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As an AI native engineer, your journey starts with model choice. But with 10K+ models in Microsoft Foundry, 2M+ open-source model in Hugging Face, and new model releases every day, how do you make informed decisions? With Model Mondays, we have three resources to help you go from awareness to action to adoption.
- Model Mondays livestream - every Monday at 1:30pm EST with news, tech spotlights & customer stories
- Foundry Friday AMA - every Monday at 1:30pm EST with demos, Q&A featuring subject matter experts
- Models For Beginners - curriculum planned for release in 2026.
Build your Model IQ one week at a time - and go from scenario to solution by learning model fundamentals, understanding model selection, exploring model customization, and building trustworthy AI solutions with end-to-end observability. Join us by taking two actions today:
- Join the Discord - and follow the #model-mondays channel for regular updates!
- Register for the Livestream - and watch for new updates to the schedule in 2026
In Season 3, we are putting the tech spotlight on Microsoft Foundry and bringing in product group leads and subject matter experts to talk about the unified platform and tech stack that powers the app and agent factory! Season 3 is currently planned for a 16-episode arc going from Dec 2025 to Apr 2026. In addition to tech spotlights, watch for new customer stories and new segments including Study Corner and Partner Spotlights.
| Ep | Live | AMA | Partner/Story | Tech Spotlight | Description |
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| 01 | Dec 01 | Dec 05 | Adobe | Sanjeev Jagtap | Model Router: Learn why smart model routing matters for cost-effective AI deployment |
| 02 | Dec 08 | Dec 12 | Ada | Minsoo Thigpen | AI Red Teaming: Discover how to assess risks and build trustworthy AI with automated adversarial testing |
| 03 | Dec 15 | Dec 19 | eClinicalWorks | Maanav Dalal | Foundry Local: Explore on-device inference with data privacy for edge AI applications |
| ✨✨✨ | ✨✨✨ | ✨✨✨✨✨✨ | FESTIVE HOLIDAY | ✨✨✨✨✨✨ | |
| 04 | Jan 12 | Jan 16 | InWorld.AI | Shawn Henry | Microsoft Agent Framework: Build scalable AI solutions with multi-agent orchestration |
| 05 | Jan 19 | Jan 23 | ✨✨✨✨✨✨ | US HOLIDAY | ✨✨✨✨✨✨ |
| 06 | Jan 26 | Jan 30 | Relativity | Dave Voutila & Guy Gregory | Fine-Tuning & Responses API: Master model customization and streamline agent creation with unified APIs |
| 07 | Feb 02 | Feb 06 | William Liang | Synthetic Data Generation: Create high-quality, safe datasets for model evaluation and fine-tuning | |
| 08 | Feb 09 | Feb 13 | Amir Zur | Foundry Portal: Experience next-gen UI with end-to-end workflows from planning to production | |
| 09 | Feb 16 | Feb 20 | Yash Lara | Foundry Labs: Experiment with cutting-edge models and tools from Microsoft Research | |
| 10 | Feb 23 | Feb 27 | Bala Venkataraman | Foundry Agents: Discover the unified runtime that takes you from planning to production | |
| 11 | Mar 02 | Mar 06 | Sebastian Kohlmeier | Foundry Control Plane: Manage multi-agent fleets at enterprise scale with unified observability | |
| 12 | Mar 09 | Mar 13 | Rong Lu | AI Toolkit: Build, evaluate, and deploy AI solutions directly from VS Code | |
| 13 | Mar 16 | Mar 20 | Farzad Sunavala | Foundry IQ: Power your agents with unified knowledge layer and intelligent retrieval | |
| 14 | Mar 23 | Mar 27 | SeokJin Han | Foundry Tools & MCP: Extend agent capabilities with MCP server integration and tool discovery | |
| 15 | Mar 30 | Apr 03 | Srikumar Nair | Agent 365: Integrate agents seamlessly into Microsoft 365 with secure, managed infrastructure | |
| 16 | Apr 06 | Apr 10 | Peli de Halleux | GitHub Agentic Workflows: Automate GitHub tasks safely using AI agents with plain English instructions | |
With 21 livestream episodes and 31 AMA sessions completed, we now have a well-defined format that has resonated with AI native engineers and decision-makers alike. As we began planning Season 3, we thought about how we could use the platform to support one additional audience: learners and partners. In 2026, look for new segments like Partner Spotlights featuring model providers, This Week In Hugging Face spotlighting open-source models, and Study Corner showcasing self-guided labs and curricula for skilling.
