The Future of AI: Power Your Agents with Azure Logic Apps

Microsoft

Jan 28, 2025

The Future of AI blog series is an evolving collection of posts from the AI Futures team in collaboration with subject matter experts across Microsoft. In this series, we explore tools and technologies that will drive the next generation of AI. Explore more at: https://aka.ms/the-future-of-ai

The Future of AI: Power Your Agents with Azure Logic Apps

Building intelligent applications doesn't always have to involve complex coding. With the latest advancements in technology, you can now build agents using cloud-based tools to automate workflows, connect to various services, integrate business processes across hybrid environments, and enhance your agent's functionalities without writing a single line of code.

Generally speaking, the way agents work is that you give them powers - like the ability to search for information, or to take action in a different system - and the agents figure out how to accomplish tasks with the powers you give them. This approach simplifies the development process and creates opportunities for a broader range of users to create intelligent applications.

For instance, you can create customer service bots that handle inquiries and provide support, automate business processes such as order processing and inventory management, and develop personal assistants that schedule meetings and send reminders. Additionally, you can build applications that integrate with various services like CRM systems, social media platforms, and cloud storage solutions, enabling seamless data flow and enhanced functionality. The possibilities are vast, allowing users to innovate and streamline operations across different industries.

With the latest updates to the Azure AI Agent Service in Azure AI Foundry, you can now build agents using tools like Azure Logic Apps to automate workflows and enhance your agent's functionalities in a visual manner.

Getting Started with Azure AI Foundry Agents

Azure AI Foundry provides a flexible platform for developers to build AI-powered agents. The new agent interface lets you assemble building blocks to define your agent's capabilities. You can build agents with the Azure AI Agent Service through the Azure AI Foundry portal, or by using the extensive array of developer SDKs.

In my case, I wanted to build an agent that schedules events in Microsoft Outlook and could look up information on the web if it needed to - but I wanted to do that without writing much code.

Introducing Azure Logic Apps

Azure Logic Apps is a cloud service that enables you to create and run automated workflows with little to no code. With thousands of prebuilt connectors, Logic Apps can interact with various services like Microsoft Dynamics, Outlook, SAP, Salesforce, Workday, and nearly any other commercial software package you can think of.

Logic Apps is a block-diagram system - it's like building with LEGOs, but for software. It lets you build automated workflows without getting bogged down in code. You can focus on what you want your app to do rather than how it's going to run. Azure takes care of all the boring stuff like keeping it online, making sure it can handle a bunch of requests, and all of that. This means you can create some seriously robust cloud apps super quickly.

Level Up Your Agents

You can now use Logic Apps with Azure AI Agent Service. The cool part is that the agent playground in Azure AI Foundry will show you all the Logic Apps workflows you can plug in.

Here's how to set up a Logic Apps workflow for use with the Azure AI Agent Service:

It needs to be the consumption type.
It needs to have a request trigger, so it can be called like a web service.
It needs to have a description of its inputs and outputs, so the agent knows how to use it.
It needs to end with a response action so it can respond appropriately to the agent that calls it.

If you've already got some Logic Apps that fit the bill, you can use those. If not, it's pretty easy to build them. The documentation here details the process.

See how I built an agent powered with Logic Apps:

Conclusion

Integrating Azure Logic Apps with Azure AI Agent Service unlocks a new level of functionality and accessibility. By using Logic Apps' low-code tools, you can expand your agents' capabilities, automate complex workflows, and connect to a multitude of services - all without diving deep into code. This approach doesn't just save time - it empowers a broader range of users to create intelligent applications.