Key takeaways_

• Foundry IQ helps AI agents access trusted organisational knowledge, so responses are more relevant, accurate and useful.
• It supports safer AI adoption by applying permissions, governance and source-backed answers to business information.
• To get value from AI agents, organisations need strong data foundations, knowledge quality and clear information controls.

AI is evolving fast. What started with copilots that help individuals work more efficiently is rapidly becoming a world of intelligent agents that can answer questions, automate processes and support decision-making across the business.

But there’s a challenge: AI is only as useful as the information it can access. Most AI models don’t understand your organisation’s policies, procedures, customer data or institutional knowledge. Without that context, even the most advanced AI can produce generic answers, inaccurate recommendations or responses that employees simply don’t trust.

This is where Foundry IQ comes in. Part of Microsoft’s emerging AI ecosystem, Foundry IQ is designed to help AI agents securely access and use knowledge from across your organisation. By connecting agents to the information, documents and systems that power your business, Foundry IQ helps deliver more accurate, relevant and trustworthy outcomes.

In this blog, we answer everything you need to know about Foundry IQ and whether it’s worthwhile for your organisation.

What is Foundry IQ?

Foundry IQ is Microsoft’s knowledge and context layer for AI agents. It enables agents to securely access, retrieve and use information from across your organisation, helping them deliver responses that are grounded in real business knowledge rather than relying solely on what the underlying AI model learned during training.

At the heart of Foundry IQ is the concept of a knowledge base. Organisations can connect multiple sources of information (such as SharePoint sites, Microsoft 365 content, business systems and other enterprise data) into a shared knowledge layer. Rather than connecting every AI agent to every individual system, agents can access relevant information through this centralised source of knowledge.

When an employee asks an AI agent a question, Foundry IQ retrieves the most relevant information from connected sources, checks permissions and governance rules, and provides the AI with the context it needs to generate an informed response. Importantly, responses can be linked back to source material, helping users understand where information came from and increasing trust in AI-generated answers.

In short: your business data, documents and knowledge go into Foundry IQ, which feed into your AI agents to generate an accurate response.

The result is better output from AI, helping you to get value from your agents across use cases.

Why business leaders should pay attention_

The conversation around AI often focuses on models, assistants and emerging technologies. However, for most organisations, the real challenge isn’t accessing AI, but making AI useful.

To deliver meaningful business value, AI needs access to trusted organisational knowledge. The more context AI has about your business, customers, processes and policies, the more useful its outputs become.

For business leaders, one of the biggest benefits is better decision-making. When AI can access accurate organisational information, employees spend less time searching for answers and more time acting on them. Instead of relying on disconnected sources or individual expertise, teams can access knowledge more quickly and consistently.

Foundry IQ can also increase confidence in AI-generated responses. Because AI agents are working from approved business information rather than relying purely on general training data, organisations can reduce the risk of inaccurate, misleading or out-of-date answers. This is particularly important in regulated industries or areas where employees need confidence in the information they are receiving.

But, at the same time, organisations need to balance innovation with governance. As AI adoption grows, so do concerns around security, compliance and information access. By helping ensure AI only retrieves information users are authorised to see, Foundry IQ can support more responsible AI adoption while reducing risk.

Perhaps most importantly, it can help organisations accelerate their AI strategies. Rather than building complex integrations and knowledge systems for each new AI project, businesses can establish a reusable knowledge layer that supports multiple agents and use cases. This can reduce implementation effort, speed up deployment and improve the return on AI investments over time.

Foundry IQ’s place in Microsoft’s AI strategy_

Foundry IQ is just part of Microsoft’s layered AI approach.

The focus is helping AI understand three different types of context: how your organisation works, what your business data is telling you and what knowledge exists across the organisation. Together, these intelligence layers provide the foundation for more capable and useful AI agents:

• Work IQ focuses on understanding how work happens across your organisation. It draws on signals from Microsoft 365, including meetings, emails, chats, documents and collaboration patterns. This helps AI understand who people work with, how decisions are made and where expertise sits within the business.
• Fabric IQ focuses on understanding business data. By leveraging data stored within Microsoft Fabric, it helps AI interpret metrics, trends, KPIs and business performance information. Rather than simply accessing raw data, AI can work with a richer understanding of what that data means and how it relates to business outcomes.
• Foundry IQ focuses on organisational knowledge. It helps AI agents access information stored across documents, systems, policies, procedures and other knowledge sources, ensuring responses are grounded in trusted business information rather than general knowledge alone.

This highlights that the future of AI is moving beyond assistants that simply answer questions and towards agents that can reason, take action and help solve business problems. To do that effectively, agents need more than a powerful model. They need an understanding of how the business operates, what the data says and where organisational knowledge resides. And Foundry IQ is a core part of that.

Is your organisation ready for AI agents?

As interest in AI agents continues to grow, many organisations are focusing on what AI can do. An equally important question is whether the organisation is ready to support it.

The reality is that successful AI deployments depend on more than choosing the right technology. They depend on the quality, accessibility and governance of the information that sits behind it. An AI agent can only be as effective as the knowledge it can access. So, before you jump in, make sure you have the right processes in place:

Data and knowledge readiness_

• Can employees easily find the information they need today?
• Is important knowledge centrally managed rather than scattered across systems and departments?
• Are key documents, policies and processes accurate and up to date?
• Do you have visibility into where critical organisational knowledge resides?

Governance and security_

• Do you have clear policies for how AI can access and use organisational information?
• Are permissions and access controls consistently applied across systems?
• Can you ensure employees only see information they are authorised to access?
• Do your existing compliance and governance controls extend to AI initiatives?

 Knowledge quality_

• Is the information you want AI to use trustworthy and well maintained?
• Are there clear owners responsible for keeping critical knowledge current?
• Have you reduced duplicate, conflicting or outdated content where possible?
• Would employees trust the answers generated from your existing knowledge base?

AI scalability_

• Can your AI strategy support multiple use cases without creating new silos?
• Are you building reusable foundations rather than point solutions?
• Do you have a plan for managing and governing AI as adoption grows?
• Can your organisation support AI beyond simple productivity scenarios?

In short: in an agent-driven future, data readiness, information governance and knowledge quality may be just as important as the AI itself.

Set yourself up for AI agent success_

AI agents have the potential to transform how organisations access knowledge, make decisions and deliver work. But their success doesn’t depend solely on the power of the AI model. It depends on the quality, accessibility and governance of the information behind it.

That’s why technologies like Foundry IQ are becoming increasingly important. By helping connect AI to organisational knowledge, they enable businesses to move beyond generic AI experiences and towards agents that are informed, trustworthy and genuinely useful.

As you consider your own AI strategy, it’s worth remembering that successful AI adoption starts long before the first agent is deployed. It starts with the right foundations: well-managed data, strong governance and a clear understanding of how AI can create business value.

If you’re looking for a practical roadmap, download our eBook, The Road to AI. It provides a step-by-step guide to planning, implementing and scaling AI successfully, helping you avoid common pitfalls and build the foundations needed to turn AI ambition into measurable business outcomes.

Download The Road to AI and take the next step on your AI journey.