s how we’re evolving Microsoft Credentials: New AI credentials for business professionals, leaders, and early-career talent. More technical credentials focused on secure, scalable AI solutions. Flexible, short-form training content and skills validation for busy schedules. Unlocking human potential with strategic partnerships We know that building AI skills is a team effort. That’s why we’re partnering with leaders like LinkedIn, GitHub, and Pearson to bring you even more ways to learn and grow. Together, we’re making sure you have the resources and support you need—no matter your industry or role. LinkedIn and Microsoft are working together to set a new global standard for AI upskilling. With AI Skills Navigator, you find curated LinkedIn Learning courses that blend essential human and AI skills for every business and technical role. Whether you’re in marketing, finance, HR, operations, or IT, discover practical training that helps you stay ahead. This is just the beginning. We’ll continue to bring you more learning that helps you build professional and leadership skills. GitHub and Microsoft are making it even easier for developers to grow and shine in the AI era. By joining forces within AI Skills Navigator, we’re opening the door for over 100 million developers worldwide to build, prove, and keep expanding their AI skills. Our ongoing partnership is all about nurturing a vibrant developer community that is ready to innovate and keep pace with the fast-changing world of AI. Pearson and Microsoft are teaming up to make it easier than ever to earn and showcase your skills. Credly by Pearson enables professionals to validate their knowledge and gain recognition for their expertise through globally recognized digital credentials. With over 120 million credentials issued and rapid growth in areas like AI, Azure, and cybersecurity, this partnership will empower people to develop in-demand skills and advance their careers. This capability is coming soon. When it’s launched, all Microsoft Credentials will be published to Credly, giving learners a seamless way to earn, manage, and share their achievements. As these exciting partnerships continue to grow, we’re grateful for our Training Services Partners and their long-standing expertise in professional skilling—tailored, human-led training that helps people and organizations everywhere achieve real, impactful results. Helping build careers and businesses, one skill at a time AI combined with your ambition creates a future of tremendous opportunity for you. The hardest part is knowing where to start and direct your focus as the world moves so quickly around us. This is where we can help—whether you’re just getting started or you’re already far along the AI learning path. Together, we’re building a world where everyone can grow, evolve, and lead with confidence. The real frontier isn’t about technology—it’s about what people like you can achieve with it. And we’re here to help you get there, one skill at a time. [1] The World Bank: Labor force, total. Data source: ILO, OECD, and World Bank estimates.Register now for the Microsoft AI Skills Fest!
*Updated as of March 28, 2025. And we’re live! The registration for the Microsoft AI Skills Fest is now open to everyone! Join us on April 8, 2025, as we kick off this global skilling event to bring learners of all levels, ages, and geographies together and attempt to earn a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for most users to take an online multi-level artificial intelligence lesson in 24 hours. We understand that the best way to learn something new is by taking it one step at a time, and learning AI is no exception. This is why we’re so excited to bring you the AI Skills Fest to help you gain valuable AI skills and to be part of a historic worldwide event. You can explore a diverse range of learning activities designed to help you build and enhance your business and technical AI proficiency—one skill at a time. After the kickoff on April 8, 2025, you can continue building your expertise with 50 days of AI discovery and learning, through May 28, 2025. Join us on April 8, 2025, to earn a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS TM title! We’ll kick things off in Australia at 9 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time on April 8, 2025, and finish at 4 PM Pacific Daylight Time on April 8, 2025, with engaging AI learning experiences scheduled around the globe. While we know learning new things is a treat in itself, we thought it’d be extra fun for everyone participating on April 8 to be included in the attempt to earn a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title—a little “learn and earn” reward. Follow three simple steps to count your participation: Register for the Microsoft AI Skills Fest. On April 8, 2025, participate in one of the learning experiences that we’ve prepared for you. The details will be available on the event page shortly. Confirm your participation before 4 PM Pacific Daylight Time on April 8, 2025. Instructions will be provided during the various learning experiences. Check out all the learning experiences we've prepared for this day. Unlock the future! Build the skills to stay ahead After the Kickoff Celebration, the AI Skills Fest will continue for a total of 50 exciting days—through May 28, 2025—offering a wealth of training opportunities for learners of all skill levels and roles. Whether you're a business leader, tech professional, business professional, student or general AI enthusiast, the AI Skills Fest offers curated learning experiences for you. Engage in deep dives, experiential content, hackathons, challenges, and practical sessions. By the end of your 50-day skill-building adventure, you’ll have all the confidence you need to level up your AI skills that can unleash your creativity and increase your efficiency. I mean, who doesn’t want a few extra free hours in your day, right? Join us in making history and be part of the Microsoft AI Skills Fest, where you can build the skills you need to put AI to work for you. See you on April 8, 2025!
