Microsoft Build 2025 | Satya Nadella Opening Keynote
Microsoft
2.13M subscribers
3,252,341 views as of May 29 since release on May 19,
2025
Join the Microsoft Build 2025 opening
keynote, streamed live from Seattle. Follow along as Satya Nadella and other top
Microsoft leaders explore new opportunities in the age of AI and set the stage
for what's ahead. Chapters:
0:00 - Keynote opening
2:50 - Developer tools: Visual Studio, GitHub and open source Copilot
extensions
5:33 - Coding agents
10:57 - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
16:00 - Apps and agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot
22:52 - Copilot agents demo
- aka.ms/CoPilotStories
29:50 - AI platform: Azure AI Foundry
36:55 - Grok in Azure and conversation with Elon Musk
41:05 - AI models and bring your own model to Copilot Studio
51:26 - Azure AI Foundry and GitHub Copilot demo
1:00:00 - Foundry Local and Windows AI Foundry
1:11:02 - Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on building the open agentic web
1:29:51 - Data and analytics stack
1:35:48 - Infrastructure optimization and conversation with NVIDIA CEO
Jensen Huang
1:46:18 - Microsoft Discovery Learn more:
https://build.microsoft.com/?wt.mc_ID... Subscribe to Microsoft on YouTube
here:
https://aka.ms/SubscribeToYouTube
Summary
The 2 hour video covers key highlights from a recent Microsoft conference, focusing on the transformational role of AI in software development and the emerging “agentic web” platform. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, framed the event around empowering developers by providing advanced AI-driven tools and open standards to foster innovation. The conference showcased enhancements to Microsoft's developer ecosystem, including updates to Visual Studio, GitHub, GitHub Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, emphasizing AI's integration to automate complex coding tasks and optimize workflows. New autonomous agents were introduced, capable of independently managing tasks like bug fixes and site reliability engineering.
Significant attention was given to Microsoft Azure Foundry, a platform promoting multi-model AI provisioning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and sophisticated agent orchestration to improve AI deployment and observability. The conference spotlighted real-world applications, such as Stanford Medicine's AI healthcare orchestrator for tumor board meetings, demonstrating AI's potential in healthcare and other industries.
A major theme was the advancement of the “agentic web” via the Microsoft Communication Protocol (MCP), which aims to standardize agent interactions akin to HTTP's role on the web. MCP allows seamless, secure communication between AI agents and services, encouraging a growing ecosystem supported by partners like Anthropic. Tools like NLWeb enable existing websites and APIs to transform into agentic applications powered by large language models (LLMs), with early adopters including TripAdvisor and O’Reilly Media.
The discussion also showcased Microsoft's investment in data infrastructure, including the launch of SQL Server 2025 and enhanced Cosmos DB integration, facilitating improved data access for AI applications. Use cases like the NFL's scouting combine analysis illustrated practical benefits of these data tools. Additionally, Microsoft's Fabric platform advances digital twin technologies and unified data experiences to bolster AI insights.
In closing, Microsoft Discovery was introduced as an innovative platform for accelerating scientific research by using AI-driven knowledge graphs and agents to support hypothesis development and experimentation. The conference overall painted a forward-looking picture where open ecosystems, AI collaboration, robust data platforms, and agentic technologies converge to revolutionize software development, healthcare, science, and beyond.
Highlights
- 🤖 AI-driven tools like GitHub Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot enhance developer productivity and automate complex coding tasks.
- 🕸️ Microsoft's “agentic web” platform, powered by the MCP protocol, standardizes intelligent agent communication.
- 🚑 AI healthcare orchestrators improve patient data analytics and decision-making in hospitals.
- ☁️ Azure Foundry supports multi-model AI deployment, retrieval-augmented generation, and agent orchestration.
- 📊 SQL Server 2025 and Cosmos DB integration enhance data accessibility for AI applications.
- 🌐 Tools like NLWeb transform traditional websites and APIs into intelligent, agent-enabled apps.
- 🔬 Microsoft Discovery accelerates scientific research by leveraging AI-powered knowledge graphs and automation.
