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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 launching Dec 2025 with 4 tracks and weekly lesson updates.
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
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.
Over the next four months, we'll end each episode with a look at one lesson or lab from "Models For Beginners" (MFB), the latest addition to our popular For-Beginners curricula. This content is derived from labs and workshops delivered at signature Microsoft events like AI Tour, Build and Ignite - and gives you a structured way to explore and understand Microsoft Foundry features through the lens of a common app scenario and rich developer tools.
Learn more at our kickoff - and watch for updates throughout the season.
| EP 01: Microsoft Foundry model router | |
|---|---|
| Dec 01 - 1:30pm ET | Register for Livestream |
| Dec 05 - 1:30pm ET | Join Discord for AMA |
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What if you could always pick the perfect model, instantly? See Foundry Model Router make split-second decisions that save money and boost performance. We talk to Core AI PM Lead Sanjeev Jagtap about the GA announcement at Microsoft Ignite - and revisit demos from his theater session there. |
The main schedule for Season 3 will kickoff in January 2026, after the holiday break. However, we decided to do a short 3-episode "pre-season" opener in December 2025 to showcase key announcements from Microsoft Ignite and give your resources to explore over the holidays.
Watch this space for schedule updates and click the links to register for livestream and AMA sessions.
| Ep | Livestream | AMA | Tech Spotlight | Customer Story | Study Corner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Dec 01 | Dec 05 | Model Router | Adobe Doc | L0: Introduction |
| 02 | Dec 08 | Dec 12 | Red Teaming | L1: Language Models | |
| 03 | Dec 15 | Dec 19 | Foundry Local | L2: Multimodal Models | |
| -- | 🎄🎄🎄 | --- | HOLIDAY BREAK | --- | 🎄🎄🎄 |
| 04 | Jan 12 | Jan 16 | TBA | L3: Reasoning Models | |
| 05 | Jan 19 | Jan 23 | TBA | L4: Smart Models | |
| 06 | Jan 26 | Jan 30 | TBA | L5: Cards & Catalogs | |
| 07 | Feb 02 | Feb 06 | TBA | L6: Benchmarks & Leaderboards | |
| 08 | Feb 09 | Feb 13 | TBA | L7: Playgrounds & Portals | |
| 09 | Feb 16 | Feb 20 | TBA | L8: Graders & Simulators | |
| 10 | Feb 23 | Feb 27 | TBA | L9: Context Engineering | |
| 11 | Mar 02 | Mar 06 | TBA | L10: Model Customization | |
| 12 | Mar 09 | Mar 13 | TBA | L11: Model Distillation | |
| 13 | Mar 16 | Mar 20 | TBA | L12: Model Deployment | |
| 14 | Mar 23 | Mar 27 | TBA | L13: Evaluation & Metrics | |
| 15 | Mar 30 | Apr 03 | TBA | L14: Red-Teaming & Reports | |
| 16 | Apr 06 | Apr 10 | TBA | L15: Tracing & Monitoring | |
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
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 Azure AI 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!






