Authored by Nick Brady, this comprehensive news post details the latest advancements in Azure AI Foundry as of June 2025, highlighting new models, developer tooling, and platform updates designed to streamline enterprise AI development.

What’s New in Azure AI Foundry | June 2025

By Nick Brady

Excerpt

Authored by Nick Brady, this comprehensive news post details the latest advancements in Azure AI Foundry as of June 2025, highlighting new models, developer tooling, and platform updates designed to streamline enterprise AI development.

TL;DR

  • Agent Service GA: Now supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) for integrating any backend with standardized JSON-RPC calls, removing the need for custom OpenAPI specs.
  • New Models: o3-pro (enterprise reasoning), Sora (video generation), DeepSeek-R1 (open-source reasoning), codex-mini (coding assistant), Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini.
  • Platform Changes: Unified Azure AI Foundry resource type, projects for self-service, simplified API versioning, unified SDK, enhanced VS Code extension.
  • API Updates: Voice Live API (real-time speech), enhanced Responses API with tool-calling and image generation, SDK add-ins (Bing Custom Search, SharePoint, Microsoft Fabric tools).
  • Model Safety: New leaderboards, promoting safety as first-class criterion.
  • Community: Access to Discord, GitHub, live events, open-source courses, and code samples.

Developer Community

Join over 25,000 developers in the Azure AI Foundry Developer Community:

  • Connect via Discord and GitHub Discussions.
  • Attend live events (e.g., AMAs on Model Context Protocol, .NET + AI office hours).
  • Access free open-source AI learning resources and code samples.

Join the Community

Models

o3-pro Enterprise Reasoning

  • Advanced reasoning, multi-modal input, structured outputs, tool integration.
  • Designed for precision and depth in complex organizational tasks.

Read More

Sora Video Generation

  • Public preview: Text-to-video generation (20s, 1080p, various aspect ratios).
  • Image-to-video support coming soon.
  • Use cases: marketing, education, creative workflows.

Quickstart

codex-mini Lightweight Coding Assistant

  • Lightweight, efficient code generation/completion.
  • Suited for embedded/devices where performance is key.

Quickstart

Grok 3 & Grok 3 Mini

  • xAI models for real-time conversational AI and general reasoning.

More Info

DeepSeek-R1-0528

  • Open-source model for deeper reasoning and inference, supports chain-of-thought prompting, reinforcement learning fine-tuning, and multi-language.

Model Details

Agent Capabilities

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support (Preview)

  • Import capabilities automatically from any compliant MCP server.
  • Reduce need for custom specs/integrations, with enterprise security built-in.

Learn More

SharePoint Integration

  • Secure agent access to private documents; uses Microsoft 365 Copilot API.
  • Identity passthrough for accurate access control.

How-To

Multi-Agent Workflows

  • Orchestrate multiple agents for complex business processes.

Getting Started

Semantic Kernel & AutoGen Unification

  • Semantic Kernel and AutoGen merged into a single, composable agentic AI toolkit.
  • Enterprise-ready, with advanced protocols (MCP, agent-to-agent, etc.).

Details

Agent Catalog & Healthcare Orchestration

  • Centralized code samples for common use-cases (translation, sales, customer service).
  • Healthcare agents streamline clinician workflows.

More Info

Tools

Enhanced VS Code Extension

  • Full agent CRUD, YAML IntelliSense, deployment directly from VS Code.

Extension

Agent Debugging (Trace Agents)

  • Visualize and monitor agent threads and behaviors for every run.

Start Debugging

GitHub Integration

  • Streamlined development/deployment workflows inside GitHub repositories.

Integration Details

Logic Apps Triggers

  • Invoke agents with Logic Apps for event-driven automation (e.g., new email/customer ticket).

How-To

Expanded Agent Tools

  • Bing Custom Search for agents, Morningstar for investment research, multi-industry expansions.

Azure AI Search Enhancements

  • Multi-vector, semantic ranking, improved multimodal and long-document support.

Details

Fine-Tuning for o4-mini

  • Reinforcement learning fine-tuning for model customization and efficiency.

Platform Updates

Azure AI Foundry Resource & Projects

  • Unified management of models, agents, tools with enterprise controls.
  • Self-service project environments, tracing/monitoring, onboarding wizards.

More Info

API Versioning Simplified

  • Use latest or preview for API endpoints—removes constant version updates and simplifies switching between OpenAI and Azure OpenAI.

Docs

Unified SDK

  • Single SDK covers models, agent service, evaluations, tracing, and external connections.
  • New tools: Bing Custom Search, SharePoint, Microsoft Fabric, and more.

SDK Overview

Global Fine-Tuning Training

  • Distributed, multi-region data support improves fine-tuning performance and lowers cost across global organizations.

Voice Live API (Public Beta)

  • Low-latency voice/speech-to-speech (WebSocket), noise suppression, echo cancellation, and function calling.

Quickstart

Model Safety Leaderboards

  • Dedicated leaderboards using HarmBench to assess safety across multiple categories.
  • Quality/safety trade-offs visualized—for use in regulated industries.

Safety Leaderboards

Enhanced Responses API

  • New MCP tool support, image generation, background task execution, enhanced reasoning controls, and role hierarchy for better agent deployments.

Details

Summary

These Azure AI Foundry June 2025 updates mark significant advancements in enterprise AI development, model safety, multi-agent orchestration, developer tooling, and platform unification—enabling organizations to move from prototype to production with greater speed, safety, and efficiency.

Happy building, and share your projects with #AzureAIFoundry!

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