Key Insights
- 🤖 AI as a Collaborative Developer Partner: The conference underscored how AI is no longer just a tool but a collaborative partner enabling developers to manage complex workloads through autonomous agents. This shift empowers creativity and scalability in software development, allowing human developers to focus on higher-level problem solving while AI handles routine or large-scale tasks.
- 🕸️ MCP Protocol's Role in the Agentic Web: By establishing MCP as a foundational communication protocol for AI agents, Microsoft is building an open ecosystem mirroring the impact of HTTP on the traditional web. This standardization is critical for interoperability, agent identity management, and seamless multi-agent orchestration, enabling diverse applications to communicate and collaborate effectively.
- 🚑 AI's Impact in Healthcare: The deployment of AI orchestrators in healthcare, as seen at Stanford Medicine, highlights AI's potential to transform time-sensitive medical decision-making through improved data synthesis and collaborative workflows. This Stanford Medicine video example suggests broader opportunities for AI to enhance safety, efficiency, and outcomes in complex environments.
- ☁️ Advancements in AI Infrastructure: Azure Foundry's capabilities around multi-model provisioning, knowledge retrieval stacks, and end-to-end observability address key enterprise challenges in deploying and monitoring AI applications, positioning Microsoft as a leader in providing scalable, secure AI operations platforms.
- 📊 Unified Data and AI Integration: The integration of SQL Server 2025 and Cosmos DB into Microsoft's AI tooling ecosystem emphasizes the importance of data accessibility and analytics in powering effective AI applications. By enabling LLM responses inside SQL and enhancing digital twins, Microsoft is fostering a seamless unification of data and AI to accelerate insights.
- 🌐 Transforming Existing Digital Assets: NLWeb's ability to convert existing APIs and websites into agentic applications demonstrates a practical path for businesses to adopt AI capabilities without rebuilding systems from scratch. This lowers barriers to AI integration and democratizes intelligent agent deployment across industries.
- 🔬 Accelerating Scientific Discovery: Microsoft Discovery's use of AI-driven knowledge graphs and agent orchestration to facilitate scientific hypothesis formation and experimentation exemplifies how AI can go beyond automation to actively drive innovation and accelerate R&D cycles in critical sectors.
These insights collectively reveal Microsoft's vision of an interconnected, AI-empowered future where developers, enterprises, and researchers collaborate seamlessly with intelligent agents, underpinned by open standards, robust data platforms, and scalable AI infrastructures.
Key Points and In-Depth Summaries Based on Original Table of Contents Structure
1. Conference Overview and Programming Enthusiasm
Key Points:
- Speakers shared excitement about programming and AI's role.
- Personal journeys into programming were highlighted to illustrate passion and impact potential.
- AI described as a transformative tool enhancing collaboration and solving complex problems.
Summary:
The conference began with attendees expressing deep enthusiasm for programming,
showcasing how early experiences with coding sparked long-lasting interests. The
narrative emphasized AI as a groundbreaking catalyst, empowering developers to
tackle large, real-world challenges more efficiently. Beyond improving
productivity, AI was portrayed as a partner in fostering greater collaboration
within development teams. This set the tone for the event, positioning AI at the
intersection of innovation and practical application.
2. Satya Nadella's Keynotes and Microsoft Development Tools
Key Points:
- Nadella introduced the “open agentic web” platform shift.
- Emphasis on empowering developers with advanced tools (Visual Studio, GitHub, GitHub Copilot).
- Announced new features: cross-platform debugging, AI integration in GitHub.
- Presented autonomous agents for site reliability engineering (SRE) and autonomous coding.
Summary:
Satya Nadella framed the conference around a sweeping platform transformation
toward what he called an “open agentic web.” He underscored the importance of
equipping developers with powerful, AI-enhanced tools to accelerate innovation.
Microsoft's flagship software tools showed significant upgrades, notably deeper
AI integration into popular platforms like Visual Studio and GitHub.
Highlighting how AI-driven autonomous agents can independently handle site
reliability tasks and code development, Nadella painted a future where routine
and complex aspects of software engineering are reimagined through automation,
allowing developers to focus on higher-level creativity.
