Microsoft Launches Foundry Agent Service for Hosted Agents, Bolstering AI Governance and Multi-Framework Support

AI agents have evolved from question-and-answer tools into software capable of accessing files, running code and handling long-running tasks. But large-scale enterprise deployment poses challenges involving data isolation across users, identity and access controls, auditing and costs. Microsoft first previewed hosted agents at Microsoft Ignite 2025. Microsoft Foundry now handles computing, scaling and governance, lowering the barrier to building the underlying infrastructure in-house.

Microsoft announced on April 22, 2026, U.S. time, that the new hosted-agent capability in Foundry Agent Service had entered public preview. Each session receives a separate VM-level sandbox. Computing resources scale down to zero when idle, reducing compute charges to $0 while retaining files and identities. The service supports LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, Claude and the OpenAI SDK, while Entra Agent ID, VNet and audit logs strengthen governance. Microsoft has not announced a general-availability date or pricing.