- What Is AI-102 Certification, Exactly?
- The Critical Status Change: AI-102 Is Retiring
- Meet AI-103: The Live Successor Exam
- Exam Format, Fees, and Scheduling
- The Five Domains You'll Be Tested On
- Who Should Actually Take This Exam
- A Realistic Preparation Timeline
- Certification Validity and Renewal
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Exam AI-102 retired June 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM Central; AI-103 is now the only path to this credential family.
- AI-103 awards Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate and costs $165 USD at standard US pricing.
- Implement generative AI and agentic solutions is the heaviest domain at 30-35% of the exam.
- The exam runs 120 minutes and requires a 700 score on a 100-1000 scale to pass.
What Is AI-102 Certification, Exactly?
"AI-102" is one of the most searched exam codes in the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, and for good reason: it used to point directly at a specific, well-defined credential. If you're researching AI-102 certification today, the honest and useful answer is that the landscape shifted, and understanding that shift is the single most important thing you can learn before spending a dollar or an hour on prep.
Historically, Exam AI-102, Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Solution, led to the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate credential. That exam and its associated credential - along with the renewal assessment tied to it - retired on June 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM Central. It can no longer be scheduled, taken, or renewed. The commercially and practically correct move for anyone searching "AI-102" now is to understand what replaced it and prepare for that instead. This site, AI-102 Exam Prep, exists to help you make exactly that transition without confusion.
The Critical Status Change: AI-102 Is Retiring
Let's be precise about the mechanics, because vague answers here cause real damage to study plans:
- Exam AI-102 and the Azure AI Engineer Associate credential retired June 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM Central.
- The renewal assessment for that older credential retired at the same time.
- After that date, the credential can no longer be earned or renewed through any path.
- If you certified before the retirement date, the credential stays visible in the Active Certifications section of your Microsoft Learn transcript until its printed expiration date - but there is no renewal path once it lapses.
If you're starting fresh, none of the old AI-102 exam objectives, registration windows, or renewal cycles apply to you anymore. Your path runs through the successor exam described below. For a deeper look at how the eligibility rules and prerequisites work under the new exam, see AI-102 Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Meet AI-103: The Live Successor Exam
Exam AI-103, Developing AI Apps and Agents on Azure, is the current, earnable exam. Passing it awards Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate - the credential that people searching "AI-102 certification" actually need today. At the training level, the four-day AI-103T00-A course replaced the older AI-102T00 course, reinforcing that this is a full generational shift, not a minor rename.
The shift in focus is real, not cosmetic. Where the older exam emphasized building discrete AI features, AI-103 leans heavily into orchestrating generative AI and autonomous agents - Foundry Agent Service, multi-agent workflows, tool calling, and evaluation loops are now central rather than peripheral. If you want the full breakdown of what changed and why it matters for your study plan, read What Is AI-102? alongside this article, and check AI-102 Meaning for a plain-language explanation of the naming confusion.
Key Takeaway
Stop searching for "AI-102 exam objectives" and start studying AI-103 domains directly - the credential name people mean when they say "AI-102" is earned exclusively through AI-103 now.
Exam Format, Fees, and Scheduling
The exam is owned by Microsoft and delivered through Pearson VUE, either at a physical test center or via online proctoring, giving candidates flexibility on how and where they sit the exam.
| Detail | Specification |
|---|---|
| Delivered by | Pearson VUE (test center or online proctored) |
| Duration | 120 minutes, proctored, may include interactive components |
| Passing score | 700 on a 100-1000 scale |
| Standard US price | $165 USD (varies by country/region) |
| Prerequisites | None formal; app dev experience in Python assumed |
| Retake wait | 24 hours after first fail; longer waits after subsequent attempts |
Microsoft doesn't publish a fixed item count or an official pass rate for this exam, so treat any number you see elsewhere with skepticism. For a full cost breakdown including retake economics and regional pricing nuances, see AI-102 Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown, and for exact scoring mechanics, read AI-102 Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass. Scheduling windows and how the retirement date affects your registration options are covered in AI-102 Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling.
The Five Domains You'll Be Tested On
Skills measured are current as of April 16, 2026, and most questions target generally available features, though commonly used preview features can appear too. The exam is organized into five weighted domains:
Domain 1: Plan and manage an Azure AI solution (25-30%)
Covers responsible provisioning, security, monitoring, and cost management across Azure AI resources before you ever write application code.