3. Contributions from OpenAI and Microsoft 365 Copilot Enhancements
Key Points:
- Sam Altman highlighted rapid AI model advancements and integration into dev workflows.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot evolved to unify AI features, enabling task automation and data synthesis.
- Introduction of Copilot Tuning for enterprise-specific AI customization.
- Demonstrations showed integrations between M365 Copilot, GitHub, and automated agent deployment via Copilot Studio.
Summary:
OpenAI's Sam Altman emphasized how fast-evolving AI models are becoming integral
collaborators within software development processes, allowing developers to
delegate tasks efficiently to AI agents. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 Copilot's
enhanced platform aggregates multiple AI-driven functions into one interface,
streamlining user workflows by synthesizing information and automating
repetitive tasks. Additionally, Copilot Tuning offers enterprises the ability to
tailor AI models to their unique operational requirements. Practical
demonstrations enunciated the effective integration of development and AI tools,
showcasing automated problem-solving and proposal generation through custom
agents, marking a significant leap in adaptive software creation.
4. AI-Driven Applications and New AI Models
Key Points:
- Nadella emphasized AI-driven applications’ future and need for robust platforms.
- Announced Grok by xAI – a new AI model focused on reasoning, safety, and accuracy.
- General enthusiasm about AI as a transformative force in software and beyond.
Summary:
Closing his keynote, Nadella articulated a vision where AI-powered applications
become foundational to the next generation of software. To achieve this,
platforms must be scalable, secure, and capable of supporting increasingly
complex agent-based systems. The debut of Grok, an AI model from xAI, symbolizes
this commitment—aimed at enhancing AI reasoning with an emphasis on safety and
precise outputs. The announcements reinforced Microsoft's long-term strategy of
embedding AI deeply into development and application ecosystems, envisaging a
future where AI not only supports but significantly elevates human potential.
5. Azure Foundry and Advanced AI Infrastructure
Key Points:
- Nadella and Musk highlighted Microsoft Azure Foundry's enhanced multi-model support, including Mistral and Grok.
- Focus on sophisticated retrieval systems for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) apps.
- Introduction of modern knowledge retrieval stacks and the Foundry agent service enabling multi-agent orchestration.
Summary:
In partnership discussions with Elon Musk, Microsoft unveiled Azure Foundry's
robust enhancements geared toward AI model provisioning and usage at scale. This
includes managing throughput for varied models and integrating extensive model
libraries such as those from Hugging Face. Nadella emphasized the inadequacy of
simple vector search techniques, promoting the adoption of advanced knowledge
retrieval infrastructure to support RAG applications. The Foundry agent service
furthers this by streamlining the creation and coordination of complex
multi-agent workflows, providing both developers and enterprises with scalable,
orchestrated AI solutions.
6. Practical Applications in Healthcare and Enterprise AI Integration
Key Points:
- Stanford Medicine uses AI-based agent orchestrators for tumor board meeting preparation.
- AI orchestrator now available broadly via Foundry for healthcare and beyond.
- Focus on observability for AI in production, agent identity management via Entra ID.
- Partnerships with ServiceNow and Workday for agent management automation and data governance integration.
Summary:
A standout real-world application was Stanford Medicine's deployment of an AI
orchestrator to improve the efficiency of tumor board meetings by aggregating
and synthesizing patient data. This example demonstrated how multi-agent AI
capabilities can substantially enhance decision-making in complex scenarios such
as healthcare. Enabling this orchestrator through Azure Foundry signifies
Microsoft's push to make AI orchestration accessible across industries. The
conference further highlighted the importance of secure production AI
environments, featuring identity and security frameworks, alongside strategic
alliances with enterprise partners to automate agent lifecycle management and
ensure compliant data governance.
7. Developer Productivity and Local AI Development Environments
Key Points:
- Azure AI Foundry and GitHub Copilot tested in the chat-based application VibeTravel for improved developer productivity.
- Introduction of Windows AI Foundry supporting local, secure app development with agent-driven features.
- Native support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) in Windows facilitates seamless agent integration.
- Demonstrations underscored ease of environment setup and secure AI tool usage.
