And it shows it by launching a new step by step tutorial on building AI powered application with Python.

In fact this was a 9 part Microsoft Reactor live series, accompanied by slides and code, hence collectively acting as a course when taken from start to finish.

Material wise, it's all there; embedding models, vision models, RAG, tool calling, structured outputs, AI quality and safety assessments with automated evaluations and red-teaming. And on top of that Agentic AI and MCP. What else can you ask for?

The series simply called "Python + AI" is comprised of the following "lectures":

1. Large Language Models
2. Vector embeddings
3. Retrieval Augmented Generation
4. Vision models
5. Structured outputs
6. Quality and safety
7. Tool calling
8. Agents
9. Model Context Protocol

You'll notice that the lessons are increasing in difficulty; starting out with the basic of LLMs and ending up with Agents and MCP.

The lesson on "Vector embeddings" is particularly engaging since it explores different vector embedding models which are the heavy lifters in a RAG pipelines.

The tool calling, AI Agents and MCP chapters go hand in hand and each one sets the foundations for the next to follow. The final MCP chapter in particular, demonstrates how to use the Python FastMCP SDK to build an MCP server running locally and consume that server from chatbots like GitHub Copilot.

Throughout the course Python code is used that interacts with LLMs using popular packages like the OpenAI SDK and LangChain, LangGraph and Microsoft agent-framework. To follow along you just need a GitHub account in order to work with the GitHub Models service which is the provider of free models.

As far as the quality of the material goes, it's top notch, something guaranteed when you find out that it is prepared by non other than Pamela Fox, Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, who has a solid background in making educational material for all kinds of Microsoft products. We've recently have checked another great offering of hers in "Microsoft's RAG Time".

To conclude, Python+AI is a great foundational series and step by step guide on using Python to build AI powered applications. Recommended! 

More Information

Level up your Python + AI skills with our complete series 

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