AI-901 is the current exam for the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals certification. It replaced AI-900, which Microsoft retired on June 30, 2026. The passing score is 700, and the exam covers AI concepts (40-45%) and building AI solutions with Microsoft Foundry (55-60%). It’s an entry-level credential, and it doesn’t take the place of a degree.
What Happened to AI-900?
Microsoft retired AI-900 on June 30, 2026. The exam page for AI-900 says so directly: “The AI-900 exam was retired on June 30, 2026, and has been replaced by AI-901.”
If you searched for “ai-900” because a course, a blog or a coworker told you to take it, that advice is out of date. The certification itself didn’t go away. The Azure AI Fundamentals certification page now lists AI-901 as the required exam.
Microsoft retired a more advanced exam the same month. Our page on the retired AI-102 Azure AI Engineer exam covers that one.
You’ll keep seeing the old AI-900 code in study guides and course listings for a while, so make sure what you study covers AI-901.
What Is the AI-901 Exam?
AI-901 is Microsoft’s foundational AI exam. Microsoft describes the candidate this way: “you’re at the beginning of your career in AI solution development.”
It’s meant to show you can explain what AI can do and use Microsoft’s tools for simple AI tasks. You’d get a Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals badge when you pass.
Two details matter for planning. First, Microsoft says the English version of the exam was updated on April 15, 2026, so study material from before that date may be out of step. Second, the exam is offered in 13 languages, including Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish, though Microsoft says translated versions can lag the English update.
What Does the AI-901 Exam Cover?
Microsoft splits the exam into two skill areas, with the weight shown beside each.
| Skill Area | Weight |
|---|---|
| Identify AI concepts and capabilities | 40-45% |
| Implement AI solutions by using Microsoft Foundry | 55-60% |
The first area is about understanding. You should be able to explain what kinds of problems AI solves and where it falls short.
The second area is about doing. Microsoft Foundry is Microsoft’s platform for building AI apps, and more than half of the exam asks how to use it.
The exam’s description says it tests whether you can describe AI workloads and considerations, the basic principles of machine learning on Azure, computer vision workloads, natural language processing workloads and generative AI workloads. That list is a good checklist for your own study notes.
What Changed From AI-900?
The biggest shift to plan around is the second skill area. AI-901 asks you to implement solutions in Foundry, and that’s more than half of the weight.
Microsoft also now says plainly that you need “knowledge of Python coding syntax and programming techniques” and that you should be familiar with Azure resources. Treat code as part of the exam, not an extra.
If you’re not a programmer, don’t panic. You aren’t asked to build an app from nothing. Still, plan time to read short Python examples and understand what each line does before you sit the exam.
How Do You Prepare for AI-901?
Microsoft gives you three free starting points. Use them in this order.
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Read the study guide. Microsoft links the AI-901 study guide from the exam page. It lists the topics and flags the April 2026 changes.
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Work through Microsoft’s learning content. The exam page links learning on AI technical concepts and a course on getting started with AI apps and agents. Microsoft also lists an instructor-led course, Introduction to AI in Azure (AI-901T00).
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Try the practice assessment. It’s on AI Skills Navigator, and you need to sign in. Take it once early to find your weak spots, and again a few days before the exam.
Microsoft also offers an exam sandbox so you can see the question types in advance.
How long you need depends on your starting point. Someone who already uses Python and cloud tools may need a few weeks. Someone starting from scratch should add time for basic Python first.
What Does a Four-Week Study Plan Look Like?
This is our suggestion, not Microsoft’s. Adjust it to your schedule and your starting point.
Week one: the vocabulary. Read the study guide and learn the terms for the first skill area: AI workloads, machine learning, computer vision, language processing and generative AI. Write one plain sentence for each. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it yet.
Week two: Python basics. Practice reading short scripts. Focus on variables, functions, loops and calling a library. You aren’t trying to become a programmer, just to follow what a sample does.
Week three: Foundry hands-on. This is the heavy half of the exam, so give it time. Open Microsoft Foundry, deploy a model and send it a few requests. Then break something on purpose and read the error.
Week four: practice and review. Take the practice assessment, list your weak spots and revisit only those. Try the exam sandbox once so the screen layout is familiar.
What Should You Do If You Already Passed AI-900?
Keep the credential on your resume. Microsoft’s retirement page says a certification you earned before it retired stays on your transcript until it expires,.
If you studied for AI-900 but haven’t sat it, switch to AI-901 materials now. The new exam puts more weight on building in Foundry. Check any book or video you bought against the April 2026 study guide.
On a resume or LinkedIn profile, name the certification, not just the code. “Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals” reads clearly to a recruiter who has never heard of either exam number.
Why Do People Still Search for AI-900?
Plenty of content was written before the change. Bootcamp pages, YouTube videos and workplace training lists still say AI-900, and many show the exam as the standard first step into Azure AI.
