The vendor is aiming to capitalize on the growing demand for lower-cost AI services.
August 4, 2026
Microsoft Research released Orchard, an open source framework that aims to make it easier and more cost-effective to train autonomous AI agents.
The release by the tech giant’s research division on Monday follows ongoing work since the vendor’s initial publication on this topic in March.
Orchard can train and evaluate agents across several tasks, including coding, web browsing and using tools, while reducing complexity by eliminating the need for researchers to build sandbox infrastructure, data pipelines and evaluation systems for individual models and use cases.
