Microsoft Unveils Microsoft IQ and Rayfin to Combat Data Silos in Enterprise AI

Enterprise AI agents often face the challenge of lacking unified context: each new tool operates in isolation, without access to business processes, company rules, or data. This leads to fragmented systems that are difficult to control and integrate. Microsoft addressed this issue at Build 2026 by announcing Microsoft IQ and Rayfin.

Microsoft IQ consolidates four key context sources: Work IQ (business process descriptions based on documents, emails, and meetings), Foundry IQ (institutional knowledge and rules), Fabric IQ (real-time operational data), and Web IQ (external internet data). This enables AI agents to gain a comprehensive understanding of the company and its environment, avoiding data fragmentation. According to Amir Netz, CTO of Microsoft Fabric, such agents become "virtual employees" equipped with all necessary information.

Rayfin, meanwhile, addresses AI application deployment challenges. The tool provides an SDK and CLI for integrating agent-built applications directly into the Fabric platform. This ensures application data flows into Microsoft OneLake’s unified storage, preventing new silos. Microsoft positions Rayfin as an alternative to Supabase and Neon, emphasizing advantages in management and security compliance.

Microsoft’s competitors are also developing similar solutions: Snowflake introduced semantic capabilities, Pinecone is advancing its Nexus platform, and Redis is working on Iris. However, experts note that the key challenge is not the availability of models or data but the ease of adoption and platform trust. Microsoft is betting on integration and management, though the approach’s success remains to be proven in practice.