Microsoft centers Build on Copilot agents

Microsoft is using this year’s Build conference to make a specific point to developers: agents are no longer a side feature. Build 2026 opens June 2 in San Francisco and online, and Microsoft’s official event pages say the conference will focus on “real code and real systems” built with AI. (build.microsoft.com) The session lineup and Microsoft’s own Foundry materials show Copilot agents, agent tooling and local AI features across Windows and Azure at the center of the event. (devblogs.microsoft.com) That matters because Microsoft is pairing conference messaging with product guidance. In May, the company’s Foundry team published new SDK and platform updates covering skills, toolboxes, hosted agents, model registry and agent management APIs. (news.microsoft.com) Microsoft’s documentation also describes Foundry as an “AI app and agent factory” for building, optimizing and governing AI apps and agents at scale. ### Why is Build 2026 so focused on agents? Microsoft’s public Build homepage says the June 2-3 event is for teams “building and scaling AI,” and the session catalog repeatedly points developers toward agent workflows rather than one-off chat interfaces. (build.microsoft.com) Sessions listed ahead of the conference include “From prototype to production: build and run agents at scale” and “Adding AI to Real Apps: The Agentic Way.” The wording tracks Microsoft’s broader platform language. Foundry documentation now describes the service as a place to “build, optimize, and govern AI apps and agents at scale,” indicating that agents are being presented as a standard development surface inside Azure rather than an isolated demo category. (devblogs.microsoft.com) ### What changed in Microsoft Foundry just before the conference? Microsoft’s May Foundry update said the `azure-ai-projects` SDK moved forward again, with version 2.2.0 adding external agent definitions, skills, toolboxes, model weight registry, routines and optimization jobs across Python, JavaScript/TypeScript and.NET. (build.microsoft.com) The same post also directed readers to Build sessions tied to Foundry. Microsoft had already been expanding the agent-management surface in April. A separate Foundry update said the `azure-ai-projects` 2.1.0 package added more hosted-agent management APIs under a preview beta namespace so developers could script workflows they had been testing in the portal. (learn.microsoft.com) ### What does Microsoft mean by skills and agent-scoped tooling? Microsoft Learn pages published in late May describe skills as reusable `SKILL.md` files that developers can author once, store centrally in Foundry and download into hosted agent projects. The documentation says those files are injected as additional instructions into conversation sessions and can be updated separately from application code. (devblogs.microsoft.com) Microsoft’s newer agent documentation also says developers can use the raw `azure-ai-projects` SDK for versioned agent resources and toolbox management, while the Agent Framework consumes those resources. (devblogs.microsoft.com) Another Learn page for the Python client says the preview library lets developers create and run agents through the `.agents` client and connect them to tools including Azure AI Search, Azure Functions and browser or grounding capabilities. ### Where does Windows and local AI fit in? Microsoft has not framed Build 2026 as a Windows release event. But the conference agenda and event language tie AI development to systems that run across cloud and device environments, and Build’s official pages point to updates in “AI-powered tools and platforms for developers and beyond.” (learn.microsoft.com) That fits Microsoft’s recent developer messaging around local and hosted agent experiences. The company’s Foundry and Agent Framework materials increasingly describe orchestration, tools, memory, observability and deployment as parts of one stack, rather than separate experiments. That is an inference from the way Microsoft has grouped these features across Build sessions and Foundry releases. (learn.microsoft.com) ### What should developers watch on June 2? Microsoft’s Build 2026 live coverage begins at 9:30 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday, June 2, according to the company’s event page and live blog. The official schedule builder and session archive pages are already live, and Microsoft says the conference runs June 2-3 in San Francisco and online. (build.microsoft.com) Microsoft is also using the conference as a stage for adjacent announcements. The company said the Imagine Cup 2026 world champion will be announced at Build in San Francisco on June 2, alongside developer sessions and keynote coverage. (news.microsoft.com) (build.microsoft.com) (devblogs.microsoft.com)