Supercharge your workflow with real-time information from the Microsoft Learn MCP Server
Stay focused and on track by connecting your AI agents directly to trusted Microsoft documentation. With the shift toward more AI-powered workplaces, developers and IT teams are spending less time searching the web and more time relying on AI tools and agents for help. But AI is only as good as the knowledge it can access—and even the most advanced AI models are working with information that has knowledge cutoffs, meaning their resources can be months out of date. Outdated or incomplete information can lead to errors, inefficiencies, and compliance issues. That’s where a new standard is emerging: Model Context Protocol (MCP) Servers. They connect AI agents directly to trusted, real-time data sources, so answers are accurate, relevant, and up to date. With the Microsoft Learn MCP Server, your AI agents can tap directly into official Microsoft product knowledge, right inside your development environment or workflow. No browser hopping. No guesswork. Just faster, more accurate results with AI guidance that helps you streamline your workflow and grow your skills while solving real-world problems. What is the Microsoft Learn MCP Server? Think of the Microsoft Learn MCP Server as your direct line to official Microsoft documentation—delivered to your AI Agent, in real time, in context, without leaving the tools you already use. Whether you’re coding in Visual Studio Code, prompting GitHub Copilot, or building a custom AI assistant, the Learn MCP Server brings relevant guidance to your fingertips. There’s no need to create custom connectors or install extra components. The service uses lightweight, streamable HTTP, so it works seamlessly with almost any MCP-compatible tool. The Learn MCP Server provides multiple ways for AI agents to surface the right information: Focused excerpts: The server can search Microsoft content and return up to 10 chunks of high-quality information—each with a title, URL, and self-contained passage. Full technical documentation: When broader context is needed, the Learn MCP Server can fetch complete pages, giving agents richer, more contextual information than a chunk alone could provide. Together, these built-in tools are designed to quickly provide you with the information you need by giving AI agents the flexibility to retrieve information in the format that best fits the task at hand—whether that’s targeted excerpts or a complete page of documentation. Microsoft Learn MCP Server If you’re a developer, that means you’ll have real-time access to definitive Microsoft resources, delivered at the right level of detail to help you solve complex problems, write high-quality code, streamline workflows, and build smarter AI agents. If you’re a technology leader, you’ll be able to equip your teams with smarter tools that provide timely, reliable resources, opening up new ways to learn and work more efficiently and effectively. Unlock smarter agentic experiences with the Microsoft Learn MCP Server Here are a few ways you can start putting Learn MCP to work: Create help desk agents that resolve tickets in minutes. Picture a support agent tackling a tricky issue. Instead of digging through pages of search results, their AI assistant pulls exact, up-to-date documentation from Microsoft Learn right into the workflow. The result? Faster resolution times, reduced escalations, and higher customer satisfaction. Develop onboarding agents that feel like personal coaching. New hires often spend weeks finding their footing, but with AI-guided Microsoft Learn resources tailored to each role, they can quickly ramp up on the tools they'll use every day—like Microsoft 365, Azure, or Dynamics 365—and build skills and confidence faster. Build more secure apps with confidence. By connecting GitHub Copilot agent mode to the Microsoft Learn MCP Server, your AI assistant can access the latest secure development practices and requirements, helping you identify vulnerabilities in open-source packages, validate configurations, and flag risky dependencies before they reach production. We’re continuing to expand what’s possible with the Learn MCP Server, so your AI agents can do even more, with even greater accuracy. In the coming weeks, a new capability will enable agents to access precise, ready-to-use code samples that improve the reliability and quality of AI-generated development work. These enhancements will make it even easier for you to build intelligent, context-aware AI agents, backed by the most current Microsoft product knowledge to help teams maximize productivity, stay secure, and deliver more value. Try it for yourself MCP servers are rapidly gaining traction as the standard for connecting AI agents to high-value, trustworthy data sources—a critical capability as organizations race to adopt AI responsibly. Microsoft Learn is already helping developers and technology leaders put this standard into practice, both by helping learners gain the skills needed to build AI agents and by enhancing the way those agents deliver knowledge to people in the flow of work. By embedding official Microsoft product knowledge directly into your workflows, you can make better decisions, accelerate development cycles, streamline operations, and avoid the pitfalls of outdated information. It’s all part of Microsoft Learn’s commitment to helping people use AI more effectively and with confidence. Explore the Learn MCP Server: Follow the step by step documentation to get started. Watch the demo video to see the Learn MCP Server in action. Visit the GitHub repository for installation guidance and troubleshooting. Walk through setting up the Learn MCP Server in Visual Studio Code with Microsoft MVP Luke Murray.Loop governance, lifecycle, manageability for IT Admins – Nov 2024
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