Live wire — dispatch open22 Oct 2026

The AI Wire

Machine-drafted, human-approved AI industry news. Every story reviewed before it hits the wire.

From the archive68 dispatches · page 06 / 07
25
azure ▸ product· filed 5 Aug 2026

Azure Speech adds real-time multichannel speech-to-text in public preview

Microsoft has launched a public preview of real-time multichannel speech-to-text for Azure Speech, allowing stereo audio to be processed while preserving channel separation. The feature simplifies transcription workflows for contact centers by eliminating the need to run parallel pipelines or merge channels. It works with the existing Speech SDK and requires a single configuration property.

24
azure ▸ product· filed 5 Aug 2026

Azure DevOps MCP Server Reaches General Availability with Entra and Client Limits

Microsoft has made its hosted Azure DevOps MCP Server generally available, but the remote server currently only works with Microsoft's own clients due to Entra authentication requirements. Popular assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor cannot connect yet, leaving the local server as the interim option for those users.

23
devblogs.microsoft.com ▸ product· filed 5 Aug 2026

Microsoft Agent Framework ships stable GitHub Copilot Agent for .NET and Python

Microsoft Agent Framework now provides a stable GitHub Copilot Agent for .NET and Python, integrating Copilot's coding loop with Agent Framework's orchestration. The agent enforces permission gating for sensitive operations, supports custom tools and MCP servers, and manages sessions automatically. It requires an active Copilot subscription, .NET 8+ or Python 3.11+, and the GitHub Copilot CLI.

22
azure ▸ azure· filed 5 Aug 2026

Managed Identity support now available for local Logic Apps development

Microsoft has added Managed Identity support to the Logic Apps Standard VS Code extension, allowing developers to use the same authentication method locally and after deployment. The feature requires specific extension and bundle versions and a local setting. Managed connectors do not yet generate dynamic values in the designer, while service provider connectors do.

21
techcommunity.microsoft.com ▸ product· filed 4 Aug 2026

GitHub Copilot harness generally available in Copilot Studio

Microsoft has made the GitHub Copilot harness in Copilot Studio generally available, enabling long-horizon automation with frontier reasoning models. The new harness uses usage-based billing, and new authoring tools are being introduced. Cost predictability for complex agents remains an open question.

20
azure ▸ product· filed 4 Aug 2026

Azure Functions Agents runtime adds OpenTelemetry tracing for agent runs

Azure Functions Agents now emits OpenTelemetry traces from the runtime itself, so every agent run shows up in Application Insights without adding instrumentation code. Two settings enable the export, and a Model Router example shows how the trace makes otherwise invisible model-selection decisions visible. The behavior applies to any agent on any model.

19
azure ▸ product· filed 3 Aug 2026

Azure App Service launches public preview of Markdown for Agents

Microsoft has released a public preview of Markdown for Agents for Azure App Service. It converts HTML to Markdown when a client sends the `Accept: text/markdown` header, reducing median payload size by 97 percent in internal tests. The feature is Windows-only for now and requires manual REST API or CLI configuration.

17
azure ▸ development· filed 30 Jul 2026

Microsoft makes Foundry Local generally available, extends AI Red Teaming Agent with local scan

Microsoft has made Foundry Local generally available, a cross-platform runtime for running language models on end-user devices. It also extended its AI Red Teaming Agent with a local scan workflow, now in public preview, to evaluate on-device models for safety and security. The pairing addresses latency, connectivity, and data locality concerns of cloud inference while enabling systematic red teaming.

15
azure ▸ product· filed 30 Jul 2026

Microsoft adds cost management and pricing tools to Azure Resource Manager MCP server

Microsoft has added cost management and pricing tools to the Azure Resource Manager MCP server, enabling AI agents to query cost data, retrieve pricing, and manage budgets. The update includes two toolsets for Cost Management and Pricing, accessible through Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot with opt-in configuration. Limitations include dependence on Azure's backend data accuracy and update latencies.