- Microsoft has introduced an open project called NLWeb that turns websites into an AI app with the help of MCP.
- It creates a natural language interface for websites and uses website formats like schema.org and RSS to understand the content.
- Microsoft is encouraging website owners to adopt the NLWeb framework, which will pave the way for the agentic web.
On Monday, at the Build 2025 event, Microsoft introduced an open project called NLWeb that can turn any website into an AI-powered app. It basically creates a natural language interface for websites so that users can ask questions in plain English on any website. The idea is to make websites more friendly to AI chatbots and agents.
It uses website formats like schema.org and RSS to process and understand the content. Then you can use an AI model of your choice to ask questions from the website. Microsoft says it works with any AI model or vector database. In fact, Microsoft is leveraging Model Context Protocol (MCP) to make each site act like an MCP server.
In case you are wondering, how is this useful? Well, it can make websites more interactive and allows websites to join the “agentic web”. Some early adopters include Tripadvisor, Shopify, O’Reilly Media, Common Sense Media, and more.
If you are a developer, you can go to the NLWeb GitHub repository and explore the project. It provides the core code, MCP connectors for models and vector databases, tools to format your data, a web server frontend, and a simple user interface.
Meanwhile, at Build 2025, Microsoft also announced that it’s bringing native MCP support to Windows 11 to enable secure AI agents. It appears Microsoft doesn’t want to miss the train to the agentic future.
