Microsoft Will Compete With Aws To Offer A Marketplace Of Ai Apps And Agents

2 months ago

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Microsoft Marketplace offers much than 3,000 AI apps and agents.
It's a fusion of Azure Marketplace and AppSource.
The thought is to make it easier for businesses to shop for AI tools.

Microsoft is getting into nan AI dealership business.

On Thursday, nan institution announced nan motorboat of Microsoft Marketplace, a virtual shopping halfway built atop Microsoft Cloud wherever businesses tin shop for unreality services, arsenic good arsenic much than 3,000 AI apps and agents.

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"Microsoft Marketplace gives you entree to thousands of AI apps and agents from our rich | partner ecosystem designed to automate tasks, accelerate decision-making and unlock worth crossed your business," Alysa Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer astatine Microsoft's Commercial Cloud and AI division, wrote successful a institution blog post.

The caller marketplace is simply a fusion of Microsoft's Azure Marketplace, which launched successful 2014 arsenic an online directory for unreality services, and Microsoft AppSource, which debuted 2 years later arsenic a virtual marketplace for business apps. It's disposable now crossed nan US and will beryllium disposable successful much world markets soon, according to Taylor's blog post.

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While Microsoft intends to go a trusted supplier of AI services for its monolithic unreality services customer base, it's simultaneously moving to expand its AI offerings done Copilot via a business pinch Anthropic. It's besides reportedly building a first-of-its benignant marketplace wherever publishers tin waste their contented to beryllium licensed for usage by Copilot and yet different AI products.

Finding nan AI needles successful nan haystack

The halfway thought down Microsoft Marketplace is to streamline nan process of shopping for and deploying AI solutions for endeavor customers astatine a clip erstwhile caller AI-powered apps and agents are proliferating astatine a breakneck speed.

All of nan apps and agents now connected connection done nan marketplace are compatible pinch Microsoft Cloud, meaning that immoderate business that already relies connected Microsoft's unreality computing services tin quickly and easy merge nan caller devices into their workflow crossed platforms for illustration Azure, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Security.

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That besides intends that customers utilizing nan caller marketplace don't person to interest astir cybersecurity risks that nan onboarding of a caller AI instrumentality mightiness different transportation pinch it.

"By integrating offerings from Marketplace straight into nan Microsoft Cloud, IT is equipped pinch guidance and power devices that alteration some invention and governance," Taylor wrote. "When you get a Copilot supplier aliases an app moving connected Azure from Microsoft Marketplace, it's provisioned and distributed to squad members aligned to your information and governance standards."

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Microsoft isn't nan only institution betting that it tin profit by serving arsenic an intermediary betwixt AI developers and businesses that are looking to onboard nan exertion (and which are besides possibly a spot baffled by nan sheer assortment of caller apps and agents that are available).

Amazon Web Services precocious launched its ain virtual marketplace done which customers tin shop for agents from developers for illustration Anthropic, IBM, and Perplexity. Software institution CrowdStrike and Meta person besides developed a group of benchmarks intended to thief businesses sift done a increasing action of AI-powered cybersecurity tools.