Getting Started with Microsoft Agent Framework: Build Practical AI Agents

AI agents are moving fast, but building one that delivers real value requires more than just prompts. In this session, you’ll get a hands‑on introduction to the Microsoft Agent Framework, focusing on how to design and build practical AI agents that can reason, take actions, and integrate with real systems. You’ll explore how agentic AI fits into modern application architectures and how developers can move from experimentation to production‑ready agents. You Will Learn: Core concepts behind agentic AI and intelligent agents How the Microsoft Agent Framework is structured and applied How to build agents that interact with tools, APIs, and workflows Best practices for creating practical, extensible AI agents Technologies Used: GitHub Copilot GitHub Actions Agentic AI patterns GitHub‑based CI/CD pipelines Who Should Attend: Developers getting started with agentic AI Engineers building AI‑powered applications or services Architects exploring production‑ready agent frameworks Anyone who wants to move beyond AI demos to real implementations ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 - Welcome and session kickoff 02:28 - Introducing the AI Genius Series (Season 4) 03:09 - What is the Microsoft Agent Framework? 03:30 - Session agenda and demo overview 04:27 - Foundations of agentic applications 07:44 - The agent loop explained 09:24 - Why Microsoft Agent Framework? 11:04 - Documentation and environment setup 15:36 - Architecture overview of the travel assistant 16:47 - Multi-agent design and responsibilities 18:02 - Demo 1: Context management with context providers 26:52 - Managing context window and cost considerations 26:54 - Demo 2: Skills for modular knowledge 34:11 - Demo 3: Integrating MCP tools 38:48 - Tool approvals and human-in-the-loop workflows 43:05 - End-to-end travel assistant demo 47:17 - Long-term memory and user personalisation 49:41 - AGUI and rich front-end interactions 52:38 - Backend and frontend code walkthrough 58:19 - Scaling with multi-agent workflows 1:02:09 - Multi-agent routing and handoff demo 1:03:29 - Key takeaways and learning recap 1:04:01 - Resources and next steps 1:05:06 - AI Genius badge and upcoming sessions 1:06:19 - Live Q&A [eventID:26935]