Don't let your AI agents live in a silo. Unlock their full potential by connecting them to your data, your APIs, and the web. This session is a practical guide to extending Microsoft Foundry agents using the latest standards.

We will start with a tour of the powerful inbox capabilities—including Code Interpreter and Grounding with Bing—before shifting focus to building your own. You will learn how to leverage the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to create standardized, interoperable tools that your agents can use to perform real work.

Key takeaways:

- Maximize Built-ins: configure Browser Automation and SharePoint integration out of the box.
- Build with MCP: Create custom tools using the Model Context Protocol and OpenAPI.
- Secure the Stack: Manage private tool catalogs and handle credentials safely.
- Optimize Performance: Techniques to ensure your custom tools don't slow down your agent's reasoning loop.

Target Audience:

- AI engineers & developers
- Solution architects
- Platform engineers building internal AI tooling