Azure AI Foundry (now part of Microsoft Foundry) brings together models, tools, and governance in a single, integrated experience. Developers can rapidly build AI apps and agents that understand business context, while organisations gain centralised security, compliance, and lifecycle management across their AI estate.
Why Azure AI Foundry
A unified platform for end-to-end AI innovation
Azure AI Foundry provides a single environment to design, customise, deploy, and support AI applications and agents at scale. It unifies capabilities from Azure OpenAI, Speech, Vision, Language, and other Azure AI services into one platform, so teams don’t have to stitch together separate tools or portals.
With Foundry, you can:
- Discover and evaluate models from Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Mistral, Meta, and others in one model hub.
- Design AI apps and agents that blend proprietary data, tools, and workflows.
- Manage governance, security, and observability across your AI workloads using Azure’s enterprise controls.
Models that meet you where you are
11,000+ models in a single catalogue
Foundry Models gives you a central place to find, try, and operationalise the right model for each scenario, whether you are building copilots, agents, or embedding AI into existing apps. The catalogue includes more than 11,000 models across foundation, reasoning, multimodal, and domain-specific families, offered with Azure’s built-in security, reliability, and compliance.
Developers can:
- Compare and experiment with different models from one experience.
- Optimise for quality, latency, and cost based on workload needs.
Deploy models using Azure’s managed infrastructure and monitoring
Tools to build, customise, and integrate
From idea to production with Foundry tools and SDKs
Azure AI Foundry includes a rich set of tools and SDKs to support the full development lifecycle, from experimentation through deployment and operations. Using the Foundry portal, SDKs (C#, Java, JavaScript, Python) and REST APIs, teams can build AI apps and agents using their preferred languages and workflows.
Key capabilities include:
- Foundry Tools to add vision, speech, language, and decision capabilities to applications, including options for REST APIs, client libraries, and on-premises containers.
- Agent development with Foundry Agent Service and Microsoft Agent Framework, designed for connected, observable AI agents that work with your data and services.
Integrated DevOps patterns with GitHub and Azure DevOps for CI/CD, testing, and model promotion through environments.
Responsible AI and governance built in
Design AI with safety, security, and compliance in mind.
Azure AI Foundry is built on Microsoft’s Responsible AI principles, with technical controls and governance patterns to help organisations deploy AI safely and at scale. The platform supports content filtering for Azure OpenAI models, responsible AI tooling, and Azure Policy-based controls to govern which models and configurations can be deployed.
Foundry helps you:
- Apply content filters to reduce harmful or unsafe outputs in prompts and completions.
- Implement a shared responsibility model for AI workloads across SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
- Use Azure governance and security capabilities to manage access, data protection, monitoring, and regulatory compliance for AI workloads.
Partner opportunities with Azure AI Foundry
Turn Microsoft’s AI platform into repeatable services
For partners and MSPs, Azure AI Foundry is a foundation for building differentiated AI offerings. Using Microsoft’s AI platform, you can design packaged services around AI strategy, agent development, custom copilots, and data-driven applications, backed by official guidance from the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework and Foundry training content.
Typical partner motions include:
- AI readiness and strategy engagements using Microsoft’s AI strategy guidance to align business goals, data foundations, and governance.
- Custom copilots and agents built on Foundry Models and Agent Service, integrated with customer data and business processes.
- Managed AI operations leveraging Azure monitoring, security, and lifecycle tools to keep AI apps compliant and reliable over time.
Leader Cloud can help you turn these capabilities into repeatable, margin-rich services for your customers, while staying aligned with Microsoft’s best practices for AI adoption.
Get started
Start building with Azure AI Foundry today
Whether you are modernising existing applications, building new AI agents, or standardising your organisation’s AI platform, Azure AI Foundry provides the models, tools, and governance you need in one place. Combine Microsoft’s AI innovation with Leader Cloud’s local expertise to fast-track your next AI project.
Email sales@leadercloud.com.au to get an AI discover call.
