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!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!Build skills that matter—faster—with AI-assisted learning and Applied Skills
Jeana Jorgensen: Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Learning Curtis Lee: Vice President, Azure Experiences & Ecosystems Microsoft Learn is committed to empowering individuals and organizations with the skills needed to innovate, adapt, and thrive in the AI economy. We’re excited to share how we’re evolving the way you learn using AI to enable faster skill acquisition personalized to your needs. We’re also announcing the availability of new Microsoft Applied Skills that range from beginner scenarios to equip aspiring professionals with practical tools to kickstart their careers, to new AI-focused scenarios that help you accelerate app development with GitHub Copilot. And, we’re sharing how you can enter to win a free certification exam as part of the AI Skills Fest Challenge! Grow your skills faster with AI-assisted learning Microsoft Learn uses AI to help you build your skills with features that adapt to your learning needs and preferences. At this year’s Microsoft Build, May 19–22, 2025, we’re sharing four more ways that you can benefit from the power of AI on Microsoft Learn. Here’s an introduction to these features. 1. Get personalized assistance with Ask Learn, now expanding across Microsoft Learn Last November at Ignite, we announced Ask Learn, our AI assistant. Initially available to support your training on Microsoft Learn, Ask Learn is now expanding to all documentation to help you find answers and troubleshoot faster. Available in Microsoft Azure documentation now, and expanding further in the coming weeks, Ask Learn will also factor in your interactions as you move through the site to refine your experience. So whether you are looking to understand the potential use cases for Agentic AI, which model to use in Azure AI Foundry for your latest project, or the steps to follow to complete tasks with Microsoft products, Ask Learn provides personalized assistance. To get real-time advice and support while you learn—right from within any training topic and in Azure documentation—just click the “Ask Learn” button and write your prompt. Try it now on the Azure App Service documentation page or explore your favorite training topic on Microsoft Learn. 2. Learn where you code—with Ask Learn in Visual Studio Code (coming soon!) Ask Learn is also coming to Visual Studio Code as an extension and you can request early access. Whether you’re new to development or an experienced developer, you’ll soon be able to seamlessly transition from learning about topics on Microsoft Learn to putting them to work. Within Visual Studio Code, Ask Learn will provide: Coaching on concepts. Want to learn when you should apply one development technique vs another? Get digestible, bite-sized guidance to help you make better decisions and improve the quality of your code. Step-by-step instruction. Trying to accomplish a specific task and want help? Ask Learn connects you to the right information right when and where you need it. A dynamic development experience. Have a question while you’re building your next feature? Dynamically switch between coding in Visual Studio Code and learning with Ask Learn, whenever you need to. To request early access, you can submit your information at aka.ms/AskLearnInVSCode 3. Quickly create learning plans tailored to your specific needs At Microsoft Ignite, we announced AI-generated plans to quickly curate the best training tailored for your individual needs. Over the coming days and weeks, we’ll be rolling out improvements to enhance the experience further, allowing you to: Prepare for specific credentials. Customize your plan with credential study guide content aligned to Certifications and Applied Skills to help you achieve your aspirations. Improve fine-tuning. You’ll be able to generate plans that mix and match modules across learning paths based on your exact scenario, along with enhancements to how you edit, save and share plans. Create group plans. Whether you’re looking to help a team or group keep pace with technology, get project-ready, or develop their professional skills, you’ll be able to generate a plan to meet your team’s needs. You can get started generating plans today, and these additional enhancements will be rolling out over the next few weeks. At aka.ms/LearnAtBuild you can also access pre-made plans on key topics from Microsoft Build with guided learning from Microsoft and GitHub. 4. Improve your focus with AI-powered assessments Microsoft Learn now offers an improved experience to help you gain real-time insights into your competencies as you complete modules. You can test your knowledge more thoroughly with an increased number of questions generated dynamically with AI. As you pass each one of these module assessments, it helps build a more complete picture of your progress through a given topic, which can be seen on a learner transcript you can share with your employer for credit. This feature is rolling out now and will expand to all modules on Microsoft Learn over the next several weeks. Test your knowledge with Microsoft Learn module assessments. Introducing new Microsoft Applied Skills—now featuring beginner level, GitHub Copilot, and AI scenarios As you build skills on Microsoft Learn, consider demonstrating your expertise with Microsoft Applied Skills. These credentials validate your knowledge of Microsoft products and services through practical application to real-world scenarios, enabling you to succeed in your job or advance your career with confidence. According to IDC 1 , scenario- and project-based skills are increasingly used to hire and promote employees, with more than 60% of organizations highlighting that micro-credentials like Applied Skills allow them to test and validate specific technical skills. We have two significant updates to help learners at all stages prove their skills and advance their careers. 1. New beginner-level Applied Skills If you’re a student, just starting out, or changing career, check out our new beginner-level Applied Skills that help you apply and validate foundational skills in cloud and emerging technologies. Gain practical experience to establish a strong foundation for your career. The new beginner-level Applied Skills scenarios include, with more coming soon: Get started with classes, properties, and methods in C# Get started with identities and access using Microsoft Entra 2. Expanded Applied Skills for AI scenarios, including GitHub Copilot GitHub Copilot has been paving the way for worldwide adoption of generative AI, and we are excited to offer a new credential designed to accelerate app development with GitHub Copilot. In addition, there are now more credentials on Copilot to help you demonstrate your ability to build, extend, and automate with AI—skills that are increasingly in demand across industries. The new intermediate-level Applied Skills scenarios include: Accelerate app development by using GitHub Copilot Create agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio Extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with declarative agents by using Visual Studio Code* *Coming soon Explore all Applied Skills on Microsoft Learn. Join the Microsoft AI Skills Fest Challenge for the chance to win a free Microsoft Certification exam As you deepen your AI skills, be sure to participate in the Microsoft AI Skills Fest Challenge through May 28, 2025. It’s your chance to gain in-demand skills in agent creation, AI Security, Azure AI Foundry, GitHub Copilot, Fabric, and more, and you can enter the Challenge Sweepstakes for a chance to win a free Certification exam. Don’t miss out! Unlock your potential AI has the power to unlock your potential, and we can’t think of anything more rewarding than helping you build and prove your abilities—one skill at a time. We’re glad to share the ongoing updates to the Microsoft Learn portfolio of offerings and experiences, and we’re with you all along the way. 1 IDC InfoBrief, Sponsored by Microsoft, Skilling Up! Leveraging Full and Micro-Credentials for Optimal Skilling Solutions, Doc. #US52019124, June, 2024.
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.
