4.3.2. Code-First Generative Pages and Agent Feeds
Code-first generative pages and agent feeds bridge the gap between custom AI models in Foundry and user-facing experiences in business applications. Instead of embedding AI as a "chat with Copilot" sidebar, these approaches generate dynamic UI content — dashboards, reports, recommendations, action cards — driven by AI models.
💡 First Principle: Generative pages treat AI output as structured data that drives UI rendering, not as text that a user reads in a chat window. This enables AI to power business experiences (order recommendations, risk dashboards, approval workflows) without requiring users to write prompts.
Generative Pages vs. Traditional AI Integration:
| Aspect | Chat-Based AI | Generative Pages |
|---|---|---|
| User interaction | User writes prompt, reads response | User views dynamically generated UI |
| Output format | Text/markdown | Structured data → UI components |
| Use case | Ad-hoc questions, exploration | Operational workflows, dashboards |
| Developer effort | Low (configure Copilot) | Higher (code page layouts, data bindings) |
Agent Feed:
The agent feed is a monitoring and management layer for AI agent activity within business applications. Supervisors use the agent feed to observe what autonomous agents are doing — which actions they've taken, which decisions they've made, and which cases they've escalated. The agent feed is essential for responsible AI deployment because it provides the transparency required to catch and correct AI errors before they compound.
Design considerations for agent feeds: latency (how quickly do agent actions appear in the feed), granularity (action-level vs. decision-level visibility), and intervention capability (can a supervisor override or reverse an agent action from the feed).
Reflection Question: A logistics company wants an AI-powered dashboard that shows real-time delivery risk scores, automatically re-routes shipments at risk, and surfaces the reasoning behind each re-routing decision. Would you design this as a generative page, a Copilot chat, or a combination? What Foundry components would you use?
