Azure Foundry Agent Service: Microsoft ramps up for agentic AI
Microsoft is launching new production tools for agentic AI in Azure Foundry, alongside expanded capabilities for sovereign clouds and hardware security.

What happened?
Microsoft has unveiled a comprehensive update to Azure for agentic AI and security. Azure Foundry Agent Service now includes a public preview of Copilot Harness for multi-step tasks, while features for long-running resilience have become generally available. Concurrently, new tools for sovereign clouds are being rolled out, including the Sovereign Control Panel and hardware audit logs for Azure Cloud HSM.
Key facts
Why it matters
Standalone AI agents that perform complex tasks over extended periods demand high operational stability and managed runtime environments. Integrating Copilot Harness and resilient runtimes directly into the Foundry Agent Service facilitates the transition from prototypes to production. For organisations with regulatory requirements, the sovereign cloud control panel and external key management offer increased technical control over the cloud environment.
Who is affected?
The update concerns software developers and architects building autonomous AI agents in Azure. It also impacts security officers in organisations with strict requirements for data sovereignty, local inference, and hardware-based key management.
Impact on the EU
The update includes sovereign cloud features such as the Sovereign Control Panel, external key management, and confidential clean rooms. Furthermore, hardware audit logging for Azure Cloud HSM is being launched in public regions, enabling verifiable audit trails for encryption keys.
What else you should know
Foundry Local is also being expanded to support AI inference on Azure Local, enabling execution in both connected and fully disconnected environments.
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