Microsoft Simplifies AI Powered Chat App Development with New Template

Microsoft has unveiled a new AI Chat Web App template for .NET developers, designed to streamline the creation of AI-powered chat applications.

 The template, currently in preview, aims to lower the barrier to entry for developers looking to integrate AI capabilities into their projects.

By Vongai Masuka

The announcement, made last week, introduces a template that utilizes the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern, a common approach in chat applications.

It provides a Blazor-based web application framework, leveraging Microsoft.Extensions.AI and Microsoft.Extensions.VectorData abstractions.

Key features of the template also include simplified AI Integration.

The template offers scaffolding for building chat interfaces that interact with custom data, such as PDFs or user-specific datasets.

Microsoft has emphasized the template’s flexibility, noting that it’s built using Microsoft.Extensions.AI, enabling developers to easily integrate custom behaviors and extend the chatbot’s capabilities with C# functions.

 

Microsoft has outlined plans to expand the template offerings, including an AI Console template, a Minimal API template, and support for .NET Aspire.