Summary:
Demonstrations by Kadesha Kerr and Divya Venkataramu showcased practical
enhancements in developer experience, focusing on smooth integration of AI
agents within local and cloud environments. VibeTravel illustrated how combining
Azure AI Foundry with GitHub Copilot accelerates feature development and
knowledge integration. The announcement of Windows AI Foundry marks a pivotal
step toward empowering developers to build AI-driven applications that operate
securely on local machines, supported by the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a new
cross-application communication standard. These tools together lower barriers
for developers, fostering a more inclusive, secure, and high-productivity AI
development ecosystem.
8. The Emergence of the “Agentic Web” and Forward-Looking AI Technologies
Key Points:
- Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott introduced the “agentic web,” emphasizing enhanced agent memory and reasoning.
- The Microsoft Communication Protocol (MCP) likened to HTTP for agent communication, enabling sophisticated interactions.
- Partnership with Anthropic addressing agent identification and permission challenges.
- NLWeb converts traditional websites/APIs into agentic apps using large language models.
-
Summary:
Kevin Scott's vision for the “agentic web” defined it as an evolving ecosystem
where software agents possess richer memory and reasoning abilities, enabling
them to manage increasingly complex tasks autonomously. Central to this vision
is MCP, a versatile protocol aimed at standardizing how agents communicate much
like how HTTP revolutionized web interactions. Collaborations with Anthropic
focus on resolving enterprise challenges around securely identifying and
authorizing agents. NLWeb serves as an example of this vision in action—using AI
to convert existing web infrastructure into smart, agentic services, thereby
advancing an open, interoperable, and extensible ecosystem that encourages broad
developer innovation.
9. Open Standards, Data Integration, and AI-Enhanced Analytics
Key Points:
- Commitment to open standards to fuel innovation and collaboration among developers.
- SQL Server 2025 and integration of Cosmos DB enhance AI data accessibility.
- NFL case study demonstrates Azure AI's practical analytics benefits.
- Integration of large language model (LLM) outputs into SQL queries.
- Development of digital twins and unified data experiences in Microsoft Fabric.
Summary:
Microsoft reaffirmed its dedication to open standards, recognizing them as
crucial for sustaining an ecosystem where developers can build collaboratively
without silos. Advances in data platforms like SQL Server 2025 and Cosmos DB
integration empower AI applications with richer, faster data retrieval and
analysis capabilities. The NFL's use case exemplified the tangible benefits of
this technology in real-time sports analytics. Furthermore, embedding LLM-generated
insights directly into SQL queries marks a leap in combining AI reasoning with
structured data retrieval. The creation of digital twins within Microsoft Fabric
fosters unified data experiences, reinforcing data as a central pillar for
AI-driven innovation across industries.
10. Microsoft Discovery and Accelerating Scientific Research
Key Points:
- Microsoft Discovery platform leverages knowledge graphs and agents for research automation.
- Facilitates rapid hypothesis generation, experimentation, and scientific breakthroughs.
- Represents Microsoft's commitment to advancing research through AI-powered tools.
Summary:
The final section presented Microsoft Discovery, a specialized platform designed
to expedite scientific discovery by combining rich knowledge graphs with
intelligent agents. This synergy allows researchers to automate the generation
and testing of hypotheses, drastically accelerating the pace of innovation and
experimentation. Positioned at the cutting edge of AI-driven research, Microsoft
Discovery illustrates how Microsoft intends to empower scientific communities,
combining domain expertise and AI capabilities to unlock new insights and
breakthroughs, ultimately transforming both the pace and scale of research
across disciplines.
Overall Summary
The conference reflected a comprehensive view of the evolving landscape of software development where AI acts as a catalyst for transformative change across programming, application development, infrastructure, and scientific research. Microsoft, alongside partners like OpenAI and Anthropic, showcased a new era characterized by the agentic web, the adoption of open communication protocols like MCP, and robust tools facilitating AI-agent orchestration at scale. From developments in productivity tools like GitHub Copilot to pioneering healthcare applications and research platforms, the event underscored the critical role of open standards, secure data integration, and collaborative ecosystems in shaping an AI-powered future that empowers developers and researchers worldwide.
05/31/2025