Directory / Microsoft

Microsoft Applied Skills: Get started developing agents in Microsoft Foundry

A short lab assessment in a real environment on building agents in Microsoft Foundry. Good evidence of hands-on familiarity with a narrow task.

What it signals

Practical assessment: Performance-based labs or a practical build. Entirely a performance-based lab, though without a documented live proctor.
Identity assurance: Minimal or undocumented checks. Taken online on demand from Microsoft Learn; no scheduling. No live proctor is mentioned; mouse movements and text entered are recorded 'for quality purposes'. 72-hour wait before relaunching the lab.
Depth: Foundational. Foundational level.
Experience expected: Under 6 months. Expects basic familiarity with the Foundry portal.
Portability: Mostly vendor-specific. Tasks are Microsoft Foundry portal specific.
Verifiability: Public badge or registry. Credential is shareable via a Microsoft Learn verification link/transcript carrying an 'Online Verifiable' tag that an employer can open (profile must be public).

For hiring managers

Applied Skills prove a candidate completed a narrow 30-45 minute task set in a real environment; good evidence of hands-on familiarity, weak evidence of breadth.
No evidence of identity-verified proctoring was found, so treat as lower assurance than a proctored exam.
High churn: Microsoft retired at least ten AI-related Applied Skills between January and July 2026 (see notes), so a candidate's credential may no longer be listed as available.
Other AI Applied Skills reported as currently offered (names from search results, not individually verified): Integrate model context protocol tools with agents in Microsoft Foundry; Build an agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio; Develop an agent with integrated tools; Enhance agents with autonomous capabilities; Resolve GitHub Issues by using GitHub Copilot; Manage GitHub secret scanning by using GitHub Copilot; Protect information in Microsoft 365 Copilot by using Microsoft Purview.

Verifying it

Candidate shares a link from their Microsoft Learn profile: either a per-credential Share link (credentials carry an 'Online Verifiable' tag) or a transcript share link / PDF. The Learn profile must be in public view for the shared credential to be verifiable. Retired credentials remain shareable and stay on the transcript.

What it covers

Published exam outline

Deploy a model
Create an agent
Test the agent

By topic

GenAI apps: Substantial (20 to 35%). Model selection and deployment configuration is one of three task groups.
Agents: Core focus (over 35%). Creating, configuring and testing an agent with tools is the core of the lab.
Classical ML: Not covered. None.
Operations: Touched on (under 10%). Only deployment type and rate limit configuration.
Data: Not covered. None.
Responsible AI: Not covered. No responsible AI tasks listed.

Exam details

Who the provider says it is for. AI engineers and students.

Format: Performance-based interactive lab in a live environment; tasks delivered as simulated emails; scored automatically on submission.
Delivery: Taken online on demand from Microsoft Learn; no scheduling. No live proctor is mentioned; mouse movements and text entered are recorded 'for quality purposes'. 72-hour wait before relaunching the lab.
Code or hands-on work: Yes, hands-on: the whole assessment is performing tasks in a real Foundry environment. Portal configuration rather than programming.
Prerequisites: None
Recommended experience: Solid understanding of the new Microsoft Foundry portal; familiarity with generative AI concepts.
Renewal: None

Preparing

Not confirmed

These details were not available from an official source at the time of research.

priceUsd (no cost information found on official pages read)
passingScore
proctoring/identity verification method
exact duration for this specific lab
task weights (not published)
current availability of the other Applied Skills named

Sources (8)