Microsoft has introduced .NET Smart Components, AI-powered UI controls intended to make it easier to add AI features to existing software. These components are currently experimental and not officially supported.
Announced March 20, .NET Smart Components can be added to .NET apps without developers having to redesign their UX or researching machine learning and prompt engineering, Microsoft said. The components use Azure OpenAI to provide prebuilt end-to-end AI features that can be dropped into existing app UIs.
.NET Smart Components are initially available for Blazor, MVC, and Razor Pages with .NET 6 and later. Components for other .NET UI frameworks are expected as well, such as .NET MAUI, Windows Presentation Foundation, and Windows Forms.
Features currently offered via .NET Smart Components include:
- Smart Paste, to fill out forms automatically using data from the user’s clipboard with the click of a button. This can be used with any existing form in a web app.
- Smart TextArea, to autocomplete whole sentences using a preferred tone, policies, URLs, and more. This capability helps users type faster and not have to remember URLs.
- Smart ComboBox, to speed navigation of the traditional combobox menu by making suggestions based on semantic matching.
Developers can try out .NET Smart Components with Blazor, MVC, or Razor Pages using the .NET Smart Components sample apps on GitHub. To get started with the sample apps, developers must download and install the .NET SDK and clone or download the .NET Smart Components sample repo from GitHub. They must also deploy an Azure OpenAI back end if they do not already have one. Microsoft is soliciting feedback from users of .NET Smart Components on GitHub.