Lesson 6: Create Grounded Agent with Azure AI Agent service¶

In this lesson, we will add a Semantic Kernel Azure AI agent to our chatbot program. This agent will be a Stock Sentiment agent to provide a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell a stock based on a stock sentiment rating.

Ensure all pre-requisites are met and installed.
Switch to Lesson 6 directory:
```
cd ../Lesson6
```
Start by copying appsettings.json from Lesson 1:
```
cp ../Lesson1/appsettings.json .
```
Run the program to validate the code is functional:
```
dotnet run
```
Next, locate TODO: Step 1 -- Add imports for Agents and Azure.Identity in Program.cs and add the following imports:
```
using Azure.AI.Projects;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Agents.AzureAI;
```

Next, locate TODO: Step 2 - Initialize connection to Grounding with Bing Search tool and agent in Program.cs and add the following code. Be sure to copy the connectionString and bingConnectionId from Azure AI Foundry:

var connectionString = AISettingsProvider.GetSettings().AIFoundryProject.ConnectionString;
var bingConnectionId = AISettingsProvider.GetSettings().AIFoundryProject.GroundingWithBingConnectionId;

var projectClient = new AIProjectClient(connectionString, new DefaultAzureCredential());

ConnectionResponse bingConnection = await projectClient.GetConnectionsClient().GetConnectionAsync(bingConnectionId);
var connectionId = bingConnection.Id;

ToolConnectionList connectionList = new ToolConnectionList
{
    ConnectionList = { new ToolConnection(connectionId) }
};
BingGroundingToolDefinition bingGroundingTool = new BingGroundingToolDefinition(connectionList);

var clientProvider =  AzureAIClientProvider.FromConnectionString(connectionString, new AzureCliCredential());
AgentsClient client = clientProvider.Client.GetAgentsClient();
var definition = await client.CreateAgentAsync(
    "gpt-4o",
    instructions:
            """
            Your responsibility is to find the stock sentiment for a given Stock.

            RULES:
            - Report a stock sentiment scale from 1 to 10 where stock sentiment is 1 for sell and 10 for buy.
            - Only use current data reputable sources such as Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Fidelity and similar.
            - Provide the stock sentiment scale in your response and a recommendation to buy, hold or sell.
            - Include the reasoning behind your recommendation.
            - Be sure to cite the source of the information.
            """,
    tools:
    [
        bingGroundingTool
    ]);
var agent = new AzureAIAgent(definition, clientProvider)
{
    Kernel = kernel,
};

// Create a thread for the agent conversation.
AgentThread thread = await client.CreateThreadAsync();

Next, locate TODO: Step 3 - Uncomment out all code after "Execute program" comment in Program.cs and uncomment the previously commented block of code:

Finally, locate TODO: Step 4 - Invoke the agent in Program.cs and implement this code:

        ChatMessageContent message = new(AuthorRole.User, userInput);
        await agent.AddChatMessageAsync(thread.Id, message);

        await foreach (ChatMessageContent response in agent.InvokeAsync(thread.Id))
        {
            string contentExpression = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(response.Content) ? string.Empty : response.Content;
            chatHistory.AddAssistantMessage(contentExpression);
            Console.WriteLine($"{contentExpression}");
        }

Re-run the program and ask for the stock sentiment on Microsoft, you should see an output similar to this:

User > what is the stock sentiment on Microsoft?
Assistant > Assistant > **Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Sentiment: 9/10**

**Recommendation: Buy**

**Reasoning:**
- Microsoft's stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" based on ratings from 29 Wall Street analysts. Out of these, 26 analysts have given a "Buy" rating, while only 3 have given a "Hold" rating【5†source】.
- The average price target for Microsoft is $510.96, which represents a 25.10% upside from the current price of $408.43【5†source】.
- The strong consensus among analysts and significant potential upside suggest a solid buy opportunity.

**Source:**
MarketBeat, Microsoft (MSFT) Stock Forecast and Price Target 2025【5†source】.