Building a RAG Pipeline with Azure AI Search in 2026
Azure AI Search offers new approaches for RAG pipelines in 2026. Achieve more effective results with hybrid search and the Semantic Ranker.
In 2026, Azure AI Search presents two distinct approaches for building RAG pipelines: classic RAG and agentic retrieval. The classic RAG pattern takes the user query, performs hybrid search, and sends the most relevant results to the LLM. In contrast, agentic retrieval uses an LLM to decompose complex queries into focused subqueries, processing each separately for better responses.
Azure AI Search also introduces Foundry IQ, a unified knowledge base model that allows multiple agents to share a single knowledge source, eliminating the need for each team to rebuild their own RAG pipelines. Access control and permissions are integrated into the system's design, ensuring users only access documents they are authorized to view.