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Applied AI · Practitioner tier

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure)

Exam AI-102 and the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification retired June 30, 2026. The successor is exam AI-103, Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure. There is no automatic transition: holders of the old credential must sit AI-103 in full to earn the new one. Checked against the Microsoft study guide on September 26, 2026.

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) is a practitioner-tier Applied AI credential from Microsoft. The exam runs $165 and covers plan and manage an azure ai solution: choosing foundry services, deployment setup, monitoring/security, responsible ai (25-30% of ai-103). Most candidates prepare for around 60 hours and pair the credential with a portfolio of platform-aligned work.

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Exam fee

$165

Prep time

60h

Duration

100 min

Level

Practitioner

Where this credential sits

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) sits at the practitioner tier. The credential validates production readiness on the relevant cloud platform: data preparation, model training, deployment, monitoring, MLOps, and generative AI integration. Hiring managers reading the resume see a candidate who has worked the platform at production depth, not someone reading about it.

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What this certification covers

  • Plan and manage an Azure AI solution: choosing Foundry services, deployment setup, monitoring/security, responsible AI (25-30% of AI-103)
  • Implement generative AI and agentic solutions: RAG, multi-step agents, orchestration, evaluation (30-35% of AI-103, the largest domain)
  • Implement computer vision solutions: image/video generation and multimodal understanding via Foundry (10-15%)
  • Implement text analysis solutions: entity/sentiment extraction, speech, translation via Foundry Tools (10-15%)
  • Implement information extraction solutions: retrieval/grounding pipelines and document extraction via Content Understanding (10-15%)
How the skill areas connect in a running system

The exam's five skill areas are grouped here into three: planning and operating a solution, building the generative and agent parts, and the vision, text and extraction parts.

  1. Plan and manage
  2. Build generative and agentic
  3. Vision, text and extraction

An illustration of how the areas connect, not a Microsoft figure. The exam does not order the areas. The loop shows that a deployed system is monitored and planned again.

Exam fees the owner publishes
No figure to drawNot published. Microsoft prices the exam by the country or region where it is proctored, and the owner page we read prints no USD figure.

Source: Microsoft Learn: Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate. Checked .

How the exam is weighted

Implement generative AI and agentic solutions carries the most weight at 30-35%. 5 domains are weighted.

  1. Plan and manage an Azure AI solution25-30%
  2. Implement generative AI and agentic solutions30-35%
  3. Implement computer vision solutions10-15%
  4. Implement text analysis solutions10-15%
  5. Implement information extraction solutions10-15%

Source: Microsoft Learn: AI-103 study guide. Checked . The published weights add up to 97.5 at their midpoints, so segment widths were scaled up to fill the bar. The printed weights are the owner's.

Dates the owner publishes

One published date: AI-103 skills measured, measured as of this date, Apr 16, 2026.

  1. . Date: AI-103 skills measured, measured as of this date

Source: Microsoft Learn: AI-103 study guide. Checked . Spacing on the line is proportional to the days between dates.

Who should pursue this

  • Practitioners building AI solutions on Azure for enterprise customers
  • Software engineers in Microsoft-first shops moving toward AI engineering work
  • Solutions architects integrating Azure AI Services into existing applications
  • Consultants delivering AI implementations on the Microsoft cloud

Prerequisites

  • No formal prerequisites
  • AI-103 expects working experience developing apps with Python and familiarity with general AI, generative AI, and Azure services, more implementation-focused than the retired AI-102

Cost breakdown

Exam

$165

Training

$200 to $1500

Recertification

Every 1y

Total first-year cost runs from $165 (exam-only with free self-study) up to $1665 with paid instructor-led training. Recertification every 1 year.

Pricing reflects publicly listed vendor pricing as of April 2026. Verify current pricing at the Microsoft certification page before registering.

Difficulty assessment

Study hours

60h

Exam format

Exam AI-102 and the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification retired June 30

Passing score

700/1000 scaled score

Substantial preparation load at roughly 60 hours of focused study. Most candidates with active cloud and ML engineering background prepare across 8 to 14 weeks. Candidates without prior platform experience should expect closer to 16 weeks. Pass rates are not officially published by Microsoft, so plan against the study-hour estimate rather than guessing at exam difficulty from forum threads.

Full exam format: Exam AI-102 and the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification retired June 30, 2026. The successor exam is AI-103 (Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure), with no automatic transition: holders of the old credential must sit AI-103 in full to earn the new one. AI-103 is multiple choice, scenario, and case study, 100 minutes.. Total seat time: 100 minutes.

Roles this credential supports

Alternatives and adjacent credentials

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) questions and answers

What is the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure)?

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) is a practitioner-tier Applied AI credential from Microsoft. The exam runs $165 and covers plan and manage an azure ai solution: choosing foundry services, deployment setup, monitoring/security, responsible ai (25-30% of ai-103). Most candidates prepare for around 60 hours.

How much does the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) cost?

The exam itself is $165 as of April 2026. Training adds $200 to $1500, with free self-study options available for most cloud-platform credentials. Recertification every 1 year. Verify current pricing at the Microsoft website before registering.

Who should pursue the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure)?

Practitioners building AI solutions on Azure for enterprise customers. Software engineers in Microsoft-first shops moving toward AI engineering work The credential is most useful when paired with a real portfolio of work on the platform.

How does the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) compare to alternatives?

Practitioners typically choose between Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) and aws-certified-ml-engineer-associate or gcp-professional-ml-engineer. Pick the credential matched to your target employer's primary cloud or governance stack. Studying for one credential builds 60 to 70 percent of the conceptual ground for the others.

Is the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) worth it for a job search?

Practitioner-tier credentials carry hiring weight when the resume is otherwise platform-aligned. The Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (retired; successor: Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure) validates that the candidate has worked at production depth on Microsoft tooling, not read about it.

Practice this exam

  • Microsoft Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure (AI-103)Scenario practice for the Microsoft AI-103 exam (successor to the retired AI-102), one domain at a time, with the primary source cited after every answer.
    Practice freeFull analysis $39 once, 30-day refundExam guide

Methodology

This guide reflects DecipherU's standard certification intelligence workflow grounded in official certifying body documentation, publicly listed exam pricing, and independent practitioner sourcing. All details verified against the Microsoft certification page on 2026-09-26.

Certification details are sourced from official certifying body websites. Verify current pricing, exam format, and requirements directly with the certifying organization before making decisions. DecipherU is not affiliated with any certifying body.

Last verified: 2026-09-26?Report an inaccuracy