This Week in Microsoft: Agentic AI, Sentinel Security Upgrades, Unified Marketplace, Copilot Model Choice, and Microfluidics Cooling

This week has been full of major announcements from Microsoft, ranging from breakthroughs in AI agent frameworks and enterprise security, to updates in Copilot model choice, a unified marketplace, and even a cooling innovation for AI chips that could transform datacenters.

Together, these updates paint a clear picture: Microsoft is doubling down on being the central platform for AI, cloud, and enterprise transformation.

Key Takeaways 

  • Microsoft introduced the Agent Framework in public preview, unifying AutoGen and Semantic Kernel for easier multi-agent orchestration.
  • Microsoft Sentinel evolves into an agentic security platform, with a unified data lake, security graph, and agent governance.
  • A new Microsoft Marketplace combines Azure Marketplace and AppSource, offering one destination for cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents.
  • Copilot expands model choice, adding Anthropic’s Claude models alongside OpenAI options, giving users and developers more flexibility.
  • Microsoft unveiled a microfluidics breakthrough, embedding liquid cooling directly into silicon chips, removing heat up to 3× more efficiently.

 

Microsoft Agent Framework: Orchestrating the Next Wave of AI

What is the Microsoft Agent Framework?

Microsoft announced the Microsoft Agent Framework in public preview, designed as an open-source SDK and runtime to simplify how developers build and orchestrate multi-agent AI systems. This framework unifies previous research projects like AutoGen and Semantic Kernel, making them enterprise-ready.

Key Features

  • Seamless local to cloud deployment via Azure AI Foundry.
  • Observability and compliance tools built-in for enterprise needs.
  • Agent-to-agent (A2A) communication, enabling agents to collaborate on tasks.
  • Dynamic tool calling through the new Model Context Protocol (MCP), ensuring interoperability across systems.
  • Multi-agent workflows (currently in private preview) to coordinate agents for long-running business processes such as onboarding, supply chain, or finance operations.

Why It Matters

The race is on to build reliable agentic AI systems, and Microsoft is positioning itself as the orchestrator of choice for enterprises. With guardrails like task adherence, prompt shields, and PII detection, the framework prioritises trust and governance, critical for enterprise adoption.

 

Microsoft Sentinel: Securing the Era of Agentic AI

Sentinel’s Evolution

Microsoft Sentinel, the company’s cloud-native SIEM platform, is evolving into a next-generation security platform for AI agents. The new features make it possible to defend against threats targeting autonomous systems and agent behaviour.

Core Innovations

  • Sentinel Data Lake (GA): consolidates structured and semi-structured security data in one place.
  • Sentinel Graph (Preview): provides contextual links between alerts, assets, and identities, enabling better threat correlation.
  • Sentinel MCP Server (Preview): allows AI agents to securely query and act on organisational security context.

Governance & Oversight

Security governance is a recurring theme across Microsoft’s announcements, and Sentinel integrates several new controls:

  • Entra Agent ID for tracking and managing agents across organisations.
  • Prompt injection detection to identify malicious manipulations of agent instructions.
  • Data sharing controls to prevent oversharing between AI apps.

Why It Matters for Defenders

This marks a shift from reactive to proactive security. Instead of just flagging alerts, agents can reason over the security graph, correlating incidents and even automating first-response actions. Human defenders are elevated to higher-value roles: oversight, strategy, and hunting complex threats.

 

Microsoft Marketplace: One Marketplace for All

A Unified Destination

Microsoft has consolidated Azure Marketplace and AppSource into a single Microsoft Marketplace, creating one destination for cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents.

What’s Included

  • Tens of thousands of industry and productivity solutions.
  • Over 3,000 AI apps and agents available at launch.
  • Rapid provisioning into Microsoft environments via MCP standards.
  • Direct integration into Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams through the new Agent Store.

Benefits for Enterprises

  • Simplified procurement: one portal instead of fragmented marketplaces.
  • Enterprise governance: marketplace purchases respect organisational policies and compliance.
  • Financial flexibility: Azure commitment spend counts towards eligible purchases.