- Resource planning and access control for AI workloads
Domain 2: Implement generative AI and agentic solutions (30-35%)
The heaviest domain and the true center of gravity for this exam. Expect deep coverage of:
- RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) implementation patterns
- Multi-agent orchestration using Foundry Agent Service and Microsoft Agent Framework
- Function calling and tool schema design
- Conversation memory management
- Agent evaluation, error analysis, tracing, and token analytics
- Autonomous workflows with human approval controls
Domain 3: Implement computer vision solutions (10-15%)
Applying Azure vision services to extract meaning from images and video within an application or agent pipeline.
Domain 4: Implement text analysis solutions (10-15%)
Natural language processing tasks built on Azure AI Language capabilities, often feeding downstream generative or agentic components.
Domain 5: Implement information extraction solutions (10-15%)
Structured extraction from documents and unstructured content using Foundry Tools like Content Understanding and Document Intelligence.
Notice how nearly a third of the exam sits inside generative and agentic workflows alone. That single domain deserves its own dedicated study block, and if you want a domain-by-domain study sequence with time allocation, our companion piece AI-102 Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 5 Content Areas goes deeper into each bullet above.
Who Should Actually Take This Exam
There are no formal prerequisites, but the realistic audience profile Microsoft targets includes developers who already:
- Write application code in Python
- Understand general AI and generative AI concepts at a working level
- Have hands-on familiarity with core Azure services
On the technology side, you're expected to have working knowledge of Microsoft Foundry, Foundry Agent Service, Microsoft Agent Framework, Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models, Azure AI Search, Azure Content Understanding in Foundry Tools, Azure Document Intelligence in Foundry Tools, Azure Speech, and Azure Translator. This is not an exam you pass by memorizing service names - you need to have actually built something with an agent, a tool call, and a retrieval pipeline before sitting the test.
In practice, this credential fits software engineers moving into AI-enabled application development, cloud developers adding generative AI skills, and solution builders who need to demonstrate agentic-workflow competence to employers or clients. If you're weighing whether the investment of time and the $165 exam fee is worth it for your career stage, our analysis in Is the AI-102 Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 walks through the decision factors, and AI-102 Jobs surveys the kinds of roles that reference this credential in postings.
A Realistic Preparation Timeline
Generic study advice rarely maps well onto a specific exam's weighting, so anchor your schedule to the domain percentages rather than a fixed template. Given that generative AI and agentic solutions carries the most weight, it deserves the most calendar time - and it should come after you've built basic fluency with the underlying Azure services, not before.
Foundations and Planning
- Provision Foundry resources, review identity and access controls covered in Domain 1
- Set up a sandbox environment for hands-on practice
Generative AI and Agentic Solutions
- Build a RAG pipeline against Azure AI Search
- Implement function calling and tool schemas with Foundry Agent Service
- Practice multi-agent orchestration and add tracing/token analytics
Vision, Text, and Extraction
- Work through computer vision and text analysis scenarios
- Practice document and content extraction with Foundry Tools
Review and Practice Exams
- Run full-length timed practice tests on our practice test platform
- Target weak domains identified through practice-test analytics
For a structured, week-by-week study guide with more depth on each phase, our dedicated resource - AI-102 Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt - expands on exactly this sequence. And if you just want the condensed version of every fact in this article for a final review pass, bookmark the AI-102 Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts.
Certification Validity and Renewal
Like other Microsoft associate certifications, this credential expires annually and renews for free by passing an unproctored online assessment on Microsoft Learn - no need to retake the full proctored exam every year. This renewal mechanism applies to the current AI-103-based credential; the older AI-102-based credential's renewal assessment retired alongside the exam itself on June 30, 2026, so anyone still holding that legacy credential should plan around its printed expiration date rather than expecting a renewal option.
Before you register, it's worth practicing under real exam conditions rather than just reading documentation. Running full-length simulations on AI-102 Exam Prep's practice tests before exam day helps surface which of the five domains needs another pass, especially the generative AI and agentic solutions domain given its outsized weight.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Exam AI-102 and its associated credential retired on June 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM Central and can no longer be earned or renewed. The live path to this credential family is Exam AI-103, which awards Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate.
It remains listed in the Active Certifications section of your Microsoft Learn transcript until its printed expiration date. There is no renewal path once it lapses, since the renewal assessment retired at the same time as the exam.
Standard US pricing is $165 USD, though price varies by the country or region where you sit the exam. The exam itself runs 120 minutes and is proctored, with a passing score of 700 on a 100-1000 scale.
There are no formal prerequisites, but the exam assumes Python application development experience plus familiarity with general AI, generative AI, and core Azure services like Microsoft Foundry, Azure AI Search, and Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models.
Implement generative AI and agentic solutions carries the heaviest weight at 30-35% of the exam, covering RAG, multi-agent orchestration, function calling, and agent evaluation - it deserves proportionally more study time than the other four domains.