Integrating AI is no longer just about sending a request to a model and getting some text back. Applications now have tools, context, memory, workflows, and increasingly the ability to go off and do actual work.

Which is useful.

It also means the architecture diagram from six months ago may already look a little archaeological.

In this session, we will step away from the tool of the week and look at the building blocks underneath modern AI integration.

Starting with a simple model call, we will add structured interaction, tools, context, and orchestration, and see where an AI integration quietly turns into an agent.

We will look at MCP as part of today's integration landscape, what problem it actually solves, and where frameworks such as Microsoft Agent Framework fit around it.

What belongs in your application? What belongs in a framework? What does MCP actually buy you? When does orchestration help, and when have you simply built a very elaborate way to call a function?

The goal is not to predict which framework will still be fashionable next year. It is to understand the pieces well enough that when the sands shift again, you can recognize what actually changed and what merely got a new logo.