Did you know Microsoft Foundry gives you access to 10K+ open-source models through the Hugging Face Collection? Starting in Feb 2026, look for a weekly update on what's trending in Hugging Face where we feature 3 models and give you some intuition for what makes them notable for AI devs.
- Visit this page to learn more & view shared models
- Track this tag for a weekly blog post & deep-dive.
So many models - so how do you actually learn how to do model selection right? The best way is to work with existing tools and platforms to solve a real-world problem. You learn more by doing!
What if we put the "fun" back into Model Fundamentals? Model Mondays joined forces with the M365 Advocacy team to try an interesting experiment at Microsoft Ignite. Stay tuned for a special segment on Model Mondays Season 3 where we share insights from the contest, and celebrate our winners!
- Read The Contest Rules - to understand requirements
- Read The Contest Blog - to learn the tasks & get started
- RSVP to Model Mondays - for a featured celebration in December.
Season 2 kicked off on Jun 16, 2025 and will run through Sep 2025. =Use the Register links to get reminders for upcoming events, and visit the Replay and Recap links to revisit past episodes and AMAs. Watch the complete playlist of all series of Model Mondays
| Episode | Topic | Monday Livestream | Friday AMA | Slides | Blog |
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| S2:E01 | Advanced Reasoning |  |
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| S2:E02 | Model Context Protocol |  |
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| S2:E03 | SLMs and Reasoning |  |
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| S2:E04 | AI & Dev Experience |  |
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| S2:E05 | Fine-Tuning & Distillation |  |
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| S2:E06 | Research & Innovation |  |
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| S2:E07 | AI-Assisted Azure Dev |  |
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| S2:E08 | On-Device & Local AI |  |
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| S2:E09 | AI Agents |  |
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| S2:E10 | Document Processing |  |
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| S2:E11 | AI Foundry Speech Playground |  |
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| S2:E12 | Models & Observability |  |
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| S2:E13 | Open-Source Models (Hugging Face) |  |
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Want to get more details about each session? Check out the Season 2 page for more information on each session including speakers, description and links to recaps and slides.
Our pilot season featured 8 episodes covering models (green badges) and tools (magenta badges) in Microsoft Foundry. Visit the Season 1 page for details or click the episode specific badge below to go directly to the replay.
| Episode | Video | Blog | Slides | AMA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E01 · GitHub Models | Play |
GitHub Models | Mar 14 | |
| E02 · Reasoning Models | Play |
OpenAI, DeepSeek | Mar 21 | |
| E03 · Search + Retrieval | Play |
Cohere Rerank | Mar 28 | |
| E04 · Visual + Generative | Play |
Stable Diffusion | Apr 04 | |
| E05 · Fine-Tuning | Play |
Mistral | Apr 11 | |
| E06 · Local AI Development | Play |
AI Toolkit (AITK) | Apr 18 | |
| E07 · Open Source & AI | Play |
Llama 4 (Meta) | Apr 25 | |
| E08 · Forecasting Models | Play |
Nixtla TimeGEN | - | May 02 |
Great devs don't build alone! In a fast-pased developer ecosystem, there's no time to hunt for help. That's why we have the Azure AI Developer Community. Join us today and let's journey together!
- Join the Discord - for real-time chats, events & learning
- Explore the Forum - for AMA recaps, Q&A, and help!
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