Partner & Channel Ecosystem

  • New resale-enabled offers (private preview) let software vendors authorise partners to resell via private offers.
  • Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) can integrate marketplace solutions more easily.

Microsoft’s Vision

By combining all solutions into one marketplace, Microsoft aims to be the commerce hub for AI and cloud services, connecting millions of customers to partner innovation.

You can find our flagship product 365 Collect here.

 

Copilot Expands Model Choice

What’s New in Copilot

For the first time, Microsoft is introducing model choice inside Microsoft 365 Copilot. Users and developers can now opt to use Anthropic’s Claude models (Sonnet 4 and Opus 4.1) in addition to the existing OpenAI models.

Key Features

  • In Researcher, users can choose Claude Opus 4.1 for deep reasoning over documents, emails, and meetings.
  • In Copilot Studio, developers can mix models across agents — for example, using Claude for reasoning but OpenAI for summarisation.
  • Fallback mechanisms ensure agents switch back to OpenAI models if Claude models are disabled.

Governance Considerations

  • Claude models are hosted outside Microsoft-managed environments.
  • Use is subject to Anthropic’s Terms of Service, which introduces considerations around compliance and data residency.

Why It Matters

This update signals Microsoft’s strategy for a multi-model era. By diversifying providers, Microsoft gives customers flexibility, competitive leverage, and specialised performance for different tasks. For enterprises, this enables more nuanced cost-performance trade-offs and greater innovation in agent design.

 

Microfluidics Breakthrough: Cooling AI Chips from Within

The Challenge of AI Heat

As AI models grow in size and complexity, AI chips generate enormous amounts of heat. Traditional cooling methods like cold plates and airflow are hitting their limits.

Microsoft’s Innovation

Microsoft researchers unveiled a microfluidics liquid cooling breakthrough:

  • Etching tiny liquid channels directly into silicon chips, bringing coolant right to the heat source.
  • Achieving up to 3× better heat removal compared to traditional methods.
  • Reducing maximum GPU core temperature rise by around 65%.

AI and Nature-Inspired Design

  • AI heat mapping helped engineers design channel layouts optimised for actual thermal hotspots.
  • The layouts mimic natural vein patterns found in leaves and butterfly wings, enabling efficient fluid flow.

Benefits for Datacenters

  • Improved Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
  • Denser server packing without thermal risk.
  • Potential for new architectures like 3D-stacked chips.
  • Lower energy usage contributes to Microsoft’s sustainability goals.

Partnership & Next Steps

Microsoft partnered with Swiss startup Corintis for prototyping. The aim is to integrate this approach into future generations of Microsoft’s Cobalt and Maia chips, as well as broader datacenter infrastructure.

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What is the Microsoft Agent Framework?

The Agent Framework is an open-source SDK and runtime for building and orchestrating AI agents. It simplifies multi-agent workflows and ensures interoperability, observability, and compliance for enterprise environments.

 

Q: How does Sentinel support agentic AI security?

Microsoft Sentinel now provides a unified data lake and graph context, enabling AI agents to analyse relationships between alerts, assets, and identities. New governance features like Agent ID and prompt injection detection ensure safe adoption of AI agents in security.

 

Q: Why did Microsoft launch a unified Marketplace?

The Microsoft Marketplace merges Azure Marketplace and AppSource into a single platform, streamlining procurement, integration, and governance. It also serves as a central hub for AI apps and agents, with over 3,000 available at launch.

 

Q: Can I choose different AI models in Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Yes. Microsoft now offers Anthropic’s Claude models alongside OpenAI models. Users can select which model to use in Researcher or Copilot Studio. However, Claude models are subject to Anthropic’s ToS and hosted outside Microsoft’s environments.

 

Q: What is Microsoft’s microfluidics breakthrough?

It’s a new liquid cooling method that etches microchannels into AI chips, bringing coolant directly to the heat source. This improves cooling efficiency up to three times compared to cold plates and could rede fine datacenter architecture.

 

Find out more how you can take advantage of these new developments. Contact us today.