Microsoft Foundry: AI Agent Development and Governance
Microsoft Foundry is Microsoft's unified platform for building, evaluating, and governing enterprise AI agents and models on a single Azure resource. Kanerika helps enterprises design, build, and ground Foundry agents in real business data and systems, with governance in place from the start. Our Microsoft Foundry consulting runs from use-case discovery and an adoption roadmap through agent builds, governance setup and post-launch support.
Enterprise AI Agent Services on Microsoft Foundry
Kanerika covers Foundry strategy, agent engineering, model selection, and governance, from first build to production.
AI Tooling Assessment
- Review current AI tooling and design a Microsoft Foundry adoption roadmap for your enterprise.
- Identify agent use cases with measurable business impact across priority departments.
- Benchmark Foundry against existing point solutions on cost, governance, and speed.
Resource & Project Planning
- Design the Foundry resource structure, project layout, and access model upfront.
- Plan networking, identity, and policy configuration before any agent gets built.
- Sequence rollout by department to control risk and prove value early.
Agent Design & Build
- Build declarative and hosted agents using Foundry Agent Service and custom code.
- Design multi-agent orchestration for workflows spanning several business functions.
- Configure memory and retrieval so agents hold context across sessions.
Enterprise Context & Tools
- Connect agents to enterprise data, APIs, and business systems for real context.
- Extend agents with the Foundry tool catalog instead of custom integrations.
- Test agent behavior against real business scenarios before rollout.
Model Evaluation
- Evaluate models across the Foundry catalog against accuracy, cost, and latency needs.
- Compare foundation, reasoning, and open-source models within the same project.
- Recommend a model mix rather than defaulting to a single provider.
Fine-Tuning & App Integration
- Fine-tune models on your own data for domain-specific enterprise use cases.
- Integrate Foundry models into existing applications, pipelines, and Microsoft 365 workflows.
- Set up guarded endpoints that redact sensitive data before inference.
Identity & Access Controls
- Configure Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, content filters, and network isolation from day one.
- Apply Azure Policy so every new project inherits the same security baseline.
- Set access boundaries so agents only reach the data they need.
Observability & Compliance
- Set up tracing, evaluation, and monitoring for audit-ready AI operations.
- Build compliance reporting aligned to your industry’s regulatory requirements.
- Review agent performance and access logs on a recurring cadence.
Business Advantages of Microsoft Foundry
Unified Model Access
Evaluate and deploy over 1,900 foundation, reasoning, and industry-specific models from one catalog.
Faster Agent Development
Build agents using pre-built tools for memory, retrieval, and business context instead of custom infrastructure.
Built-In Observability
Trace, monitor, and evaluate every agent and model call through dashboards built directly into the platform.
Enterprise Governance
Apply Microsoft Entra identity, role-based access control, content filters, and network isolation across every project.
Lower Operational Overhead
Manage agents, models, and tools under one Azure resource instead of stitching together separate services .
Regulatory Readiness
Meet compliance requirements with audit trails, policy controls, and data residency options.
How Kanerika Connects Foundry Agents to Your Business
We ground agents in your business data, systems, and identity so they carry real context and can take real action.
Grounding Agents in Enterprise Data
Connect agents to Fabric, SharePoint, databases, and document stores so responses reflect real business data,
Embedding Agents in Apps
Wire Foundry agents into internal tools and customer-facing applications your teams already run.
Access Integration
Connect Foundry to Microsoft Entra ID so agents inherit the same permissions, roles, and access boundaries as users.
Workflow Integration
Give agents the ability to trigger Power Automate flows, update line-of-business systems, and complete tasks.
Why Choose Kanerika
Proven Agentic AI Expertise
Kanerika consultants have deployed production AI agents across regulated industries using Microsoft's agentic AI stack.
Microsoft Data and AI Solutions Partner
Microsoft partner status backed by consistent delivery across analytics and AI engagements.
Certified Foundry Practitioners
Our team holds Microsoft certifications across Azure AI, Fabric, and enterprise governance disciplines.
Microsoft MVPs and Superusers on Team
Elite technical depth from Microsoft MVPs and Superusers with hands-on Foundry platform knowledge.
Governance-First Delivery
Every Foundry engagement includes security, compliance, and access control configuration
End-to-End Ownership
We stay involved from strategy through deployment and post-launch support, not just the build phase.
