DeeperML

Microsoft is expanding its AI capabilities with enhancements to its Phi-4 family and the integration of the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol. The company's new Phi-4-Reasoning and Phi-4-Reasoning-Plus models are designed to deliver strong reasoning performance with low latency. In addition, Microsoft is embracing interoperability by adding support for the open A2A protocol to Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. This move aims to facilitate seamless collaboration between AI agents across various platforms, fostering a more connected and efficient AI ecosystem.

Microsoft's integration of the A2A protocol into Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio will empower AI agents to work together across platforms. The A2A protocol defines how agents formulate tasks and execute them, enabling them to delegate tasks, share data, and act together. With A2A support, Copilot Studio agents can call on external agents, including those outside the Microsoft ecosystem and built with tools like LangChain or Semantic Kernel. Microsoft reports that over 230,000 organizations are already utilizing Copilot Studio, with 90 percent of the Fortune 500 among them. Developers can now access sample applications demonstrating automated meeting scheduling between agents.

Independant developer Simon Willison has been testing the phi4-reasoning model, and reported that the 11GB download (available via Ollama) may well overthink things. Willison noted that it produced 56 sentences of reasoning output in response to a prompt of "hi". Microsoft is actively contributing to the A2A specification work on GitHub and intends to play a role in driving its future development. A public preview of A2A in Azure Foundry and Copilot Studio is anticipated to launch soon. Microsoft envisions protocols like A2A as the bedrock of a novel software architecture where interconnected agents automate daily workflows and collaborate across platforms with auditability and control.

ImgSrc: dataphoenix.inf

References :

• bsky.app: Microsoft's phi4-reasoning model, an 11GB download (via Ollama) which may well overthink things
• Simon Willison: Simon Willison Published some notes on Microsoft's phi4-reasoning model
• the-decoder.com: Microsoft leverages Google's open A2A protocol for interoperable AI agents
• the-decoder.com: Microsoft's Phi 4 responds to a simple "Hi" with 56 thoughts
• Data Phoenix: Microsoft has introduced three new small language models—Phi-4-reasoning, Phi-4-reasoning-plus, and Phi-4-mini-reasoning—that reportedly deliver complex reasoning capabilities comparable to much larger models while maintaining efficiency for deployment across various computing environments.
• www.microsoft.com: In this issue: New research on compound AI systems and causal verification of the Confidential Consortium Framework; release of Phi-4-reasoning; enriching tabular data with semantic structure, and more.

Classification:

• HashTags: #MicrosoftAI #Phi4 #AIReasoning
• Company: Microsoft
• Target: Developers
• Product: Phi-4
• Feature: AI Reasoning
• Type: AI
• Severity: Informative