2025: The Age of AI agents and Building the Open Agentic Web

As Microsoft writes here, they define 2025 as the year adventing the era of the ‘Agentic Web’.

This describes a transformative vision where AI agents act not merely as tools, but as autonomous partners capable of reasoning, decision-making, and task execution on behalf of individuals and organizations.

In a world reshaped by AI, this new era is driven by ground-breaking advancements in AI reasoning and memory, empowering developers and businesses to redefine workflows, accelerate innovation, and solve complex problems in unprecedented ways.

In this best practice series we explore how Azure AI is catalyzing the evolution of the Agentic Web—a paradigm where AI-driven agents, powered by advanced machine learning, natural language processing, and cognitive services, redefine human-digital interaction.

Azure AI

At the heart of this transformation lies Azure AI, Microsoft’s powerful suite of artificial intelligence tools and services, which is empowering developers, businesses, and visionaries to build a web that is proactive, personalized, and profoundly intelligent.

From the evolution of GitHub Copilot into a full-fledged coding agent to the introduction of Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft Discovery, which streamline AI application development and scientific research, Microsoft is laying the foundation for a future where AI agents seamlessly integrate into every facet of work and life.

This book explores the technologies, platforms, and open standards—such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and NLWeb—that are powering this shift, offering a glimpse into how developers and enterprises are building a collaborative, secure, and intelligent digital ecosystem that promises to redefine the internet and fuel the next wave of global innovation.

Empowering Developers

AI models are now more capable due to improved reasoning and memory. GitHub Copilot, used by 15 million developers, features agent mode and code review to streamline coding processes, while Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio are utilized by hundreds of thousands of customers and over 230,000 organizations, including 90% of the Fortune 500, for research, brainstorming, and automation.

Azure AI Foundry enables developers to build and manage AI applications, integrating models like xAI’s Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini. It now supports the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol for interoperability and includes observability tools for performance and security metrics.

• Microsoft Discovery: A new platform to accelerate scientific discovery with agentic AI, transforming research and development processes across industries.
• Open Standards and NLWeb: Microsoft supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) across platforms like GitHub, Copilot Studio, and Windows 11, and introduced NLWeb, likened to HTML for the agentic web, enabling conversational website interfaces.
• Security and Governance: Microsoft Entra Agent ID assigns unique identities to AI agents for secure management, and Microsoft Purview extends data security and compliance to AI apps, addressing risks like “agent sprawl.”
• Developer Empowerment: Microsoft emphasizes tools like Windows AI Foundry and GitHub Copilot’s asynchronous coding agent to enhance the software development lifecycle, enabling developers to focus on strategic tasks.

These announcements reflect Microsoft’s vision of an interconnected, secure, and developer-friendly agentic ecosystem, driving digital transformation across industries.

Begin Your Agentic AI Journey

From enabling hyper-personalized user experiences to automating intricate workflows across industries, Azure AI provides the scalable, secure, and versatile infrastructure needed to bring this vision to life. We will delve into the technical foundations, practical applications, and transformative potential of this technology, offering insights for developers, business leaders, and curious minds alike.

Through real-world case studies, technical blueprints, and forward-looking perspectives, this book unpacks how Azure AI’s capabilities—such as Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning, and the Azure Bot Framework—are empowering a new generation of intelligent agents.

These agents are not merely tools but collaborative partners that learn, adapt, and act with unprecedented autonomy. Whether you’re a developer seeking to harness Azure’s tools to build cutting-edge applications or a strategist envisioning the future of digital ecosystems, this book will guide you through the principles, practices, and possibilities of the Agentic Web.

Join us on this journey to discover how Azure AI is not just shaping the future of the web but redefining what it means to interact, create, and thrive in a world where intelligence is woven into the very fabric of our digital lives.