Building on an Established Vision

For Microsoft, the recent stretch of time—marked by the consecutive occurrences of Computex and the Build conference—has represented a crucial period. The tech giant utilized these events to introduce new hardware, such as the Surface Laptop Ultra and the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, while simultaneously guiding developers through the transition into what the company calls the “age of AI agents.”


It is important to note that Microsoft did not arrive at this “agentic web” concept overnight. The company began constructing this infrastructure at Build 2025. Over the past twelve months, the focus has shifted from high-level vision to the creation of tangible, functional tools for developers.


The Foundations Laid in 2025

The core philosophy of the current AI strategy was clearly outlined by Frank Shaw during the 2025 conference. During that event, Microsoft emphasized the importance of open standards and robust infrastructure, highlighted by key announcements such as:

  • GitHub Copilot coding agents and Git updates.
  • Azure AI Foundry Models and improved evaluation tools.
  • Multi-agent orchestration and Microsoft 365 Copilot Tuning.

Furthermore, the introduction of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) across the company's ecosystem and the project known as NLWeb served as early markers for a new era of web interaction.


Focus on Trust and Context

At the latest iteration of Build, the narrative remained consistent, emphasizing that developers require more than just execution environments. As Kyle Daigle, COO of GitHub, noted:

«Developers don't need another way to just build and run an agent or app. They need trust. They need native context and knowledge. Most of all, they need choice to access the right model for the right problem.»

The AI Stack and Microsoft IQ

This year, Microsoft focused on the comprehensive AI stack, providing a complete ecosystem for creating agents, tuned models for specific workloads, and tools for Windows, web, and Microsoft 365 integration. A central pillar of this effort is Microsoft IQ.

Microsoft IQ acts as a context layer, anchoring AI agents to both global and enterprise-specific knowledge. By utilizing documents and communications within Microsoft 365, as well as the new Web IQ for real-time information, the platform ensures that AI outputs are grounded in relevant data rather than generic sources.


The Road Ahead

With the introduction of "Scout," an always-on personal work agent, and a new family of AI models, Microsoft has essentially completed the pipeline from development to deployment. Rather than a total shift in direction, the latest conference represents the second phase of a strategy initiated a year ago. The success of this vision now depends on how effectively developers utilize this infrastructure to build the next generation of applications.