Directory / Microsoft

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate

Microsoft's current credential for developers building generative AI applications and agents in code on Microsoft Foundry, including RAG, evaluation and multi-agent orchestration.

What it signals

Practical assessment: Includes interactive, code or case-study items. Proctored, in the 120-minute category that may contain labs, with interactive items.
Identity assurance: Proctored with identity verification. Proctored, scheduled through Pearson VUE (official). Online (OnVUE) or test-centre choice is referenced in official support pages about online proctored exams and third-party guides but was not confirmed per exam. Microsoft Learn documentation is accessible during associate exams (open-book to learn.microsoft.com only).
Depth: Associate. Associate level.
Experience expected: About 1 year. Targets practising Python developers; no official year count.
Portability: Mixed. RAG, agent and evaluation patterns transfer, but implementation is Microsoft Foundry 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

This is the current Microsoft credential for generative AI/agent application developers; it succeeds AI-102.
Blueprint covers RAG, evaluation, multi-agent orchestration, guardrails, tracing and observability - much closer to modern LLM engineering than AI-102 was.
It is one of the accepted prerequisites for the Expert-level AB-100.
Annual renewal is an unproctored open-book quiz, so a multi-year-old credential rests on one proctored sitting.

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

Plan and manage an Azure AI solution 25-30%
Implement generative AI and agentic solutions 30-35%
Implement computer vision solutions 10-15%
Implement text analysis solutions 10-15%
Implement information extraction solutions 10-15%

By topic

GenAI apps: Core focus (over 35%). Generative apps, RAG, evaluation and model selection span the 30-35% core domain plus planning and grounding-pipeline items, above 35% in total.
Agents: Some (10 to 20%). 'Build agents' is one of three sub-areas of the 30-35% domain plus agent items in planning/governance, roughly 15-20%.
Classical ML: Not covered. No model training objectives.
Operations: Some (10 to 20%). Deployment, CI/CD, quotas, monitoring, tracing and observability total roughly 15-20%.
Data: Some (10 to 20%). Ingestion, indexing, enrichment and document extraction make up the 10-15% information extraction domain.
Responsible AI: Some (10 to 20%). Guardrails, safety evaluation, auditing, agent oversight and multimodal content safety total roughly 10-15%.

Exam details

Who the provider says it is for. 'An Azure AI engineer who builds, manages, and deploys agents and AI solutions that take advantage of Microsoft Foundry.' Roles: AI Engineer, Developer.

Format: Microsoft does not publish per-exam formats. Official question types across the programme: multiple choice, drag and drop, build list, hot area, active screen, case studies, and (on some role-based exams) labs. Exam page states: 'This exam will be proctored. You may have interactive components to complete as part of this exam.' 120 minutes matches the official category 'role-based exams that may contain labs'; Microsoft does not publish which exams have labs.
Delivery: Proctored, scheduled through Pearson VUE (official). Online (OnVUE) or test-centre choice is referenced in official support pages about online proctored exams and third-party guides but was not confirmed per exam. Microsoft Learn documentation is accessible during associate exams (open-book to learn.microsoft.com only).
Code or hands-on work: Python is the stated language (C# dropped versus AI-102); expect to read SDK code. Labs possible but unconfirmed.
Prerequisites: None
Recommended experience: Experience developing apps with Python; familiarity with general AI, generative AI and Azure services. No year count stated.
Renewal: Free, online, UNPROCTORED, open-book renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn; six-month eligibility window before expiry; unlimited attempts until expiry; each pass extends by one year. If it lapses, the full exam must be retaken.
Price notes: USD figure is from third-party sources; Microsoft prices vary by country.

Preparing

Not confirmed

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

priceUsd (official pages only say price depends on country; USD figure is from third-party sources)
questionCount (not published per exam)
exact question formats for this specific exam (Microsoft does not disclose)
online-vs-test-centre delivery options were not confirmed on this exam's own page
exact GA date
whether the live exam contains labs
official recommended years of experience (none stated)

Sources (12)