That’s why the old code outranks the new one in search. If a page you’re reading talks about AI-900 without mentioning AI-901, check its date. A guide written before April 2026 may describe a different exam.
The advice behind those old pages still holds in one respect: this certification is the usual starting point for Microsoft’s AI track. What changed is the exam you sit.
How Does AI-901 Compare With the AWS AI Practitioner Exam?
The closest rival is the AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01), which sits at the same entry level on Amazon’s cloud. AWS lists the exam at $100, with 65 questions over 90 minutes and a passing score of 700 on a scale of 100 to 1,000.
Microsoft’s pages we read didn’t show a price for AI-901, so we can’t line the two up on cost. The practical difference is the platform. AI-901 teaches Microsoft Foundry and Azure. The AWS exam teaches Amazon’s services.
Which one you pick should follow the cloud your target employers use. If you don’t know yet, read a handful of job postings in your area. Our AI certifications overview lines up the vendor exams and the university certificates side by side.
Who Should Take AI-901?
It fits three groups well.
Career changers. If you work in business, marketing or operations and want to move into AI work, this exam gives you vocabulary and a credential in a few weeks.
Students deciding on a degree. If you’re weighing an online AI degree, a fundamentals exam is a cheap way to find out whether you like the material.
Developers who are new to AI. If you can code but haven’t touched AI services, the Foundry half of the exam shows you how Microsoft’s platform works.
It’s less useful if you already build AI features on Azure every day. In that case the associate-level exams, or just your portfolio, tell an employer more.
Does AI-901 Replace an AI Degree?
No. AI-901 is a Microsoft exam about Microsoft tools at an entry level. An AI degree covers math, programming, data and ethics across years of coursework, and it’s what employers often list as the minimum for engineering roles.
Microsoft doesn’t ask for a degree to sit the exam, and a degree doesn’t give you the credential. They do different jobs. The exam is quick, cheap by comparison and tied to one vendor. The degree is slow, broad and respected across vendors.
Our overview of AI certifications compares vendor exams with university certificates, and our guide to AI degree requirements shows what schools expect from applicants.
A practical way to combine them: take AI-901 first, see if you enjoy the work, then apply to a program. You’ll walk into a first course already knowing the terms.
Which Online AI Degree Lists Fit a Fundamentals Learner?
Three of our ranking lists suit someone starting out.
- Best Online AI Degree Programs is the broad starting point if you want to compare programs of every kind.
- Best Online AI Degrees for Career Changers is built for adults coming from another field, which describes many AI-901 candidates.
- Best Online AI for Business and Management Degrees fits you if you’d manage or apply AI instead of building it.
If the Python requirement worries you, read our guide on an AI degree without coding. Some programs lean toward management and policy, so the programming load is lighter.
What Jobs Does AI-901 Help With?
On its own, AI-901 helps you start a conversation. It shows an employer you know the basics of AI services on Azure. It doesn’t qualify you for an engineering job.
It’s most useful as a first step toward roles such as AI engineer, where you’d need more than the fundamentals, or data analyst, where AI tools are showing up in daily work. Our AI jobs overview lists the range of roles and what each asks for.
Before you pay for an exam, pull up three job postings that interest you. If they name Azure or Microsoft AI credentials, AI-901 is a fair investment. If they name AWS or Google Cloud, a different fundamentals exam may serve you better.
What Are the Limits of the Azure AI Fundamentals Certification?
Know these before you register.
It’s one company’s view. The exam teaches Microsoft’s tools, and the skills transfer only partly to other clouds.
The content moves fast. The English exam was updated in April 2026, and Microsoft renamed Azure AI Foundry to Microsoft Foundry. Check the date on any study guide.
It’s an entry credential. Microsoft itself describes the candidate as beginning a career, so don’t expect it to carry a resume alone.
None of this is a reason to skip it. It’s a reason to treat the exam as one step.
How We Checked These Facts
We read Microsoft Learn’s pages for the Azure AI Fundamentals certification, Exam AI-901 and Exam AI-900 on October 1, 2026. The exam page lists “Passing score: 700,” and the AI-900 retirement date matches Microsoft’s retired certification exams list, which shows “AI-900 Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals June 30, 2026.”
Microsoft’s pages show no exam price, since it varies by country, so check with Pearson VUE before you register. Microsoft can change exam content and dates, so confirm on the links in our sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AI-900 Still Available?
What Is the Difference Between AI-900 and AI-901?
What Is the Passing Score for AI-901?
Do You Need to Know How to Code for AI-901?
Do I Need AI-900 or AI-901 Before Taking Other Microsoft AI Exams?
Does an AI-901 Certification Help You Get a Job?
Can AI-901 Replace an AI Degree?
Sources
- Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals
- Exam AI-901: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals
- Exam AI-900: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (Retired)
- Retired Certification Exams
All sources retrieved .