The short version
AI-901 is Microsoft’s entry-level exam on AI in Azure. It checks that you understand core AI ideas and that you can build small things with Microsoft Foundry, mostly by using the portal and a little Python. It replaced AI-900, so older study material may point you at the wrong topics. This guide follows the study guide that Microsoft lists as “Skills measured as of April 15, 2026”.
What the exam is
The full name is Exam AI-901: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals. Passing it earns the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals credential, and AI-901 is the only exam that credential requires. Microsoft describes the person taking it as someone at the beginning of a career in AI solution development.
AI-901 is not a pure vocabulary test. Half of it is about building: deploying a model, writing a system prompt, creating an agent, and calling a service from a small app. You will not write a program from scratch in the exam, but you should be able to read short code and know what each part does.
How it replaced AI-900
Microsoft retired AI-900 on June 30, 2026, and says candidates must now pass AI-901 to earn the credential. The change is bigger than a new number. The current skills outline has no separate machine learning domain. The classic topics from AI-900, such as regression, classification, and clustering as exam objectives, are gone. In their place you get generative AI, agents, and the Foundry portal and SDK.
If you find a study video or practice test written for AI-900, check it against the outline below before you trust it.
Who it is for
Microsoft’s audience profile says you should have conceptual knowledge of AI solutions in Azure and the foundational technical skills to work with them. It also expects knowledge of Python syntax and programming techniques, and familiarity with Azure resources. Typical readers are developers and IT staff moving toward AI work, students, and career changers. Analysts and project managers sit the exam too, but they usually need extra time on the coding parts. The prerequisites page lists what helps.
Format at a glance
| Item | What we found |
|---|---|
| Exam code | AI-901 |
| Level | Beginning of an AI solution development career |
| Passing score | 700 on a scale of 1 to 1,000 |
| Time | Microsoft’s duration page lists 45 minutes for fundamentals exams |
| Number of questions | Not published for this exam; Microsoft says most exams have 40 to 60 |
| Languages | 13, including English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese (Brazil) |
| Retirement date | None listed |
Details on scoring, question types, and retakes are on the exam format page.
The two domains and their weightings
| Domain | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Identify AI concepts and capabilities | 40-45% |
| Implement AI solutions by using Microsoft Foundry | 55-60% |
Identify AI concepts and capabilities
This domain has three parts. First, the six responsible AI principles: fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. Second, how generative models work, how to choose a model by its capabilities, and which deployment options and parameters to use. Third, AI workloads: text analysis, speech, computer vision and image generation, and information extraction.
Implement AI solutions by using Microsoft Foundry
The larger domain is hands-on. It covers prompts, deploying a model and chatting with it in the Foundry portal, a lightweight chat client built with the Foundry SDK, and a single-agent solution. It also covers text analysis and speech apps, vision input and image generation, and information extraction with Azure Content Understanding in Foundry Tools.
Official source
For Microsoft’s own list of skills, see the AI-901 study guide on Microsoft Learn. It is the final authority if anything here differs.
More guides for AI-901
- AI-901 Study Plan: 4-Week and 8-Week
- AI-901 Sample Questions With Answers
- Is AI-901 Hard? An Honest Difficulty Check
- AI-901 Renewal and Retakes Explained
- Is AI-901 Worth It? An Honest Look
- AI-901 Cheat Sheet: Key Facts to Review
- AZ-900 vs AI-901: Which First?
- AB-900 vs AI-901: Which Exam First?
- AWS AIF-C01 vs AI-901: Which First?
Next step
Read domains explained to see where your time should go. When you want to check your readiness, our AI-901 practice tests are original practice sets built around these two domains.
Frequently asked questions
Does AI-901 expire?
No. Microsoft states that fundamentals certifications do not expire, so there is nothing to renew.
Is AI-900 still available?
No. Microsoft’s AI-900 page says the exam retired on June 30, 2026, and was replaced by AI-901.
Do I need to know how to code?
You need some Python reading skills. The audience profile names Python syntax and programming techniques, and the study guide says you should be familiar with REST APIs, SDKs, and CLIs.
Is the exam only in English?
No. Microsoft lists 13 languages. It updates English first and says localized versions follow about eight weeks later.