Microsoft launches Discovery platform that uses agentic AI to compress years of scientific research into days, transforming R&D across pharmaceuticals, materials science, and semiconductor industries.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Microsoft Discovery, a new enterprise-grade artificial intelligence platform built to revolutionize the research and development process by embedding “agentic AI” at every stage of scientific discovery.

TL;DR? Hear the news as an AI-generated audio overview made using 365 Copilot. You can read the transcript here. We’ve entered the era of AI agents. Thanks to groundbreaking advancements in reasoning and memory,

This is another example of Microsoft's "agentic" approach to AI, as Discovery is intended to let researchers create virtual teams of AI agents that can be instructed with specific data and guidelines to function as, for example, a "molecular properties simulation specialist" that can then assist with R&D and learn over time.

At the Microsoft Build 2025, Satya Nadella announced a series of sweeping updates that reflect the tech giant's vision for an open agentic future.

A collaboration between Microsoft and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has resulted in the discovery of a new chemical compound in just 200 hours.

"Microsoft Discovery is an enterprise agentic platform that helps accelerate research and discovery by transforming the entire discovery process with agentic AI -- from scientific knowledge reasoning to hypothesis formulation, candidate generation, and simulation and analysis," Microsoft said in the press release.

Microsoft’s AI identified a carbon capture molecule in 200 hours, shortening chemical discovery timelines through computational modeling.

"It's all about expanding opportunity for developers across every layer of the stack so that you all can build the apps, the agents that can empower every person and every organization on the planet," says Satya Nadella,