Getting Started
Step 1
Free Consultation
Talk to our Microsoft consultants about your AI agent priorities and current Azure environment.
Step 2
Proof of Concept
We build a working agent or model integration to demonstrate value before full commitment.
Step 3
Production Rollout & Support
We take the agent to production with governance in place.
Let’s Transform Your Business
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Microsoft Foundry?
Microsoft Foundry is Microsoft’s unified platform for building, evaluating, and governing enterprise AI agents and models. It combines a catalog of over 1,900 models, Foundry Agent Service, built-in observability, and enterprise governance under one Azure resource. Microsoft renamed the platform from Azure AI Foundry at Ignite in November 2025, keeping the same underlying architecture and APIs intact.
Is Microsoft Foundry the same as Azure AI Foundry?
Yes. Microsoft Foundry is the current name for Azure AI Foundry, itself a rebrand of Azure AI Studio. The model catalog, Foundry Agent Service, and governance controls carry over unchanged. Existing Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Azure AI Foundry resources upgrade into Foundry without losing endpoints, API keys, or deployment history.
Is Microsoft Foundry free to use?
Microsoft Foundry carries no platform fee. Costs come from what you consume: model tokens, retrieval through Azure AI Search, hosted-agent compute, and storage, billed as separate Azure meters. Small pilots typically run $500 to $1,500 a month, while production enterprise deployments range from $2,000 to $8,000 a month depending on usage.
How is Microsoft Foundry different from Copilot Studio?
Microsoft Foundry is a developer platform for teams building, running, and scaling custom AI agents and models as core technical infrastructure. Copilot Studio is a low-code layer for exposing AI capabilities to business users inside Microsoft 365. Enterprises building custom, governed agents generally start with Microsoft Foundry, not Copilot Studio.
What models are available in Microsoft Foundry?
Microsoft Foundry gives access to more than 1,900 models from Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and other providers through one catalog. Options span foundational, reasoning, multimodal, open-source, and industry-specific models. Teams compare models on accuracy, latency, and cost inside the same project instead of managing separate vendor accounts.
Does Microsoft Foundry support fine-tuning?
Yes. Microsoft Foundry supports fine-tuning models such as GPT-4o on your own data, using techniques including supervised fine-tuning, direct preference optimization, and reinforcement fine-tuning, with content safety filters applied to the deployed model. Fine-tuning requires a quota request and is billed per training token plus hosting, separate from standard inference pricing. Kanerika manages this setup as part of model integration work.
What is Foundry Agent Service?
Foundry Agent Service is the part of Microsoft Foundry used to build AI agents. It supports declarative prompt agents built in the portal and hosted agents that run custom code. Agents connect to a tool catalog for memory, retrieval, and business context, removing the need to build orchestration infrastructure from scratch. It was previously called Azure AI Foundry Agent Service and carries over unchanged from the earlier Azure AI Foundry platform.
Is Microsoft Foundry secure for regulated industries?
Microsoft Foundry includes Microsoft Entra identity integration, role-based access control, content safety filters, network isolation, and Azure Policy support by default. These controls give regulated enterprises the audit trails and access restrictions compliance teams require. Kanerika configures these settings as standard practice on every Foundry engagement, not as an optional upgrade.
Can we migrate existing Azure OpenAI resources to Microsoft Foundry?
Yes. Microsoft provides a direct upgrade path from Azure OpenAI into Microsoft Foundry that preserves endpoints, API keys, and deployment state. Kanerika handles this migration end to end, validating that applications and monitoring continue working after the upgrade. Most enterprise migrations complete without downtime to production systems using the existing endpoints.
How does Kanerika help enterprises build on Microsoft Foundry?
Kanerika designs, builds, and governs Microsoft Foundry agents for enterprise clients, covering strategy, agent engineering, model selection, and compliance. We ground agents in real business data, connect them to existing systems, and configure identity and governance controls from the start. Our team stays on for monitoring and support after launch. These AI Foundry consulting services also cover upgrading existing Azure OpenAI resources into Microsoft Foundry without losing endpoints or API keys.
How much do Microsoft Foundry consulting services cost?
Cost depends on the number of AI use cases, the models and data sources involved, and how much governance and integration work is needed. A focused assessment or proof of concept can take a few weeks, while a production rollout across several agents runs longer. Kanerika scopes work in phases so you see results early and control spend. Share your use cases and environment and we will send a scoped estimate after a short discovery call.
